army defeated a combined Mughal-Bijapur force in the battle. Subsequently, a quarrel arose between Shahaji and his cousin Kheloji Bhonsle, and in 1625 Shahaji shifted his allegiance to Bijapur, likely because he was dissatisfied with the Ahmadnagar rewarding his relatives more than him. He retained his jagir in the Pune region, which was disputed between Ahmadnagar and Bijapur. A letter dated 10 January 1626 indicates that he still held the position of Sar Lashkar. Ibrahim Adil Shah II, Shahaji's patron in Bijapur, died in September 1627. Adil Shah, a Muslim, was tolerant towards Hindus like Shahaji and saw Ahmadnagar as a buffer state between his kingdom and the Mughal Empire. After his death, an orthodox Muslim faction that advocated for an alliance with the Mughals against Ahmadnagar grew stronger in Bijapur. Amid these circumstances, Shahaji returned to Ahmadnagar in early 1628 under the patronage of Malik Ambar's son Fatah Khan. The power of Ahmadnagar had been declining after Malik Ambar's death in 1626, but Shahaji held a higher position there than the one he held in Bijapur. Meanwhile, the newly-crowned Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan launched a fresh campaign against Ahmadnagar. In 1629, Shahaji led a 6,000-strong cavalry force against the Mughals in the Khandesh region but was defeated. In 1630, Shahaji's in-laws and patrons were murdered as a result of factional politics in the Ahmadnagar court, leading to Shahaji's defection to the Mughals along with a 2,000-strong cavalry unit. The Mughals sent him to occupy Junnar and Sangamner and gave these districts to him as a jagir. War against the Mughals In 1632, Malik Ambar's son Fatah Khan placed a puppet ruler on the Ahmednagar throne and allied with the Mughals. As a reward, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan granted him the jagir that had been earlier allotted to Shahaji. Shahaji then left the Mughal service and began to plunder the region around Pune. When the Mughals sent an army against him, he took shelter with Hussein Shah the governor of Junnar and subsequently returned to Bijapur service. From 1630 to 1632, northern Maharashtra suffered from a severe famine, part of the Mahadurga famine. Bijapur sent an army to assist Ahmadnagar against the Mughals, who had besieged the Daulatabad fort, but the Mughals emerged victorious and captured Daulatabad in 1632, the capital of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Shahaji retreated and took control of an area in the southern part of the