1698. Rajaram, however, successfully escaped due to intervention of the Shirke family who hid him in the Mughal camp itself and then furnished him with horses to travel first to Vellore and later to Vishalgad. Santaji and Dhanaji Early in their career Dhanaji and Santaji inflicted a severe defeat upon Sharza Khan, alias Rustam Khan, who was responsible for the death of Sarsenapati Hambirrao Mohite as he was coming to capture the fort of Satara in May 1690. During that period when Jinji remained unconquered, "the intrepid Maratha commanders, Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav, wrought havoc in the Karnataka and Maharashtra by defeating the Mughal generals and cutting off their lines of communication." Santaji Ghorpade captured and held to ransom Ismail Khan, Rustam (Sharza) Khan, Ali Mardan Khan, and Jannisar Khan. According to the Khafi Khan, so great was the terror of his name “that there was no imperial Mughal Amir bold enough to resist him and every loss he inflicted made the imperial Mughal forces quake". Aurangzeb was at his wits’ end and admitted in public that "The creature could do nothing, for everything was in the hands of God". The Mughals looked upon Dhanaji Jadhav with such awe that Mughal troops used to ask their horses, when they refused to drink, whether they had seen Dhanaji's reflection in the water. Rajaram had occupied the fort at Jinji from 11 November 1689, but left before it fell in 1698. Rajaram then set up his court at fort Satara. In this while Rajaram set his objectives on rallying the Maratha army to drive out the Mughal invaders. The Chitnis Bakhar records Rajaram as saying: "Time and again we have grappled with the Mughal armies. The Emperor is camped at Aurangabad, in our homeland, and there I intend to lead the attack in person; bring home to the Emperor that the army that Shivaji built still exists and that Rajaram is a part of it. Prove to him that the Maratha spirit is not extinct". A letter of 22 March 1690, composed by Rajaram and drafted by Khando Ballal Chitnis to Baji Sarjerao Jedhe Deshmukh of Kari speaks of the rallying of the Vijaynagar Poligars of the South to the Maratha banner in these terms and the role of Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav leading them: “We have enlisted on arrival in the Karnatak forty thousand cavalry and a lakh and