..And Portuguese would have left India 3 centuries earlier..- Part 2

GOA: 1683

Now let us move forward to the next part of the offensive of the Marathas on the Portuguese. 

As we discussed in the previous blog, the relations between the Marathas and Potuguese deteriorated and the Portuguese eventually decided to capture Ponda, an important fort of the Marathas to counter the reverses faced in North Konkan.

In the recently released film "Chhaava" on the life of Chh. Sambhaji Maharaj,  the battle with the Portuguese has been completely left out, maybe due to time constraints. 

But this is one of the most fierce battles fought by Chh. Sambhaji Maharaj himself  and would have been a visual treat to watch on the big screen for sure!

On 1st November 1683, the Portuguese army crossed the river separating their territory and maratha territory; towards Ponda. Their army is estimated to be around 3200 men combining infantry and cavalry along with some cannons. After defeating the patroling units of the Marathas, they besieged the fort on the same day. There were around 800 Marathas in the fort.

The fort was commanded by Yesaji Kank, an experienced warrior since the time of Shivaji Maharaj and Krishnaji Kank, his son.

Portuguese were soon able to blow up a huge hole in the fortwalls of Ponda without much resistence from the Marathas. They initially thought that they would easily win the fort. 

But as soon as they tried to storm the fort through the hole they had blown up in the wall, the Marathas attacked them and the Portuguese could not handle their fiery resistence.

The marathas had allowed the portuguese to blow up the fortwall and march closer as a strategy; probably to shield themselves from the Potuguese cannons by avoiding direct confrontation. 

On 4th November 1683, a fresh unit of around 400 men was sent by Marathas for defence of Ponda which was attacked by the Portuguese. The viceroy realized that no progress had been made in the battle after they blew up a hole in the fortwalls of the fort. Yesaji and Krishnaji had not allowed any progress to the Portuguese campaign by their valour so far.

Finally, he decided to storm the fort with all his might on 9th November 1683. At this time, Sambhaji Maharaj was at Rajapur, a town in Konkan. He could not let himself sit idle in Rajapur, while the Portuguese gradually made progress on the lead of Ponda. So he decided to go himself to the aid of Ponda with 600 men as relief troops for his army stuck inside the fort. 

When he arrived at Ponda, he straightaway took his army inside the fort right in front of the Portuguese army without any resistance or counter attack from the Portuguese! This is because they feared that if the Chhatrapati of the Marathas was attacked or harmed in any way, they would be permanently uprooted from whatever little territory they had. 

Aurangzeb suffered the same fate in future for 17 years after he killed Sambhaji Maharaj brutally. 

After the arrival of Sambhaji Maharaj, Yesaji and Krishnaji were filled with new energy and enthusiasm to fight. When the Portuguese finally attacked with all their might, the newly inspired marathas gave such a resistance that the Portuguese got frustrated and aborted their plans of storming the fort.

Moreover, there were early rainshowers at a time of the year that were not expected. 

However, Yesaji and Krishnaji Kank were both injured in this battle and had to be sent to their homes for recovery. Yesaji recovered from his wounds, but was left to mourn his son's loss as Krishnaji succumbed to his fatal injuries days after this battle.

After 9 to 10 days of continuous effort, the Portuguese could not even make progress that justified their efforts. So frustrated was their army that they decided to retreat back to Goa on 10th November 1683. Seeing the retreating Portuguese army, the Marathas decided to attack them. The Portuguese had to leave behind their cannons and a huge stock of grains in an attempt to save their lives and run! Many Portuguese were killed in this skirmish.

While returning back there was a small hill with some fortwall structures that the marathas had under their control,  which the Portguese thought was a risk as they would face the wrath of marathas while crossing the river back to Goa. So they decided to attack this hill and have it under their control.

When the Portuguese attacked this hill, the Marathas divided themselves in 2 units and 1 unit went forward to face the Portuguese and the other unit stayed back. The unit that was fighting pretended to retreat and brought the Portuguese army closer to the second unit of the army. 

The Portuguese, naive enough to fall for this trap pursued the retreating unit and were trapped eventually between 2 fighting units of the army. It was a nightmare in day for the Portuguese as they had trapped themselves in a terrain favourable to the marathas. It was a bloodbath for the helpless Portuguese army and it was hard even to retreat as the Marathas would ram the retreating army with their horses. 

In utter chaos, around 200 Portuguese were butchered and many more wounded. The viceroy of the Portuguese himself escaped death 2 times as the Marathas tried to kill him with javelins 2 times. It is said that he had promised Aurangzeb that he would capture Sambhaji Maharaj for Aurangzeb. 

As the Portuguese gradually retreated towards the river, the viceroy saw that his men were totally demoralized and terrorized by the unfortunate fate faced by them. Many of them drowned in the river or got stuck in mud while retreating and died.  Almost all of his infantry was killed by the marathas at Ponda and later in this skirmish!

The Portuguese crossed the river back in Goa on 12th November 1683;  totally devastated and taken aback by surprise as they had been informed that the Maratha army was timid and would not offer much resistance before the campaign begun. 

So depressed was the viceroy by this humilating encounter that he locked himself up in Bom Jesus church of Goa and didn't meet anyone for a few days!

However, Sambhaji Maharaj realized that Ponda would not hold up in event of a future attack by the Portuguese as the fort couldn't hold even a few days before the Portuguese blew up a hole in its fortwalls. 

Shivaji Maharaj had taken 3 months to win this fort earlier from the Portuguese while the Portuguese could manage an attempted storming in just 10 days!

Therefore he decided to build another fort in the vicinity of Ponda known as "Mardangad".

The Portuguese had imagined that Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj would now retreat back to Panhala near Kolhapur after successfully butchering them at Ponda.

However, Sambhaji Maharaj had decided to kill the snake completely before it bites again! So next, he decided to creep towards Goa itself! And the first station towards Goa was Juve (St. Estevam).

This was another spectacle of a reverse faced by the Portuguese. Such is the fame of this battle that it is said that people from the islands surrounding St. Estevam were engaged in watching the battle biting their nails while the battle and butchering of the Portuguese continued!

It is said that it was a time when the Portuguese ordered to rings the bells of the churches built by them not for prayers but for warning of lurking danger that had hit right at their doorstep at Goa!

To know more about this battle, stay tuned for part 3 of this series of the Maratha war against the Portuguese during the time of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj!. 

(Zuari river near Ponda where skirmish happened)