Firangoji Narasala

   This is the story of a “loser”, but what a glorious loser! He defended his fort with extreme valor against insurmountable odds. His loss was as valuable as that of Alamo in the Texan war against Mexico, or of the Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary war. In each case, the official winners paid dearly for their “victories”. To understand the importance of this military feat, it is essential to note the desperate military situation of the Marathi nation at the time

 After decisively defeating AfzulKhan and his army at the battle of PrataapGad, Shivaji opened a victorious campaign against the forces of Vijapur. He captured Waai at the dawn of the very next day and continued to chase the remnants of AfzulKhan’s army towards Vijapur. In the process, he captured PanhaalGad, a fort near Kolhapur and the land surrounding it. Though much weakened, the kingdom of Vijapur was still quite powerful and eventually, they managed to start a fresh military campaign against Shivaji and his budding nation led by General Siddi Jowhar and his 40,000 strong army. Shivaji decided to fight this battle from Panhala -- another name for PanhaalGad. The plan was that he would stay in Panhala – a fort that was on the frontier of his nation. Siddi would thus be forced to approach Shivaji and this would spare Shivaji’s citizen in the interior regions. It was expected that Siddi would attempt to lay siege to the Panhala fort – a traditional military tactic of the day. Netaji Palkar, Shivaji’s cavalry chief was to attack the siege from Siddi’s flank and break it up. Unfortunately this plan did not work out. Learning from AfzulKhan’s experience, General Siddi Jowhar was extremely vigilant and instead of breaking up the siege, Netaji had to run for his life. Shivaji was then hoping that the monsoon rains would achieve what Netaji could not. That did not happen either as Siddi had come prepared for the rains with waterproof tents. The siege remained as firm as ever. Instead of just witnessing this battle, the British East India company commander in South Konkan supported Siddi Jowhar with their gunners and their long range guns. Everyone witnessing this uneven battle was sure that Shivaji cannot possibly escape this siege.

 Moghal General ShahisteKhan of Delhi decided to use this golden opportunity to capture Shivaji’s other forts and thus reduce his claim to an independent nation. Khan started by laying siege to Chakan, a small but key fortress that was on the road from Pune to Nasik. Khan felt that this would be an easy victory and would thus cheer his soldiers to attack other forts – most of them were on top substantial hills or mountain plateaus. That did not happen! Firangoji defended Chakan with his 600 loyal Mawalas against the attacking force of some 20,000 Moghal soldiers! ShahisteKhan's total strength in Maharashtra comprised 77,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry supplemented by 400 elephants, 100 camels and a large number of artillery pieces. Had Firangoji chosen to surrender given these insurmountable odds, no blame could have truly been given. Instead, Firangoji chose to stand firm following Shivaji’s request to defend Chakan strenuously and to surrender only as a last resort.

 Since Shivaji himself was stuck in Panhala, he could not arrange to help the fortress of Chakan against this huge onslaught. Netaji Palkar, chief of Marathi cavalry and famed to be “second Shivaji”, could not help Chakan either as he himself had just barely escaped being captured by the armies of Siddi Jowhar while attempting to break lose the siege of Panhala. The difficulty of defending Chakan becomes even more obvious when it is noted that, though surrounded by a moat, the Fortress was on a flat land rather than on top of a hill, like majority of Shivaji’s other forts. Nonetheless, with no possibility of help from outside, Chakan fort withstood 33-to-1 odds for fifty-five days – an incredible feat in any circumstance! Ultimately, Chakan was lost when Khan succeeded in digging a tunnel under the moat and blowing up a turret with mortar. On the fifty-sixth day, Firangoji surrendered the fort. He joined Shivaji who had by then escaped from Panhala a few days earlier .

 Given the difficulty it took to win the supposedly “easily attainable” Chakan, ShahisteKhan could not imagine the time his military might need to capture Shivaji’s more difficult mountain forts. Therefore, he stayed securely in Pune within his military camp and only occasionally asked his lieutenants to go after Shivaji’s army. These lieutenants had already learned their lesson at Chakan and were very cautious about attacking Shivaji’s forts.

 Firangoji’s “loss” helped save the Hindavi Swarajya. After 3 years of his campaign, ShahisteKhan left in disgrace when Shivaji cut off 4 of 5 fingers on Khan’s right hand in a surprise attack on his barracks! Shivaji renamed Chakan to be SangramDurga – a fort of the memorable battle.Part 8