May Nak was a Bhandari caste admiral in the navy of Chhatrapati Shivaji, and helped to lead the formation of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of S ...

. Along with Daria Sarang, another admiral who served Maharaj, Bhandari commanded a naval fleet of 200 ships. Their official titles of Mai Nayak Bhandari and Daria Sarang translate to Water Leader and Sea Captain, respectively. The Maratha Navy was the forerunner of India's present-day

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

. A memorial has been built to Ram Nayak Bhandari at Bhatye Village, close to

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri ( IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known fo ...

town.

Shivaji's naval conquests

In April 1672, Shivaji had an eye upon the rocky Islands of Underi and

Khanderi Khanderi (officially ''Kanhoji Angre island'') is an island with a fort, located south of Mumbai, along the coast of Maharashtra, India. Location Khanderi is located 5 km off the coast of Maharashtra (off Thal, Kihim) and 20 km sou ...

, two sister islands about 11 miles south of Bombay and 30 miles north of Janjira. They were also known as ''Hennery'' and ''Kennery'', respectively. On 15 September 1672, a group of 150 warriors under Mai Nayak sailed towards

. The Deputy Governor of Bombay, under British rule, asked Mai Nayak to leave the island alone, as it belonged to Bombay. However, the Maratha fleet paid no heed to the English demand. The English decided to invite the help of the fleet under Daulat Khan to oppose the Maratha fleet, if it tried to protect the fortifications. Both the English and the Siddhi fleets appeared there to prevent the takeover by the Marathas, and Shivaji stopped the fortification. But, later on, in August 1679, Shivaji renewed the project, and commenced fortifying the island of Khanderi. By 15 September, his admiral, known as the Mai Nayak, took possession of the

island with four small guns. However, a sea-battle was fought on 18 October 1679 between Shivaji's fleet and the English fleet; with the assistance of Siddhi Johar, the English were successful in bombarding Khanderi. It was the British view that Shivaji's occupation would hamper the Portuguese presence in Bassein.

References

Bibliography

Shivaji the Great
* {{cite book, author=M. S. Naravane, title=The Heritage Sites of Maritime Maharashtra, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSRuAAAAMAAJ, year=2001, publisher=Maritime History Society, isbn=978-81-901000-2-1, page=153 Maratha Navy People of the Maratha Empire Naval history of India

Shivaji's naval conquests

See also

References

Bibliography