Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/311

CHAP. XI.] local chief of very small means and no high family influence, was just beginning to peep above the horizon of history and to start or that career of greatness whose noontide splendour was destined to dazzle the Indian world and to leave his name a byword for posterity. Shivaji, the son of Shahji Bhonsla, a Maratha captain in Bijapur service, had taken forcible possession of his father's western jagirs and seized hill-fort after hill-fort in the Ghats from the agents of Bijapur. When the Mughals were about to invade Adil Shah's territory, he had sent an envoy to Aurangzib's deputy at Ahmadnagar, offering to co-operate on condition of being guaranteed by the Mughals in the possession of the Adil Shahi Konkan. He had received in return vague promises of favour and protection. Even a less astute man than he must have known that such promises would amount to nothing in practice when the need of the Imperialists would be over. So, on the outbreak of the war, he seized his opportunity, and in concert with the Bijapuri officers in the neigbourhood, he raided the Mughal territory from the west. One