Sivaji was again at war with Bijapur, and carried on his operations chiefly in the Konkan. He embarked with a force of 4000 men in 87 ships, sacked Barcelor, and plundered all the inter vening tract ; his troops ravaged the Bijapur terri tory, and be led in person an attack on the Moghul districts. Aurangzeb now superseded Jeswant Singh and prince Muazzarn by Raja Jye Singh and Dilir Khan, who WOW sent vvith a large army to the Deklian, A.D. 1665. Jye Singh laid siege to Singhar, Dilir Khan to Purandhar, and Sivaji yielded to Jye Singh, delivering up 20 out of the 32 forts in his possession, together with the territories attached to them, and he co-operated with Jye Singh against Bijapur. Aurangzeb, pleased with Sivaji's services, invited him to court, but his reception was studiously humiliatina, and, over come with feelings of shame and iagnation, he stepped back behind the line of courtiers and fainted. On recovering, he reproached Ram Singh and withdrew. Aurangzeb ordered him to be atched, but after a short time Sivaji and his son Sambaji passed the guards concealed in baskets, and, mounting a horse with his son behind him, he escaped to Muttra, where he put on the dress of a religious mendicant, shaved off his • hair and hiskers and rubbed his face over with ashes, and, leaving his son there under the care of a Brahman, he pursued his journey by the least frequented roads to the Dekhan, reaching Raighur in Decem ber 1666, nine months after his escape from Dehli. The English factors at Karwar in the Konkan wrote on the 29th September 1666, If it be true that Sivaji has escaped, Aurangzeb will quickly hear of him to his sorrow.' In the following year, 1667, Jye Singh failed in an attempt on Bijapur, and he iu his turn was superseded by prince Muazzam and Jeswant Singh. Sivaji joined these commanders, his title of raja wa,s acknowledged, his territory partly restored, and a new jaghir was granted to him in Berar. The years 1668 and 1669 were passed in tranquillity, which gave Sivaji time to arrange his government. His army, both horse and foot, was formed in divisions, with a regular chain of officers, from heads of ten, fifty, up to heads of 5000, above which were the generals of the divisions, all regularly mustered and paid by the state, and the utmost economy enforced. His civil officers were all Brahmans, and those of the highest rank were often employed in military commands also. Aurangzeb tried to get Sivaji into his power, but Sivaji turned all the emperor's plans against himself. Aurangzeb then ordered an open attempt to seize Sivaji. The peace thus broken, Sivaji's great friend and con fidant, Tanaji Malusri, surprised Singhar near Poona with 1000 Mawali, ho escaladed its walls at night, though with the loss of their leader and many of their number. Sivaji conferred a silver bracelet on each of the survivors ; he captured other forts, again plundered Surat, ravaged Kan desh, and for the first time levied the Chouth or fourth share of the revenues, a tax which after wards formed a prominent feature in Mahratm policy. His progress was almost uninterruped because of the inactivity of Muazzam and Muhab bat Khan (A.D. 1671), who considered the forces under them insufficient for the country they had to hold. Muazzarn remained inactive at Aurangalad, and,Muhabbat Khan, in an injudicious attempt to cover a siege in which he was engaged, exposed a body of 20,000 men to a total defeat by the Mahrattas (A.D. 1672). This vas the first field action won by Sivaji's troops, and the first in stance of success in a fair conflict with the Moghuls, and Aurangzeb recalled both ptince Mnazzam and 31uhabbat Khan. In the course of the years A.D. 1673 and 1674, after a succession of battles and sieges, Sivaji made himself master of the whole of the Southern Konkan, except the parts held by the English, Abyssinians, and Portuguese, and of a tract above the ghats, extending farther to the east than the upper course of the Kistna. He now, 6th June 1674, had himself a second time crowned at Raighur, with all the ceremonies of a Mogitul coronation, including his being weighed in gold, and distributing rich presents to all around him. Mr. Oxenden was the English
envoy from Bombay to Sivaji, and was present at the coronation. At the same time, he changed the titlea of his principal officers from Persiau to Sanskrit ; and while he thenceforth assumed all the pomp of a Mahratta prince, he redoubled his attention to the duties of his religion, and affected greater scrupulosity than ever in food and other things connected with caste. Soon after this ceremony the Mogbuls made an excursion into his territories. Sivaji retaliated (A.D. 1675) by sending bands into the imperial provinces, plundering the country to the heart of Kandesh and Berar, and even penetrated into Gujerat as far as Baroach, where for the fitst time his troops crossed the Nerbadda. In 1676, he resolved to recover his father's jaghir in the Peninsula. He formed an alliance with the king of Golconda, and marched to that fortress with 80,000 horse and 40,000 foot, and it was agreed that he should share with that king all conquests beyond his father's jaghir, while the Golconda forces should keep those of Bijapur in check. He crossed the Kistna at Kurnool, March 1677, proceeded through Cuddapah, and, passing close to Madras, presented himself at Jinjee, of which be obtained possession, and his army besieged and took Vellore, Arnee, and all his father's jaghir in Mysore. Hearing of the invasion of Golconda by the Moghuls, he left his half brother Santaji in charge of his new conquests ; but the king of Golconda had come to a settlement with the Moghuls, and Sivaji, afte-r conquering Adoni and Bellary, returned to Raighur about the middle of A.D. 1678, from which he had been absent eighteen months. His brother Vencaji came to a compromise, by which he was to retain the jagliir, but pay half the revenue to Sivaji, who was to keep to himself the places he had con quered from Bijnpur.
ill A.D. 1679, Aumngzeb ordered Dilir Khan and prince Munzzarn to make demands on the Bijapur Government Its king was a minor, and tho regent sought the aid of Sivaji, who in vaded and laid waste the Moghul territory with more than ordinary severity. He was thus engaged when lie received intelligence that his aon Sambaji had deserted to the Moghula. Aurangzeb ordered Dilir Khan to send Sambaji to the royal camp, but Dilir allowed him to return to hia father, and Dilir, pressed by Sivaji and by Bijapur, raised the siege and retired. The price of Sivaji's alliance 1111.8 the cession of the territory between the Tumbudra and the Kistna, and shortly after, on the 5th April 1680, Sivaji died at the age of 53 years.
His treacherous assassination of Afzal Khan waa a detestable crime. The family was of the Maliratta Kirribi race, but claimed descent from the rajas of Mysore. His son Sambaji succeeded to power, but, after a life of continued war, he fell into the hands of Aurangzeb, who put him to death in 1689. Ram Raja, son of Sivaji, was for a short time on the throne of his father, but was dethroned and imprisoned by his half -brother Sambaji. Ile died A.D. 1700, leaving two sons. In 1688, Sambaji, sou of Sivaji, was taken pri soner, and in August 1689 put to death. Saho or Shaqi, son of Sarnbaji, succeeded in 1708. In 1719 baho obtained the Chouth or one-fourth of the total revenues of the six subahs into which Aurangzeb had nominally subdivided the Dekhan. He fixed his capital at Satara, and on the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, he took advantage of the broils in the Dehli empire to enlarge his bound aries and power. Ilis treasurer was Balaji Wishwanath, father of Baji Rao, the first of the Peshwas of Poona. Ilolkar, of the shepherd caste, and Sindia, in A.D. 1720 were cavalry officers in Lis army. He died in 1749, on which Holkar established hitnself at Indere, and Sindia first Ujjain, and filially his descendant in 1810 at Cwalior, in the province of Agra.—Elphin. pp. 532-572 ; Grant Duff, Hist. of the 21fahrattas.