Shivaji and the Battle of Surat
THE Mughal governor, Inayat Khan, with a thousand men at his command, bolted to the safety of his Fort. The Company’s governor in Surat, George Oxenden,* gathered guns and two hundred men (with sufficient provisions) from English ships in the harbour at neighbouring Suvali,* and marched them boldly through the streets. Shivaji hastily assured him that he meant only to embarrass Aurangzeb, and in the four days of wild looting that followed he left the English alone.*
The defence gave Aurangzeb’s army time to reach Surat, and for a time Shivaji was quieted; the grateful Emperor exempted the English from taxes, and the Company struck a battle medal. But six years later, Shivaji returned with 15,000 men, this time vowing to burn the English factory down. Sixty men under Streingham Masters, a Company agent, held him off once again, but Surat’s trade never recovered. So following a hint from the Lord Chancellor, the Company sounded out the King about Bombay, and in 1687 they moved their headquarters south. Never was £10 better invested.
Sir George Oxenden (1620–1669) lived in some style, riding around the town in a coach of state drawn by milk-white oxen, and his tomb in the cemetery at Surat is a thing of wonder; see The Rivalry to the Grave at LiveHistoryIndia. His courage and military preparedness however demand respect: there were normally only twenty-five to fifty residents at the Surat factory.
Suvali (‘Swalley’ to the English) lies on the northern bank of the River Tapi, with Surat on the southern bank.
Scottish historian James Grant Duff (1789-1858) wrote that ‘the English in particular behaved so manfully, that they not only saved their own property, but a part of that of the citizens.’ Duff, a former Company employee and Resident of Satara in what is now Maharashtra, was a careful scholar of original state papers and correspondence and personally acquainted with Maratha leaders.