Battle of Umrani
Battle of Umrani | |||||||
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Part of The Maratha rebellion | |||||||
![]() Statue of Prataprao Gujar | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
![]() | Bijapur Sultanate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() | Bhalol Khan ![]() Mahammad Barqi † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
10000-15000 | 12000 |
The Battle of Umrani was a 1673 battle between the Bijapur Sultanate and the Marathas 45km west of Bijapur.[1][3][4]
Background
Capture of Panhala by Shivaji in 1673 alerted Bijapur. Bhopal Khan set out with 12000 army to check Maratha offensive and reached Umarrani(45 KM west from Bijapur). Shivaji, who was at Panhala learnt about the advance of Bijapur army and despatched his Commander in Chief Prataprao Gujar with 10,000 to 15,000 army.[1][5][2]
Battle
Maratha Army reached Umarrani within 2 days, cut off enemy form their water supply. According to Basatslin-us Salatin Marathas numbering from 10,000 to 15,000 in strength encircled Bholal Khan while other sources do not quite mention anything about this event.[1][6]
The battle which followed was confined for sometime to shoot arrows and firearms. Khan was at great disadvantage as Marathas had cut off his water supply and the heat effect of April began to show its effects. At sunset Khan made an effort to break out , this resulted in hand to hand fighting with Marathas in which Adilshahi officer Mahammad Barqi was killed and an elephant was captured.[1][4]
In the same month [i.e April-March] battle was fought between Bhalol Khan[at one side] and Prataprao Gujar and Anandrao [on other side]. Victory was attained near Bijapur. One elephant was captured.
— Jedhe and Despande Chronicle
Prataprao allowed Bhalol Khan to retire as he begged that he will never raise a war against Marathas. When Shivaji learnt about this he taunted Prataprao for making peace with enemy.[1][5]
Aftermath
The Marathas entered Hubli on 16th April, made company's House its target and started plundering it. The clothes were brought to Prataprao. While plundering Marathas accidentally set fire to a workshop and with an explosion 20 Marathas were killed.[1]
The suffered several losses including various goods like copper plates, lead, paper, cloth, etc., with some cash. Besides this they suffered a loss of 5200.[1]
While plundering Marathas learnt about the march of Muzaffar Khan with 4000-5000 cavalry and they departed with what they already packed up.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gajanan Bhaskar Mehendale (2011). Shivaji His Life and Times. pp. 842–845.
- ^ a b Jaques, Tony (2006-11-30). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century [3 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 1053. ISBN 978-0-313-02799-4.
- ^ SETHUMADHAVRAO S. PAGADI. SHIVAJI - ENG - SETHUMADHAVRAO S. PAGADI. pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b Dr. Balkrishna. Shivaji The Great - 3 (Dr. Balkrishna). p. 123.
- ^ a b Takakhav, Nilkant Sadashiv (1985). Life of Shivaji, Founder of the Maratha Empire. Sunita Publications. p. 632.
- ^ Ed. R. C. Majumdar. History and Culture of Indian People - 8 Maratha Supremacy (Ed. R. C. Majumdar).