The Warrior of Vasai - Part 1

In this series of blogs, let us see another golden page in history of medieval India, where an Indian force once again defeated a European power decisively just like Sambhaji Maharaj had threatened Portuguese existence in India in 1680s.

Sambhaji Maharaj was not able to completely eradicate the Portuguese given the pressure of Mughals on the other side.

However, in the era of Bajirao I, the Marathas were finally able to confine the Portuguese to Goa and the English to Mumbai for the whole of the 18th century. The Portuguese had to stay in Goa till 1961 that is for almost 230 years after this and their dreams of colonizing India were vanquished. 

THE PORTUGUESE POWER IN INDIA-

As seen in earlier blogs, the Portuguese had arrived in India in 1498 and gradually climbed to a status of a paramount naval power over the next century and captured various important ports like Mumbai, Thane, Vandre(Bandra), Tarapur and eventually won the island of Sashti by 1584( This is different from the Goan island of Sashti). Of this, Mumbai was later given to the English as a marriage dowry by the Portuguese when a Portuguese princess tied her knot with the English king. 

       Sashti, Mumbai and Vasai on a map

The islands of Sashti and Vasai were important for controlling the sea trade and hence the region remained a point of contention between the Marathas, the Portuguese and the English throughout the 18th century.

The Marathas and the Portuguese continued to fight for dominance while the portuguese carried out immense atrocities in their areas such as forced conversions, inquisitions, mass killings, etc. It is said that close to 60,000 people were tortured and forcefully converted to christianity by the Portuguese in the infamous inquisitions. 

As seen earlier, Sambhaji maharaj had attacked the portuguese in 1683 so fiercely that the viceroy of Portuguese had surrendered his spectre to St. Xavier. Each Portuguese viceroy who came to India after this, followed this tradition from then onwards. 

The Marathas and Portuguese continued having clashes from 1660 to 1734.

Meanwhile, in 1720, Baji rao I had taken the robes of the Peshwa in the Maratha durbar and he along with his brother, and the hero of our story, Chimaji Appa were looking for a suitable opportunity to strike the Portuguese and evacuate them from Konkan.

THE CAPTURE OF SASHTI-

The opportunity had presented itself in a very dramatic way. It is said that in 1737, Bajirao I sent his emissaries to the Portuguese viceroy to ask permission from the Portuguese to build trading units in areas of Kalyan and Bhiwandi. The viceroy not only refused to meet the emissaries but also humiliated Bajirao I by calling him a 'negro' and an 'idol worshipper'. This racism has still not died in the European minds who preach lessons of humanity and human rights to the world!

Thus, finally On 24th March 1737, on occasion of Gudi Padwa, Chimaji Appa left Pune and arrived at Badlapur near Kalyan by 26th March, 1737. 

The fort of Thane was captured the same day by bribing the Portuguese with their favourite alcoholic drinks and attacking them when they were under its influence. 

Thus the campaign against the Portuguese had had a triumphant start. The English reported to their home country about the new Maratha conquest against the Portuguese. 

The fort of Thane was neatly garrisoned to defend against any Portuguese counter attack. And by travelling the whole night, Chimaji Appa reached Sashti by 27th March 1737. However, it was hard for him to make any progress as the Portuguese kept getting reinforcements through the sea. The attacks against Vandre and Versova did not yield much for the Marathas. 

A second unit of the Maratha army started targetting Vasai fort. However, as the fort was a firm one and had beach sand all around it, it was not possible to charge towards it directly or blow it up using mines given the sandy terrain. 

Therefore, the surrounding forts of Vasai were targetted first. These consisted forts like Arnala, Parsik, Jivdhan, Belapur, Dharavi and Revdanda. 

Winning these forts was equivalent to winning the island of Sashti and eventually pressurizing the Vasai fort. Dharavi island was located directly in front of Vasai. 

Gradually, starting from 28th March,1737, all these forts were captured from the Portuguese and the island of Sashti was taken by Marathas, which was a serious blow to the Portuguese power and the English in Mumbai ; who were now the direct neighbours of the Marathas and were cut off from the mainland and were confined to Mumbai till 1775 after this. 

From the island of Dharavi, Marathas started bombarding the fort of Vasai. However, their attempts to storm the fort were all foiled by the Portuguese. Eventually, the rainy season had set in and Chimaji Appa had to retreat to Pune temporarily on 2nd July 1737. 

Again, on 4th September 1737, an attack by the Marathas consisting 6,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry was repelled by the Portuguese. 

As mentioned earlier, the English too were in a state of concern after the fall of Sashti at the hands of ambitious Chimaji Appa and Baji rao I . The fall of Sashti had challenged the English naval power and brought their trade under threat.

However, the English were not the main targets of the Marathas at this point of time as the Marathas saw the English as agents to facilitate trade with the outside world. 

The Marathas had yet not managed to capture Vasai from the Portguese, which was the main stronghold of their power in the northern Konkan. 

However, eventually, in the next couple of years, the Marathas were able to evacuate the Portuguese completely from northern Konkan and confine them to their main stronghold of Goa. And the English too had to tread lightly with the Marathas becoming their new neighbours.

Hence the Marathas in 1737, had managed to deal a serious blow to 2 European powers by capturing the island of Sashti.

To know about the further course of the campaign of the Marathas that ended the Portuguese dreams of colonization and confined them to Goa, stay tuned for the next part of these blogs!

Till then, peace!✌🏻✌🏻

Source-

1) The Era of Bajirao by Dr. Uday S. Kulkarni