A statue of Shivaji Bhonsle I (?1627-1680), warrior-chieftain of the Maratha, at his hill capital Raigad Fort in Raigad, Maharashtra, about thirty miles southwest of Pune. After the raid on Surat, the spoils were taken to Raigad, which then become his capital, and he was crowned King of the Maratha Empire there on June 6th, 1674, in a lavish ceremony. His son was an altogether less inspiring figure, and within a few years Aurangzeb had regained ascendancy. Nevertheless, the British had to fight three Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-1782, 1803-1805 and 1817-1818) before the Empire that Shivaji founded was brought under control.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1662, King Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of Portugal. Her dowry included the port of Bombay, but the East India Company was already happily head-quartered at Surat a hundred and fifty miles to the north,* and Charles even considered selling Bombay back to the Portuguese, to complement their post on neighbouring Salsette Island. However, in 1668 the cash-strapped King leased it to the Company, who seemed to want it, for a £50,000 loan and £10 a year.
The Company’s interest was owing to Shivaji, a Maratha warlord.* The Maratha were implacable enemies of the Mughal Empire,* whose Islamic government in Delhi was unwelcome to the Hindus further south. Resentment grew, and in Shivaji the Hindus found their inspiration. By 1660, most of the Deccan supported him,* and he turned his gaze on the wealthy port of Surat — gateway to Arabia, pride of Emperor Aurangzeb and also home to Dutch, French, Portuguese and English merchants. Shivaji arrived on January 5th, 1664, at the head of four thousand cavalry.
Surat in Gujarat is a city and harbour on the west coast of India, some 145 miles north of Bombay (Mumbai). It stands at the mouth of the River Tapi.
Shivaji Bhonsle I (?1627-1680), warrior-chieftain of the Maratha, and from 1674 their King and Emperor.
The Mughal Empire was established in 1526 by Babur, a warrior chieftain from modern-day Uzbekistan backed by Safavid (Persian) and Ottoman (Turkish) troops. At the time of the sack of Surat, the reigning Emperor was Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707). The Mughal Empire was dissolved in 1857, by the British Crown.
The Deccan Plateau is a vast area of central India in the V-shape bounded by the mountains of the Western and Eastern Ghats, and by the Narmada River to the north. See Wikipedia.
Part Two
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Bombay (Mumbai). Built by the British and originally named after Queen Victoria, it is a veritable cathedral, with spacious halls, sweeping staircases, tall columns and lofty domes. The station was renamed in honour of the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji in 1996, though the abbreviation VT is still often used. (Note that the Indians kept the building and changed the name, unlike Euston, where the British kept the name and destroyed the station.) It was Shivaji’s buccaneering attacks on the Mughal Emperor’s pride and joy, Surat, that led to an upturn in the fortunes of the hitherto neglected port of Bombay.
THE Mughal governor, Inayat Khan, with a thousand men at his command, bolted to the safety of his Fort. The Company’s governor in Surat, George Oxenden,* gathered guns and two hundred men (with sufficient provisions) from English ships in the harbour at neighbouring Suvali,* and marched them boldly through the streets. Shivaji hastily assured him that he meant only to embarrass Aurangzeb, and in the four days of wild looting that followed he left the English alone.*
The defence gave Aurangzeb’s army time to reach Surat, and for a time Shivaji was quieted; the grateful Emperor exempted the English from taxes, and the Company struck a battle medal. But six years later, Shivaji returned with 15,000 men, this time vowing to burn the English factory down. Sixty men under Streingham Masters, a Company agent, held him off once again, but Surat’s trade never recovered. So following a hint from the Lord Chancellor, the Company sounded out the King about Bombay, and in 1687 they moved their headquarters south. Never was £10 better invested.
Sir George Oxenden (1620–1669) lived in some style, riding around the town in a coach of state drawn by milk-white oxen, and his tomb in the cemetery at Surat is a thing of wonder; see The Rivalry to the Grave at LiveHistoryIndia. His courage and military preparedness however demand respect: there were normally only twenty-five to fifty residents at the Surat factory.
Suvali (‘Swalley’ to the English) lies on the northern bank of the River Tapi, with Surat on the southern bank.
Scottish historian James Grant Duff (1789-1858) wrote that ‘the English in particular behaved so manfully, that they not only saved their own property, but a part of that of the citizens.’ Duff, a former Company employee and Resident of Satara in what is now Maharashtra, was a careful scholar of original state papers and correspondence and personally acquainted with Maratha leaders.
