The Siege of Bijapur 1686

The Adil Shahi Dynasty of Bijapur

The Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur had been established in 1490 by Yusuf Adil Shah, a governor of the Bahmani sultanate, and it had ruled over the rich agricultural lands of the central Deccan for nearly two centuries. By the late seventeenth century the Adil Shahi sultanate was one of the most prosperous of the Deccan states, and its capital, the fort of Bijapur, was commercial and cultural centres of the Deccan. The Adil Shahi court was a major centre of Urdu and Persian literature, and the great architectural monuments of the dynasty, including the Gol Gumbaz, are among the most impressive examples of the Indo-Islamic architecture of the period.

The ruler of Bijapur at the time of the siege was Sikandar Adil Shah, who had succeeded to the throne in 1672. Sikandar was a relatively weak ruler who had been forced to contend with the growing power of the Marathas in the western Deccan and with the mounting Mughal pressure from the north. The Marathas under Shivaji and his successors had extracted substantial concessions from the Adil Shahi court, and the Adil Shahi army, while still formidable in pitched battle, was no longer capable of meeting the Mughals and the Marathas simultaneously. The refusal of Sikandar to submit to Mughal suzerainty, combined with his support of the Marathas, persuaded Aurangzeb that the conquest of Bijapur was an essential preliminary to the pacification of the Deccan.

The Outbreak of the Mughal Campaign

The Mughal campaign against Bijapur was opened in 1685, when a substantial Mughal army under the command of Prince Muazzam, the eldest son of Aurangzeb, invaded the Adil Shahi territory from the north. The Mughal force was subsequently reinforced by additional contingents under the principal officers of the empire, and the overall command was eventually assumed by the emperor’s principal general, Ghazi ud-Din Khan Feroze Jang. The Mughal army included a substantial siege train, and the principal Mughal objective was the fort of Bijapur, one of the strongest fortresses in the Deccan.

The fort of Bijapur was protected by a series of concentric walls and by a number of detached outworks, and it was well provided with water, with stores, and with a substantial garrison. The hill on which the citadel stood, the Arkilla, was a natural strongpoint, and the engineers of the Adil Shahi rulers had fortified the position with the most advanced techniques of the time. The siege of such a fortress required the deployment of a substantial artillery train, and the Mughal army that gathered at Bijapur in the autumn of 1685 included several hundred heavy cannon and a large corps of specialist gunners.

The Military Operations

The principal military operations at the siege of Bijapur were the deployment of the imperial artillery and the construction of siege works. The Mughal army established a series of batteries on the hills surrounding the fort, and the bombardment of the fort continued for several months. The garrison of the fort, commanded by the Adil Shahi general, made a spirited defence, and the initial Mughal assaults were repulsed with substantial loss. Sikandar Adil Shah personally directed the defence, and the Adil Shahi heavy cannon were used effectively against the Mughal batteries.

The principal Mughal assault, delivered in the spring of 1686, was repulsed with substantial Mughal losses, and the siege was continued through the summer of that year. The arrival of additional Mughal forces in the autumn of 1686, combined with the failure of attempts to relieve the fort from outside, eventually persuaded the garrison to negotiate. The terms of the surrender were relatively generous: the Adil Shah was permitted to retire to a substantial jagir in the Deccan, and the surviving members of the garrison were permitted to march out with the honours of war.

The Use of Artillery and Siege Techniques

The mining operations at the siege of Bijapur were conducted under the direction of Ottoman and Iranian specialists, and they involved the driving of several galleries beneath the principal walls. The first mine was sprung in the early summer of 1686, and the resulting explosion breached a section of the wall and permitted a Mughal assault. The assault was repulsed with substantial loss, and the garrison continued to resist. A second mine was sprung in the late summer, and the resulting assault succeeded in capturing a section of the outer works.

The Death of Sikandar Adil Shah

The final assault on the fort was delivered in the autumn of 1686, after a bombardment of several weeks by the Mughal heavy artillery. The garrison, by this time reduced to a fraction of its original strength, was unable to resist, and Sikandar Adil Shah opened negotiations for the surrender of the fort. Sikandar was treated with marked respect by the Mughal authorities, and he was eventually permitted to retire to a substantial jagir near the city of Satara, where he died in 1700. The fort of Bijapur was incorporated into the Mughal imperial establishment, and a substantial Mughal garrison was installed in the citadel.

The Integration of Bijapur into the Mughal Empire

The incorporation of Bijapur into the Mughal Empire was a major event in the history of the dynasty. The Adil Shahi territories, which included some of the richest agricultural lands of the central Deccan, were organised as a new Mughal province, and the administration of the province was entrusted to a series of high-ranking Mughal officers. The Mughal governors of the new province were responsible for the suppression of the Maratha resistance in the western Deccan, and the long war with the Marathas, examined in detail on the rise of the Maratha power page, was a major drain on the imperial treasury.

Sources

• Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, vol. IV (1919), pp. 200–40.