Shivaji conducts strategic raids on Mughal territories of Junnar and Ahmednagar

In early 1657, the geopolitical landscape of the Deccan shifted dramatically when Prince Aurangzeb, acting as the Mughal Viceroy of the Deccan under his father Emperor Shah Jahan, launched a massive military campaign against the Adilshahi Sultanate of Bijapur. While the bulk of the Mughal army was preoccupied with prolonged sieges at Bidar and Kalyani, Shivaji Maharaj identified a rare strategic window. Recognizing that Mughal border posts had been left lightly guarded, Shivaji resolved to launch bold strike operations into imperial Mughal territory to assert his autonomy, disrupt enemy lines, and acquire vast treasure to finance his growing military apparatus.

On April 30, 1657, Shivaji personally commanded a swift, nocturnal strike on the prosperous Mughal administrative and garrison city of Junnar, located near the foot of Shivneri Fort where Shivaji himself had been born. Under cover of dark, Maratha soldiers used rope ladders to scale the city walls, surprising the garrison under the command of Multafat Khan. The Maratha forces successfully breached the city, looted the imperial treasury of over 300,000 pagodas in cash and bullion, and seized hundreds of valuable war horses, camels, and equipment before retreating into the nearby Western Ghats without sustaining significant casualties.

Simultaneously, Shivaji dispatched another wing of his army under senior commanders to attack the key Mughal stronghold of Ahmednagar. The Marathas raided the outskirts, defeated local Mughal contingents, and seized substantial spoils, thoroughly throwing imperial military logistics into disarray. When news of these daring incursions reached Aurangzeb at his camp in Kalyani, the imperial prince was incensed. He dispatched punitive expeditions under commanders like Nasiri Khan to retaliate and lay waste to Maratha villages.

However, before the Mughals could mount a decisive counter-offensive, Emperor Shah Jahan fell critically ill in late 1657. The impending crisis forced Aurangzeb to abandon his southern campaigns, sign a hasty peace treaty with Bijapur, and march north to contest the bloody War of Succession. Shivaji’s strategic raids on Junnar and Ahmednagar marked the formal commencement of hostilities between the Marathas and the Mughal Empire, proving that the Marathas were capable of striking directly at the wealth and prestige of the Great Mughals.