Aurangabad, Jul 17 (PTI) A history researcher is working on a book to compile details of a lesser known battle between the Maratha and Nizam soldiers at Devgiri Fort in Maharashtra in 1763.
For this, Pune-based history expert Raj Memane has gone through about 15,000 historical documents.
Not many details are available in public about the period when Marathas held the Devgiri Fort, located at Daulatabad in Aurangabad district, as compared to other dynasties that ruled here. “In fact, the battle between the Maratha and Nizam troops should be seen as the victory of Maratha soldiers and should be celebrated on July 17 every year,” Memane told PTI.
The battle was fought by around 500 Marathas and 10,000 soldiers of the then Nizam of Hyderabad from July 3 to 17, 1763, he said.
Despite there being a huge difference in the count of soldiers of the two sides, the Marathas succeeded in retaining the fort, said Memane, who is also an expert of the Modi script which is used to write the Marathi language.
“I have examined thousands of documents from the Peshwa Daftar, (archives office in Pune), where I found details of this battle,” he said.
According to Memane, the Nizam of Hyderabad had sent troops to the Devgiri Fort. The Marathas came out of the fort and used guerrilla tactics to attack the Nizam forces. Only one Maratha solider died in the battle, he said, without elaborating on the losses suffered by the Nizam troops.
“Some documents reveal that the Maratha troops experienced a shortage of iron to make cannon carts. It was impossible to get iron from outside in such a situation. The Marathas then melted the waste iron available inside the fort and resolved the problem,” Memane said.
Uddhav Chitale was the chief of Devgiri fort from the Marathas side. Along with him, Govind Kanho, Bajirao Raghunath, Kanhoji sakpal and others represented the Marathas, while Rajaram Bapurav, the officer from Kannad-Phulambri area, led the Nizam’s troops, he said.
Memane claimed that as per some documents, the Maratha soldiers used ‘agnibaan’ (rockets) from the fort to attack the Nizam forces.
The documents also throw light on the materials used to make such weapons, he said.
After fighting for 15 days, the Marathas succeeded in retaining the fort while the Nizam forces had to withdraw from Devgiri, he said. Memane said he will bring a detailed description of the battle in his upcoming book ‘Marathekalin Devgiri’.
The Devgiri Fort was under the control of Marathas for 17 years – from 1760 to 1775 and from 1795 to 1797, he added. PTI AW GK GK
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