middle of his army. Santaji and Vithoji Chavan, his second in command, led a two thousand strong contingent for this purpose towards Tulapur. On stealthily reaching the Mughal camp they rushed at Aurangzeb's pavilion, cut down the supporting ropes and the huge cloth edifice came down in a crash, killing everyone inside including Aurangzeb himself as was at first supposed. Afterwards it was discovered that Aurangzeb by chance was passing that night in his daughter’s tent and thus escaped death. However the Marathas cut the gold spires off the Mughal poles and carried them away in triumph to Sinhagad which was under Prataprao Sidhoji Gujar, son of Sarsenapati Prataprao Kudtoji Gujar. After some rest at Sinhagad, Santaji led the Maratha contingent down the Bhor Ghat and attacked the rear of Itikad Khan’s army besieging Raigad, carrying off five imperial Mughal war elephants. Following this Maratha contingents under Dhanaji Jadhav and Santaji attacked and completely routed Muqarrab Khan, the Mughal general responsible for capture of Chhatrapati Sambhaji, at Bhudhargad 45 miles south of Kolhapur. Muqarrab Khan and his son were mortally bloodied and chased up to the Mughal camp at Kolhapur and all their loot was captured. With this booty Santaji Ghorpade presented himself before Rajaram at Panhala. Rajaram distributed rich cloths and titles to the successful commander and his officers. Santaji Ghorpade was titled 'Mamalkatmadar', his brothers Bahirji and Maloji Ghorpade were titled 'Hindurao' and 'Amir-Ul-Umra'. Vithoji Chavan was styled Himmat Bahadur. Sidhoji Gujar who helped Santaji and Vithoji was titled 'Sarkhel' and appointed the Grand Admiral of the Maratha Navy with Kanhoji Angre and Bhavanji Mohite as his deputies. Dhanaji Jadhav with the main army repulsed a full-fledged attack on his position at Phaltan and with some of the enemy’s captured guns joined the ceremony at Panhala. There he received the title of 'Jaysinghrao', or Lion of Victory. Determined at all costs to take Raigad, Aurangzeb continued to send reinforcements to Itikad Zulfikar Khan, who was soon able to invest Panhala as well. Rajaram who was in Panhala slipped through the besieging lines. A 300-strong Maratha army then fought with the Mughals and led the new Maratha king, Rajaram to escape through Kavlya ghat to the fort of Jinji in present-day state of Tamil Nadu via Pratapgad and Vishalgad forts. After crossing the crocodile-infested Tungabhadra river swimming on Bahirji Ghorpade's back, Rajaram and Bahirji reached Keladi (Near present-day Sagar