21. Against Siddhi ...

Shivaji’s aim was to destroy Siddis of Janjira in konkan. They were challenge to his supremacy in konkan. Siddis were always looking for Mughals or Vijapur for support. The British & Portugiz too were at hand to support them. ‘It was only Shivaji’s continous involvement with Mughals & Vijapur, which saved them from extinction.’ After treaty with Mughals, Shivaji gained full control in Konkan again. Janjira was completely under his area of influence. He laid siege to janjira.


British factory records says about this event, “the Siddi is much straitened by Shivaji rajah, who though he cannot storm this place, only think to strave him out notwithstanding the grand Mughal command to withdrew his forces; so the Siddi resolve to hold it out to the last& then hath thoughts of delivering it up to the Mughal who hath an army about kalyan commanded by Lodhi khan.” The British were even contemplating possessing of Janjira to themselves. The Portugiz actively assisted Siddis to resist Shivaji. Under the treaty of 10th feb.1670, they even offered to mediate between Shivaji & Siddis. Shivaji couldn’t tolerate that this interference in his region. He was now convicted that the Mughals were bent upon circumscribing his activities in whatever direction they thought necessary & advisable.


It was while the siege of janjira was in progress in 1670, that the war between the Marathas & the Mughals break-out. It last for 37 years, until the death of Aurangzeb in 1707.