[5] It was common practice in late 17th-century India for members of a ruling family of a small principality to both collaborate with the Mughals and rebel.

[3] In 1681, Sambhaji was contacted by Muhammad Akbar, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's son, who was keen to enter into a partnership with the Marathas in order to assert his political power against his ageing father's continuing dominance.

Sambhaji's wife and minor son, later named Shahuji was taken into the Mughal camp, and Rajaram, who was now an adult, was re-established as ruler; he quickly moved his base to Gingee, far into the Tamil country.

[citation needed] In the first half of 1681, several Mughal contingents were dispatched to lay siege to Maratha forts in present-day Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.

The Maratha Chhatrapati Sambhaji provided shelter to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's rebel son Sultan Muhammad Akbar, which angered his father.

[8] On 8 September 1681, after settling a dispute with the royal house of Mewar, Aurangzeb began his journey to Deccan to conquer the Maratha lands, as well as the sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda.

[citation needed] After the 1684 monsoon, Aurangzeb's other general Shahbuddin Khan directly attacked the Maratha capital, Raigad.

Aurangzeb sent Khan Jehan to help, but Hambirao Mohite, commander-in-chief of the Maratha army, defeated him in a fierce battle at Patadi.

[citation needed] In early 1685, Shah Alam attacked south again via the Gokak-Dharwar route, but Sambhaji's forces harassed him continuously on the way and finally he had to give up and thus failed to close the loop a second time.

Sardar Kesopant Pingle was running the negotiations, but the fall of Bijapur to the Mughals turned the tides and Mysore was reluctant to join Marathas.

In January 1688, Sambhaji called together his commanders for a strategic meeting at Sangameshwar in Konkan to decide on the final blow to oust Aurangzeb from the Deccan.

To execute the decision of the meeting quickly, Sambhaji sent ahead most of his comrades and stayed back with a few of his trustworthy men, including Kavi Kalash.

[citation needed] His death gave the Marathas a newfound zeal and united them against their common foe, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

[14] In March 1690, the Maratha commanders, under the leadership of Santaji Ghorpade launched the single most daring attack on Mughal army.

The Maratha killedar[clarification needed] of Panhala defended the fort and inflicted heavy losses on Mughal army.

They insisted that Rajaram leave Vishalgad for Senji (Gingee) (in present Tamil Nadu), which had been captured by Shivaji during his southern conquests and was now to be the new Maratha capital.

This small force was destroyed by an attack from two Maratha generals, Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav, who then they joined Ramchandra Bavadekar in Deccan.

[citation needed] In late 1691, Bavdekar, Pralhad Niraji, Santaji, Dhanaji and several Maratha sardars met in the Maval region and reformed the strategy.

According to new Maratha plan, Santaji and Dhanaji would launch offensives in the East to keep rest of the Mughal forces scattered.

Having a strong navy established by Shivaji, the Marathas could now extend this divide into the sea, checking any supply routes from Surat to south.

[citation needed] Now war was fought from the Malwa plateau to the east coast, in a strategy devised by the Maratha commanders to counter the strength of the Mughals.

Zulfikar Khan tightened the siege, but Rajaram escaped and was safely escorted to Deccan by Dhanaji Jadhav and the Shirke brothers.

The fort had done its work: for seven years the three hills of Jinji had kept a large contingent of Mughal forces occupied while inflicting heavy losses.

Khanderao Dabhade, who led a division under Jadhav, took Baglan and Nashik, while Nemaji Shinde, a commander with Narayan, scored a major victory at Nandurbar.

A seasoned Maratha commander, Prayagji Prabhu, defended Satara for a good six months but surrendered in April 1700, just before the onset of the monsoon.

The expedition had already taken a giant toll, much larger than originally planned, on the empire and it looked possible that 175 years of Mughal rule might crumble due to being involved in a war that was not winnable.

[citation needed] By 1704, Aurangzeb conquered Torana, Rajgad and some other handful forts mostly by bribing Maratha commanders,[17][18] but he had spent four precious years for this.

He started negotiations with the Marathas, then cut them abruptly and marched on the small kingdom of Wakinara whose Naik rulers traced their lineage to the royal family of the Vijaynagar empire.

Jadhav marched into Sahyadris and won almost all the major forts back in a short time, while those of Satara and Parali were taken by Parshuram Timbak, and Narayan took Sinhgad.

[citation needed] The wars also contributed to the decline of the Mughal Empire, which was already facing internal political and economic challenges.