17-APR-1675 : - Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj attacked the Fonda fort and won Karwar.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

Shivaji Bhonsle  also known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian warrior king and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out an enclave from the declining Adilshahi sultanateof Bijapur that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire. In 1674, he was formally crowned as the Chhatrapati ( Monarch) of hisrealm at Raigad.

Beginning in 1674, the Marathas undertook an aggressive campaign, raiding Khandesh (October), capturing Bijapuri Ponda (April 1675),Karwar (mid-year), and Kolhapur (July).In November the Maratha navy skirmished with the Siddis of Janjira, and in early 1676 Peshwa Pingale, en route to Surat, engaged the Raja of Ramnagar in battle.Shivaji raidedAthani in March 1676, and by year's end besieged Belgaum and Vayem Rayim in modern-day northern Karnataka. At the end of 1676, Shivaji launched a wave of conquests in southern India, with a massive force of 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry.He captured the Adilshahi forts at Vellore and Gingee, in modern-day Tamil Nadu. In the run-up to this expedition Shivaji appealed to a sense of Deccani patriotism, that the "Deccan" or Southern India was a homeland that should be protected from outsiders.His appeal was somewhat successful and he entered into a treaty with the Qutubshah of the Golconda sultanate that covered the eastern Deccan. Shivají's conquests in the south proved quite crucial during future wars; Gingee served as Maratha capital for nine years during the Maratha War of Independence.