Night Raid on the Lal Mahal

Tonight a new act begins: Shaking the Empires. Until now, Shivaji had mostly been battling the Sultan of Bijapur. But now the biggest power in all of India — the mighty Mughal empire — turned its full attention on the troublesome young king of the hills.

Far away in the north, there was a new emperor. His name was Aurangzeb, a son of Shah Jahan, and he had taken the throne from his own father. He was stern, clever and very ambitious, and he would become the greatest rival of Shivaji's whole life. To deal with Shivaji, Aurangzeb sent his own uncle, Shaista Khan — the brother of the queen for whom the Taj Mahal was built! — as governor of the Deccan, with an enormous army.

In 1660, while Shivaji was trapped at Panhala, Shaista Khan marched into Shivaji's home country. Near Pune stood a small fort called Chakan, and its commander, a brave man named Firangoji Narsala, held it with only a few hundred men for nearly two whole months. The Mughals finally dug a tunnel under its wall, packed it with gunpowder, and blew the wall apart, and Firangoji had to give the fort up. But the Mughals had learned something: every fort in these hills was going to cost them dearly.

Then Shaista Khan settled down in Pune. And guess where he chose to live? In the Lal Mahal — the very house where Shivaji had grown up, where Jijau had told him the old stories every evening! Imagine an enemy general sleeping in your childhood room. For almost three years he stayed there, with his great army camped all around the town, and his soldiers raiding the countryside.

Shivaji could not hope to beat so vast an army in open battle. But there was one thing he had that Shaista Khan did not: he knew Pune, and the Lal Mahal, better than anyone alive — every wall, every lane, every door and passage of the house he had grown up in. So he made the boldest plan of his life. He would go right into the middle of the enemy's camp, and strike at the general himself.

The night came on the 5th of April, 1663. One well-known account says that a wedding party had been given permission to pass through Pune with music and drums — and hidden among the "guests" were Shivaji's men. Others, it is said, came in quietly in other disguises. Once inside the town, a small, hand-picked band slipped through the dark lanes toward the Lal Mahal.

They did not go to the guarded front gate. Instead they made their way round to the back, and broke a hole through the kitchen wall, where the cooks were already up, preparing an early meal. Then on they went, through passages Shivaji had known since he was a little boy — knowing exactly which door led where, even in the pitch dark.

But the noise woke the servants, and they woke Shaista Khan. He leapt up and dashed for a window to escape. Shivaji's sword flashed — and as the Khan scrambled out, the blade cut off fingers of his hand. (The accounts don't agree on how many.) Shaista Khan escaped with his life, but he left some of his fingers behind.

In the darkness and confusion, a number of people in the house were killed, among them the Khan's eldest son. Night raids are frightening, messy things, and that is part of the truth too.

Now drums were booming the alarm all over Pune, and thousands of Mughal soldiers were waking up. But Shivaji had planned his way out just as carefully as his way in. Outside the town, some of his men lit torches and led the pursuers off one way, while Shivaji and the raiders slipped away another, up to the hill fort of Kondhana — the very fort he had once given up to save his father, and had since won back.

Imagine the shock across the whole empire! The emperor's own uncle, sleeping safely in the middle of a huge army, attacked in his own bedroom — and the attacker had simply vanished into the night. Aurangzeb was furious with his uncle. He sent Shaista Khan far away to Bengal, and would not even meet him before he went. And the story ran all across India: Shivaji could strike anywhere.

Think about what made it work. Shivaji knew his ground — this time, the rooms of his own childhood home. He was daring enough to walk right into the enemy's heart. And he planned the way out before he ever went in. Courage and careful planning together: that is what turns a wild idea into a famous victory.

Now for the honest part. The old accounts don't agree on everything: how many men slipped into Pune, whether it was a wedding party or other disguises, and how many fingers the Khan lost. What is certain is this: on the night of the 5th to the 6th of April 1663, Shivaji raided the Lal Mahal; Shaista Khan was wounded and escaped; his son was killed; and Aurangzeb sent him away in disgrace.

And the Lal Mahal itself? The old house was ruined and pulled down long ago, before the end of the 1600s. The Lal Mahal you can visit in Pune today was rebuilt in the 1980s, on part of the old land — so when you stand there, you are standing near the place where it all happened.

Goodnight — tonight's badge: dhadas, "daring" — the courage to strike right where the enemy feels safest, with the way home planned before you set out.