History of India . ighlanders of the neighbour-ing Ghats, and, listening to their native ballads andtales of adventure, soon fell in love with their free andreckless mode of life, and learned every turn and pathof the Konkan. He found that the hill forts were mis-erably garrisoned by the Bijapur Government, and heresolved upon seizing them and inaugurating an era ofbrigandage on an heroic scale. He began by surpris-ing the castle of Toma, some twenty miles from Poona,and after adding fortress to fortress at the expense ofthe Bijapur kingdom without attracting much notice,crowned his iniquity i
History of India . ighlanders of the neighbour-ing Ghats, and, listening to their native ballads andtales of adventure, soon fell in love with their free andreckless mode of life, and learned every turn and pathof the Konkan. He found that the hill forts were mis-erably garrisoned by the Bijapur Government, and heresolved upon seizing them and inaugurating an era ofbrigandage on an heroic scale. He began by surpris-ing the castle of Toma, some twenty miles from Poona,and after adding fortress to fortress at the expense ofthe Bijapur kingdom without attracting much notice,crowned his iniquity in 1648 by making a convoy ofroyal treasure, and by occupying the whole of the 154 THE EUIN OF AUEANGZIB northern Konkan. Presently his rule extended on theseacoast from Kahani in the north to the neighbour-hood of Portuguese Groa, a distance of over 250 miles;east of the Ghats it reached to Mirich on the Krishna;and its breadth in some parts was as much as one hun-dred miles. It was not a vast dominion, but it sup-. w^ i THE MIHTAK- I MAHAL AT EIJAPTJB. ported an army of over fifty thousand men, and it hadbeen built up with incredible patience and daring. He had no anxiety on the score of his easternneighbour, the King of Bijapur, whose troops he routedand whose lands he plundered at will; and he nowlonged for fresh fields of rapine. The Hindus had SIVAJI THE MAEATHA CHIEFTAIN 155 become his friends, or had bought his favour, and of-fered few occasions for pillage. He turned, therefore,to the Moghul territory to the north, and pushed hisraids ahnost to the gates of Aurangabad, the ThroneCity. Several times Aurangzib changed his generals,but stiU the indomitable Marathas baffled their skill,surprised their quarters, sacked Surat—though SirG-eorge Oxenden beat them off the English factory—and even stopped the ships full of pilgrims that weresailing from the port for Mekka. For a moment, indeed,there was peace. Serious losses induced Sivaji to maketerms, and even to appear at
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