Battle of Sinhagad
| Battle of Sinhagad (Kondhana) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Imperial Maratha Conquests | |||||||||
 The Fort of Sinhagad | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Maratha Empire |
 Mughal Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Tanaji Malusare † |
 Udyabhan Rathore †[1] | ||||||||
The Battle of Sinhagad, also known as Battle of Kondhana, involved an attack by the forces of the Maratha Empire during the night of 4 February 1670 on the fort of Sinhagad (then Kondhana), near the city of Pune, Maharashtra. The Marathas captured the fort.
Background
In the 1650s,
Upon reaching Agra, Aurangzeb put him under house arrest, but Shivaji managed to escape. Shivaji then kept a low profile for some years until Aurangzeb increased activities in the north. Later, Jai Singh died at Burhanpur, and a weaker prince, Muazzam, became governor of the Deccan. Shivaji then felt that this was a good opportunity to reclaim what had belonged to the Swarajya. He broke the treaty and started recapturing the forts that he had previously given the Mughals under the treaty.[citation needed]
Battle
Sinhagad was one of the first forts which Shivaji recaptured from the Mughals. The capture was made possible by scaling the walls at night with rope ladders. Tanaji Malusare was martyred and Udaybhan was killed, but the fort was captured by the Marathas. The battle and Tanaji's exploits are the basis of a popular Marathi ballad.[2]
Aftermath
When Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was informed about the victory and the loss of Tanaji's life during the battle, he exclaimed "Gad aala pan sinh gela" (Devnagari: गड आला पण सिंह गेला) (English: "The fort has been captured but we lost the lion"). A bust of Tanaji Malusare was installed at the fort in memory of his contribution and sacrifice.[3] The fort was also renamed Sinhagad to honour his memory.[citation needed]
In popular culture
- Tanhaji - a Hindi movie of 2020, starring Ajay Devgan, depicted the battle of Kondhana.
- Raja Shivchatrapati - a Marathi TV serial of Star Pravahhad episodes about this battle.
- Subhedar - a Marathi movie of 2023, starring Chinmay Mandlekar, depicted the battle of Kondhana
References
- ISBN 978-0-521-03316-9.
- ISBN 9780521033169.
The first and most spectacular success was the capture of Sinhagad fort. It was taken by scaling very difficult walls by the means of rope ladders in a night raid which culminated in a hand to hand combat inside the fort. The raid was led by Tanhaji Malsure, who was killed in the battle.
- ISBN 81-230-1002-8.
