The Battle of Salher was fought between the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

and the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

in February 1672 CE. The battle was fought near the fort of Salher in modern-day

Nashik Nashik, formerly Nasik, is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra situated on the banks of the river Godavari, about northeast of the state capital Mumbai. Nashik is one of the Hindu pilgrimage sites of the Kumbh ...

district. The result was a decisive victory for the Marathas. This battle is considered particularly significant as it is the first pitched battle where the Mughal Empire lost to the Marathas.

Background

The Treaty of Purandar (1665) required

Shivaji Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

to cede 23 forts to the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

. Strategically important forts, which were fortified with garrisons, such as Sinhagad, Purandar, Lohagad, Karnala, and Mahuli were turned over to the Mughal empire. At the time of this treaty, the

region, that contained the forts of Salher and Mulher, had been firmly in the Mughal Empire's hands since 1636. The signing of this treaty resulted in Shivaji's visit to Agra and, after his escape from there in September 1666, two years of uneasy truce followed. The period between 1670 and 1672 saw a dramatic rise in Shivaji's power and territory. Shivaji's armies successfully conducted raids at Baglan,

Khandesh Khandesh is a geographic region in Maharashtra, India. It was made up of present Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts. It also said that Burhanpur District of Madhya Pradesh was also its part. The region have seen many geographical ch ...

, and

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

and retook more than a dozen forts. This culminated in a decisive victory against a Mughal army of more than 40,000 on an open field near Salher.

The battle

Senapati Prataprao Gujar and Anandrao along with an army of 15,000 captured the Mughal forts Aundha, Patta, Trimbak and attacked Salher and Mulher in January 1671. This led

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

to send two of his generals Ikhlas Khan and Bahlol Khan along with 12,000 horsemen to reclaim Salher. In October 1671, the

Mughal Army The army of the Mughal Empire was the force by which the Mughal emperors established their empire in the 16th century and expanded it to its greatest extent at the beginning of the 18th century. Although its origins, like the Mughals themselve ...

laid siege to Salher. In return, Shivaji ordered his commanders

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

Moropant Pingle, Prataprao Gujar and Anandrao to reclaim the fort. 50,000 Mughals had besieged the fort for more than six months. Shivaji knew the strategic importance of Salher as it was the main fort on important trade routes. Meanwhile, Dilerkhan had also attacked

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

, and Shivaji could not save Pune because his main armies were away. Shivaji devised a plan to divert Dilerkhan by forcing him to reach Salher. He ordered Moropant who was in South

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

, and Prataprao-Anandrao who were raiding near

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

to meet and attack the Mughals at Salher to relieve the fort. In his letter to his commanders, Shivaji had written 'Go to the north and attack Salher and defeat the enemy'. The battle lasted for an entire day and it is estimated that around 10,000 men were killed on both sides. The Mughal military machines (consisting of cavalry, infantry, and artillery) were outmatched by the light cavalry of the Marathas. The Mughal armies were completely routed and the Marathas gave them a crushing defeat. 6,000 horses, an equal number of camels, 125 elephants, and an entire Mughal

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

were captured by the victorious

Maratha Army The Maratha Army was the land-based armed forces of the Maratha Confederacy, which existed from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries in the Indian subcontinent. 17th century Shivaji, The great the founder of Maratha Kingdom, raised a small ...

. Other than this, a large amount of goods, treasures, gold, jewels, clothes, and carpets were seized by the Marathas.

Outcome

The battle resulted in a decisive Maratha victory which resulted in the liberation of Salher. Further, the nearby fort of Mulher was also taken from the Mughals as a consequence of this battle. 22 ''wazirs'' of note were taken as prisoners and Ikhlas Khan and Bahlol Khan were captured. Among the Mughal soldiers who were prisoners around one or two thousand escaped. The notable ''Panchazari'' Sardar of the Maratha Army Suryajirao Kakade was killed in this battle and was revered for his ferocity during the battle. Approximately a dozen Maratha '' sardars'' were gifted for their remarkable achievements in the battle and the three officers (Moropant Pingle, Prataprao Gujar & Anandrao) were specially rewarded.The battle resulted in the Maratha Empire garnering a lot of war booty reportedly in the form of 6,000 horses, 6,000 camels and 125 elephants captured from the Mughal entourage.

Consequences

Most of Shivaji's victories until this battle had been through

guerilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism ...

, but the Maratha's use of light cavalry on the Salher battlefield against the apparently superior Mughal forces proved effective. This grand victory resulted in Saint Ramdas writing his famous letter to Shivaji in which he addresses him as Gajapati (Lord of Elephants), Haypati (Lord of Cavalry), Gadpati (Lord of Forts), and Jalpati (Master of the High Seas). Although not as a direct outcome of this battle, a couple of years later in 1674, Shivaji was crowned the

Chhatrapati Chhatrapati is a royal title from Sanskrit used to denote a king. The word "Chhatrapati" is a Sanskrit language compound word of '' chhatra'' ('' parasol'' or ''umbrella'') and '' pati'' (''master/lord/ruler''). This title was used by the Ho ...

of his realm.

References

{{coord, 21, 10, N, 72, 50, E, display=title 1672 in India Salher History of Nashik Salher Salher 1670s in the Mughal Empire

Background

The battle

Outcome

Consequences

See also

References