Battle of Chakan

Battle of Chakan
Part of Mughal Conquests
Date July–August 1660 Location Chakan, Maharashtra Result Mughal victory
Belligerents
Maratha Empire	Mughal Empire
Commanders and leaders
Firangoji Narsala	Shaista Khan
Strength
800	20000
Casualties and losses
Killed or wounded 300 Surrendered 500	3000-5000 killed or wounded

The Battle of Chakan was fought between the Maratha Empire and the Mughal Empire in the year 1660.

The Mughal army advancing towards Pune had to overcome the fort of Chakan around 30 km from the city.

The fort of Chakan was a Bhuikot, i.e. a land fort and was occupied by around 800 infantry.

Mughal forces laid siege to the fort hoping for a quick surrender by the numerically inferior Maratha garrison.

However the Mughal artillery was unable to force the fort into submission.

Several assaults by the Mughals were repulsed with high casualties.

After almost two and half months without success the Mughals finally resorted to mining the Buruj or tower of the fort.

With the towers demolished the Maratha force agreed to come to terms. The remainder of garrison withdrew from the fort.

Aftermath

The Mughal commander Shaista Khan was surprised with the prolonged resistance offered at the relatively small fort.

The siege revealed glaring shortcomings of Mughal army like poor strategy and tactics and overconfidence.

These were exploited by the Marathas when they routed a Mughal force deployed in Konkan, and again during the most celebrated strike at Shaista Khan's camp in Pune.

References

• Producer-Nitin Desai. "Raja ShivChhatrapati". Star Pravah. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
• Purandare, Babasaheb (August 2003). राजा शिवछत्रपती [Raja Shivachhatrapati] (in Marathi) (15 ed.). Pune: Purandare Prakashan. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)