Battle of Pratapgarh - A Management Case Study

Many historians and writers have tried capturing the correct history on Battle of Pratapgarh and few succeeded in sequencing the event of meeting between Afzal Khan and Shivaji Bhosale at the footsteps of Pratapgarh. History or the story forms one of the most inspiring and daring tales on Shivaji and his times. It is still performed as popular ballard (povada) all across rural and urban parts of Maharashtra and constant subject of inspiration, films, plays and school text books. Without inviting any debate on its correctiveness and completeness I wish to draw few positives and learning lessons from this sensational event. I seek no desire to be accurate in portraying Shivaji as hero and neither I intend to beat the drum for his greatness.

* History : Here is brief details for those who have little knowledge about this event. Shivaji’s movement for creating home-rule independent state ‘Swarajya’ had became the most critical issue at Adilshah’s Bijapur court. Shivaji had captured few strategically importants hills and forts and also recently looted Kalyan town. Afzal Khan led sizable army into the Western Ghats region to crush Shivaji. his men and their dreams. He stationed his troops at Wai in modern district of Satara. From May to November 1659 Afzal engaged his army in attacking open plains to find Shivaji and also enticing him for coming open in battle but Shivaji retreated to Pratapgarh with large part of his garrison. Khan employed best of his men but with over-confidence and constantly worked on capturing Shivaji but saw no success. On the other hand, Shivaji was limited by the size of his army and resources. He didn’t budge to any of Khan’s tactics or pressure and stayed most of the time behind fortified walls of Pratapgarh. Seeing his operation extended, Afzal Khan broke the muzzle and opened negotiations talks and agreed to meet Shivaji at the footsteps of Pratapgarh. Khan desired to get Shivaji close at meeting and either capture or kill him by false play. On the contrary, this was a place in dense forest strategically favorable for Shivaji and his men. =

The meeting was setup under a truce that two would meet under an enclosure virtually alone. Consuls from both sides discussed and negotiated on certain terms. Afzal had track record of breaching the truce and committing false play and so was Shivaji had planned. The actual battle never took place until final hours of Nov 10th, 1659 between noon to evening. As the two men entered the tent, the 7′ tall Khan embraced Shivaji, tightly holding Shivaji’s neck under his arms, he struck him with a dagger in the back. The dagger was deflected by Shivaji’s armour and Shivaji responded by inthrusting his dagger and using tigger-claws opening and tearing Khan’s bowels. Afzhal Khan who was strong and sturdy but injured by this time, struck his sword on Shivaji’s head almost killing him. Khan rushed outside shouting for help, and thereupon his bodyguard Sayyad Banda moved inside the tent but before he could strike on Shivaji, Jiva Mahal Shivaji’s personal bodyguard who had positioned himself in the tent before Sayyed, cut his hand with a Dandpatta (Patta- a medieval weapon) and before the surprised Sayyed could know whoms who, Jiva’ second blow was fatal to Banda. Afzal Khan managed to hold his gushing entrails and hurtled, faint and bleeding, outside the tent and threw himself into his palanquin. The bearers hastily lifted their charge and began moving rapidly away down the slope. Sambhaji Kavji Kondhalkar, Shivaji’s lieutenant gave chase and beheaded Afzal Khan. Thus, Shivaji nullified first serious threat to his ambition of creating autonomous state from the pockets of Bijapur kingdom. Some historians, scholars claims for a conspiracy on Shivaji’s part but it was a shear military and diplomatic tactics employment for nearly six months that shifted the final result in Shivaji’s favor. Its a mix of bright leadership and dare-devil diplomacy that you will find it thirlling, interesting and thought stimulating.
Afzal Khan’s CV at the time of battle :
Afzhal Khan was the most prominent general at Adhilshahi court. He was famous for his astoshing physical strength and shrewed military commander. Presumely he was 50+ aged, he was riding high on peak of his career at Bijapur court. He was known for warfare skills as well for negotiation tactics; have had won many battles on the face of Karnataka and Maharashtra. A faithful follower of Islam, he also had good relations with many Maratha local landlords sardars. From Shivaji’s link he had killed his elder brother Sambhaji Bhosale and paraded Shahaji Bhosale (Shivaji’s father) once in the streets of Bijapur. Now this same man was supplied 10-15,000 cavalry, 10,000 infrantry, 1500 musketeers, 100 elephants and 1000+ camels. His artillery was supported by 100 long range heavy cannons. He was given full command with a single goal of delivering Shivaji dead or alive to Bijapur court. All important Maratha Sardars serving at Bijapur were asked to join the force making it one of the most dreaded army to walk . Big plus, Afzal Khan was already Subehdar of Wai (near Satara) and well known to local area and infrastructure. From these facts, his resume looks strong and Adilshah wouldnt have asked anyone than Afzal Khan to suppress the rebellion of Shivaji and his men.

Shivaji Bhosale’s CV at the time of battle:
By 1659, Shivaji was 31 years old have had captured or repaired few forts and had established his authority around Pune region with a capital built at Rajgarh (30 miles from Pune). His dream of establishing ‘Swarajya’ was at very infant state. Recently, he had attacked and looted Kalyan (near Mumbai), one of few rich habitat towns of Bijapur kingdom. He was son of Shahaji Bhosale who was high ranked noble at Bijapur court. His province was initially limited to small pockets of plains around Pune that he inherited from his father. However, he and his men started expanding at the cost of Bijapur province. Shivaji was a rebel against political oppression, religious intolerance, social injustice, and cultural supression, rampant under the Muslim monarcies of Deccan. He hadn’t fought any major battle on open ground, mostly he captured or plundered wealth on guerilla warfare while winning the help and trust from Maratha men. His CV shows no experience on large battle and mostly depended on handful of dedicated band of an individuals ready to live and die for his dream. Shivaji was the face of their strength and fortitude and to have seem him charge in the battle, was the favorite boast of his troops. His military strength was around 7000 cavalry and 3000 infantry and Battle of Pratapgarh was Shivaji and mens’ first major life threatening battle.

Projected Presumtion:
Shivaji was no match for Afzal Khan’s CV. Odds for Shivaji were almost nothing. So how did Shivaji manage to inflict defeat on strongest commander of Bijapuri forces? The article doesn’t focus on rebuilding historic pieces of this event but to draw corporate management and leadership lessons from the available sources.

1. Mission Possible The moment news from Bijapur reached Rajgarh, Shivaji and his men were caught offguard and alarmed by this tense situation of facing full force of Adilshahi army. Shivaji commenced a meeting with his commanders at Rajgarh to discuss and address the issue. Everyone realised the threat was a deadly and there was no secret to understand that facing Afzhal was suicidal and catostrophic. Afzal Khan left Bijapur with a promise to put end of Maratha rebellion. Against few suggestions, Shivaji decided not to throw himself or his army in the open battle. Shivaji was also aware of the fact that before Khans strikes invasion, his army will face torrid monsoons and that would guarnatee Shivaji substantial time for the preparation. Shivaji decided to wait and watch as events progresses and possibly gain time to accumulate resources by delaying the face to face battle.

Wisdom: (Project Integration Management)

• Shivaji opened a mission critical (project charter) to deal directly with the threat of Afzal Khan.
• The events opens up to the fact that he was clear in defining preliminary scope statement to battle by guarilla modus operandi going by his strength.
• Facing powerful Bijapur army on open plains was his no choice and hence out of scope subject.
• Shivaji appears to understand the boundary conditions, constraints and limitations against Khan’s super-powered army.

2. Prepare and Plan Shivaji issued order to fortify and strengthen Rajgarh and nearby important forts with soldiers, food and arms supply. He organized most of his contigent close to Rajgarh. Intelligence units operated right at the time Adishahi forces left plains of Bijapur. Some of his spys even got enslisted into Bijapur force as Khan recruited army on his march to Deccan trying to defect Marathas from Shivaji. Afzal succeeded winning few Sardars on his side either on the edge of his sword or promises. Shivaji appointed veteran Sambhaji Jedhe to negotiate the support from few maratha chiefs (jahagirdars) and stopping them from aligning to Afzal’s camp. The last thing Shivaji expected was to face Afzal Khan on open battle. He issued orders across the jahgir not to take any confrontation with Khan and even join his army if that saves them from persecution and destruction. Having spent time on plains of Wai, Afzal Khan knew how difficult it was to move and control big army on the rugged terrains of Sahyadri. However, he was simply in hurry to complete the mission critical. On the way Afzal attacked Hindu temples like Tuljapur and Pandharpur plundering and ransacking sanctity of Hindu’s divine gods. After Pandharpur, Khan changed his route and moved turned towards Satara. This move surprised and alerted Shivaji and recognizing Afzal’s vast experience as Subehdar of Wai, Shivaji devised a plan to destroy the Khan and his forces. He selected strategic location that he recently built in Koyna valley surrounded by ‘Javali’ deep valley dense jungle. One of his team mostly senior brigade was set-up to counsel Rajgarh administration and he took young brigade with him to Pratapgarh. On the daily basis his informants kept feeding him intelligence on every move on Bijapur’s camp. Same time, Shivaji sent greetings with lavish gifts to Aurangzeb who was pre-occupied in securing Mughal crown at Delhi. While he was busy at Pratapgarh in devising the plan, a personal tragedy stuck his as he lost his beloved wife due to her pro-longed illness.

Wisdom: (Scope management)

• While Afzal Khan was busy planning on dreamy simple objective, Shivaji meticulosly invested his time and resources in analyzing Afzal’s moves. He had collective intelligence unit working round the clock in and around of Afzal’s army capturing details on every possible move. These details proved significant source of information for his actitvity definition and planning and proved upper hand to Khan’s traditional model of military tactics.
• Shivaji’s initial actions and reactions indicates clear-cut scope planning and definition. He came up with a strategy of using dense forest, Pratapgarh’s location and rugged terrain against any direct attack from Adilshahi forces.
• His planning was 180 degree opposite to Khan’s traditional one. His plan was based on live details supplied by his secret services. By no means Afzal Khan was a bonehead but a experienced commander. However, his tactics and preparations shows overconfidence, lack of analysis and relying on old fashion archieved data. Many times applying environmental factors and past processes on completely new constrasting service or product proves fatal to the project and its timelines.
• Whereas, Shivaji was busy in planning scope and creating rough layout of the plan. Khan never realized or understood on what Shivaji and his men were working on.
• His quick realization of negative stakeholder in Aurangzeb is a bright example of understanding the boundaries and vision of the scope.
• Khan’s old stratgy of enticing Shivaji into open battle field by attacking and humiliating Hindu deities at Pandharpur and Tuljapur didn’t work.

3. Fort PratapgarhAs monsoons faded within few months Adilshahi army stationed at Wai and Afzal Khan’s army attacked plains around Pune, Saswad, Shirwal and some parts of Konkan. His execution was based on simple plan to engage Shivaji on open ground but his armies met no fight or any opposition and didn’t find Shivaji. Khan got puzzled with this outcome and as time progressed his frustration turned into desperation. Also, he realized it was no good allowing Shivaji more time to prepare for the battle and push the outcome. Meantime, while Khan was moving towards Wai, Shivaji decided to shift to Pratapgarh. It was Sept 5th 1659, Shivaji met a personal tragedy of losing his beloved wife who was ill for sometime at Rajgarh. He was deeply sad for losing a wife and mother of his very young son. However, as next events unfolds, his move to Pratapgarh proved the most vital and counter-attacking but Khan failed to analyze by calling it defensive on the contrary it was the most daring and attacking move from Shivaji. Also, few months before when Khan was on his way to Wai, Shivaji had to heavily bribe one of the Adilshahi commanders to rescue his brother-in-law Bajaji Nimbarkar who was captured at Phaltan and Afzal Khan ordered for his execution. Shivaji was causing no trouble, no battle and no action against any of Khan’s plans. Shivaji’s band had villagers from Javali region as his spies, labours etc. He acquired new arms supply that he raided recently from Kalyan and worked on fortyfying Pratapgarh’s walls and enriching his infantry strength.

Wisdom: (Develop Project Management Plan)

• Shivaji’s preperation is nothing short of good project planning. As against to Khan’s plan, Shivaji’s plan was based on progressive expansion of the project charter and his preliminary scope statement. His appetite for capturing details shows his ability and capacity in executing an exemplary leadership role.
• Employing right resources, tools and in-house assets at right time proves most productivem efficient in the course of project implementation. Opting for Pratapgarh was a building stone in defending against Afzal Khan and also using it as defensive wall against Khan’s large army.
• Pratapgarh was very close to monitor the events in Khan’s camp at Wai. The fort was built by Shivaji just 3 years before the battle. His men who engineered and constructed the fortification were in close nit in Shivaji’s force. Having their skills proved valuable as expert’s opinion to define and control activity sequence and estimation.
• Pratapgarh had its strength on its double line of fortification that wasn’t easy for anyone to attack. Fort construction was on a flat-topped high round rock at the head of densely forested Koyna basin (modern Satara district). Due to hostile topography, Bhorpya (old name) hill and its surrounding valley was little know in Afzhal’s camp. Using small army against the fort was suicidal as against large army with heavey artillery was difficult to maneur and control from the dense forest and rugged terrain.
• Shivaji’s shifting to Pratapgarh agitated Afzal Khan but before he realize the shift of a balance of power in Shivaji’s favor, it was too late. Shivaji’s knowledge of the terrain, his reliance of realistic data elements proved decisive strategy in the later times of battle. On the contrary, Afzal Khan rushing and racing for the results proved tragical in the end for himself and his sultanate army. His assumptions were shalow, his project plan was lousy and dreamy and there was hardly any decomposition of his scope statement. He just lived and died with a simple project plan of capturing Shivaji dead or alive.
• Shivaji had clear-cut cost control management plan. Initially he spent on capturing details and acquiring arms supply. As time came, he rushed for bribing and thus saving his brother-in-law. He saved not just his close reletive but prevented having to witness his close relative’s executive and most slashing his men’s spport and moral.

4. Bloody white flag of amnestyWith no actions, no results from Pratapgarh, Afzal Khan and his lethargic army got frustrated. Finally, Afzal Khan broke the silence and sent his consul Krishnaji Bhaskar, a hindu brahmin by caste. He desperately wanted Shivaji to meet him climbing down the fort and also have his consul climb the fort and able to vaguely inspect, comment on the fortification of Pratapgarh. His shift to this alternative plan paid a big buck. Shivaji hesitantly but finally agreed on meeting him. Hungry for results, Khan and his commanders celebrated for the outcome. Soon Khan’s counsul Krishnaji Bhaskar was admitted inside the Pratapgarh and his underlying inspective plan didnt fail to notice strong and deep fortification as if Shivaji prepared for the major battle. Every portion of the fort was heavily armed with men and artillery. Shivaji greeted him with all royal treatment and respect and lavishingly showered pricely gifts and articles on this Adilshahi counsul. Khan’s letter was mix of truce invitation and also sort of threatening. However, Shivaji brought it to Khan’s consul’s attention about his father Shahaji Bhosale and his position at Bijapur while opting for truce. On one hand, Krishnaji Bhaskar was concerned on Shivaji’s fortification but other hand he was impressed by Shivaji’s hospitality and personality.
On his reply, Shivaji sent his consul in Pantaji Gopinath, the intelligent and cunning skilled negotiator. Pa’nt Gopinath was assigned one and only one task of negotiating Khan on his demands and alluring Khan leaving Wai for Pratapgarh. Shivaji realized Khan’s race to results and acted quickly in setting his plan in action. All leaders assembled and brainstormed at Pratapgarh while Pa’nt Gopinath negotiated Khan and his consul. Beside Shivaji meeting in person, Pa’nt Gopinath offered huge offer to Khan for Shivaji’s life, his safety and saving him from Adilshah’s anger. Pa’nt brought Khan’s attention to Shivaji’s concern on his treatment at Bijapur court once Shivaji joins Khan’s forces. Khan already got details from his consul on Shivaji’s luxirous bounty. Khan saw this opportunity of profiting himself in addition to Adilshah’s reward on Shivaji’s head. In his letter, Shivaji acted small, humble, obedient and begged for mercy amplifying Afzal’s confidence and carelessness. Over his stay for few days, Pant Gopinath didn’t leave any stone unturned and succeeded convincing Khan and his group that Shivaji indeed in need of truce. Khan smiled and acted to forgive Shivaji’s mistakes and finally offhandenly agreed on meeting Shivaji outside Wai. He moved one step further towards his guillotine by agreeing to meet at the foothill of Pratapgarh. It was discussed that Shivaji would setup a open place in agreement to the truce and soon the date of meeting will be finalized. Khan’s resume was already red-marked specially on his meeting and its outcomes. Kasturi Ranag from Shire was killed in meeting, Khan Muhammad one of Adilshahi Sardar met the same fate and Shivaji couldn’t forget his elder brother Sambhaji Bhosale was killed by Khan in the recent past. Pa’nt Gopinath delivered big diplomatic punch of the times.

Wisdom (Change Control Management plan)

• Afzal Khan and his army were blinded by dreamy project plan. Under his traditional lousy plan, he entirely missed critical risk fracture-lines. Lack of understanding on Pratapgarh’s landscape made his risk management plan nothing but mere hollow checklisted document.
• When Khan saw his initial plan to bring Shivaji on open field failed, he quickly turned and invited Shivaji for the truce shows his reckless desperation for completion. Saving the face of failure, he had no attitude or altitude to analyse alternative plan’s impact or scope. Rather he painted and tainted his project plan with fatal strokes.
• On the contrary, Shivaji’s expanded and accomodative new gathered inputs. He had nothing to rush for its completion as he worked on pushing the schedule ahead saving cost and winning time. Fortifying Pratapgarh and its surrounding area proves his vision for big blacket cover for multiple strategies.
  Khan’s quick alternative plan had no control management plan on scope-creeping neither there was any decomposition of his work. Again, he traditionally devised a shallow and hollow statement for bringing Shivaji for meeting.
• In this short period of negotiation with Pa’nt Gopinath, Khan and his plan saw many new change request in the form of greed, money, respect, etc. Initially he tried getting Shivaji to Wai but when he saw something working to his advantage, he quickly scrambled in agreement to meet near Pratapgarh. There was no change control process put in place to investigate new change impact to the project. His greed of seeing working results in actions blinded his eyes to notice sharp blade of his guillotine.
• Khan failed to realize that leaving Wai for Javali’s thick jungle would limit his human and artillery resources. He cannot carry whole army bandwagon to footsteps of Pratapgarh. Afterall, it proved for him the same army size redundant and dispensable as Shivaji was coming un-hurt in open arms. No impact analysis, ignoring and avoiding all thats necessary to accommodate surprising change requests to the plan.
• On the other hand, same change request was a strategy on Shivaji project plan. In fact, some part of his project plan was setp in wait of this decisive moment. When Khan accepted the truce, Shivaji orcenstrated the daring sequence of activities in the most controlled operated model. All his forces were informed about this check-mate movement and soon the work-breakdown structure started the chain of tasks and responsibilities.

5. Neck of the Woods( incomplete… to be continued)