commander in chief of shivAjI and shambhu, father of Tarabai. - In early 1676, Hambirrao led a daring raid into Mughal territory as far as Bharuch in Gujarat & after much heroic fighting, brought back a large booty to the Raigad treasury. Later, during the karNATaka campaign, when shivAji had to rush back to raigarh, hambirrAv defeated Adil shAh armies and Ekoji. - During the attack on diler khAn and mogols while aiding Adil shAh - he saved shivAji’s trapped army and trounced diler’s army. - He harassed the mogols under sambAji- “Shahabuddin Khan, father of Nizam-ul-Mulk, advanced with a huge army to take Raigad. Crisis once again! And yet again it was Hambirrao’s cavalry which fell upon d besiegers routing them completely! Hambirrao immediately followed that up with another counter attack. 60 miles South East of Pune, Aurangzeb had setup an elephant stable with a large number of elephants. Hambirrao’s cavalry swooped down upon it, massacred the Mughal garrison drove off d entire herd of elephants! … Shivaji had massacred Afzal Khan’s army in the forests below Pratapgad. It was Sarja’s turn now. Hambirrao drew Sarja Khan’s army deeper into the dense jungles around Mahabaleshwar & suddenly fell upon them. … The Mughals were completely surrounded & massacred. But just at that moment of a decisive victory a most tragic event happened. Hambirrao was hit by a stray gun shot & fell dead.”. - “Then the Mogol mined two of the hill slopes leading up to Mahabaleshwar plateau where the Maharattas were stationed and filling them with explosives, detonated it. Shaken by these two explosions the Maharattas began to flee helter-skelter. The Mogols soon rolled their heavy artillery and opened heavy fire on Hambirrao’s army. Hambirrao realized that his men would not hold out much longer and a defeat more or less guaranteed the end the Maharatta resistance to the Mogols in Maharashtra. Unless he turned the tide right there there was no hope stopping the Mogols from marching right through. With a chosen group of 100 ace commandos he rushed straight at Sarja Khan with the aim of killing him. This Maharatta band fought with unbelievable fury leaving a lane of blood and severed heads through the Mogol army. The swordsmanship of Mohite was unrivalled as he cut deep into the Mogol troops bringing down all before him and reaching the artillery line. His men fell upon the Mogol heavy artillery and destroyed the operators and wetted the powder. Seeing the tables turning, the fleeing rank and file of the Maharatta army recovered and fell upon the Mogols with renewed fury. The Mogols were completely swept away by the attack destroyed. However, in the midst of this Sarja Khan surrounded Hambirrao. The Mohite’s horse was shot down under him, but he continued fighting on foot and struck Sarja with his sword killing him. He was attacked on all sides and his strength was ebbing from the cuts he received. But leaning against a tree Hambirrao continued fighting keeping the Moslem assilants at bay till head was finally cut off. However, the surge of the Maharatta army was so great that the Mogol army was completely destroyed.” [MT] - “But the cost of this last great victory of the Maharatta army in Sambhaji’s reign was most expensive. In intelligent leadership, knowledge of the terrain and strategy, Hambirrao had been unmatched. Further, he was the only one who had dared to challenge Kalash and mitigate his negative effect on Sambhaji. As Kincaid the British commentator states, had the brave Hambirrao lived he had all the skill and resources to repulse the Mogol offensive. But with his death the Maharatta army in Maharashtra became rudderless. This was followed soon after by Sambhaji’s capture and execution by the Mogols.”