Did You Know?

Battle of Pawankhind that took place between 300 Maratha Soldiers led by Bajiprabhu Deshpande and 12000 Adilshahi soldiers led by Siddhi Masood on 13th July, 1660 AD is one of the famous battles which must be told to our kids.

Before sacrifing their lives to save Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, 300 Maratha Soldiers massacred 4000 enemies and wounded thousands others.

After Shivaji had killed Afzal khan near Pratapgarh fort, Soldiers of Adil Shah had surrounded it and led the siege.

It was important for Shivaji to get out of the fort and move to more secure location.

Bajiprabhu Deshpande who was good friend of Shivaji and his one of the important army commander decided to get him out of the fort.

They took help of a barber named Shiva Nhavi who was lookalike of Shivaji. He disguised as Shivaji and surrendered himself to Bijapuri forces.

While Shivaji left the fort along with 600 soldiers.

Around 12000 soldiers chased Marathas. When Shivaji was 9 km away from fort of Vishalgarh around hilly terrain of Ghodkhind pass, Bajiprabhu Deshpande decided to stop the Adilshahi soldiers so that Shivaji could reach Vishalgarh safely. He took 300 soldiers with him.

The Battle of Pawankhind took place for 15 hours till the last Maratha Soldier was alive. In this battle, Bajiprabhu Deshpande was fighting with Dandapatta swords in his both hands.

We salute to our heroes like Shivaji Maharaj, Bajiprabhu Deshpande and Shiva Nhavi. Jai Bhawani.

Reference: #Saffronswords

Correction: Pratapgarh fort should be read as Panhalgadh fort.
After the death of Afzhal Khan, the Bijapuri army fled.

Shivaji with his army pushed into the Bijapuri territory.

The Marathas captured Panhala Fort located near the city of Kolhapur.

then The Adilshahi force laid siege of Panhala Fort