Sacking of Burhanpur

The sacking of Burhanpur (31 January 1681 - 2 February 1681) refers to the looting of the wealthy city of Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh by the Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. The Maratha army commanded by Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Sersenapati Sarlashkar Hambirrao Mohite attacked and plundered the city for three days. The Marathas got a huge loot and returned to Raigad by evading Mughal forces. Marathas also sacked Aurangabad after this sack. This event caused the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to turn his expedition towards the Deccan, which caused the Execution of Sambhaji.^[1]

Battle of Burhanpur (1681)
Part of Mughal-Maratha Wars
Date 31 January – 2 February 1681 (1681-01-31 – 1681-02-02) (2 days) Location Burhanpur, Burhanpur District Madhya Pradesh 21.3°N 76.23°E / 21.3; 76.23 Result Maratha victory
Belligerents
Maratha Empire	Mughal Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sambhaji Hambirrao Mohite Kavi Kalash Suryaji Jake	Bahadur Khan Kokaltash Kakar Khan (POW)

Sacking of Burhanpur

Hambirrao Mohite reached the forests near Burhanpur with a 15,000-strong cavalry force. Kakar Khan gathered civilian forces and decided to attack Hambirrao at midnight. As he came out of the city gates, Sambhaji Maharaj himself attacked from the old trenches with a cavalry force of 4,000. Sambhaji Maharaj's force routed the ill-prepared Mughal garrison. Sambhaji Maharaj then left 200-300 soldiers at the main city gate and left for Bahadurpura, the richest suburb of the city. Sambhaji Maharaj started to loot the houses of the richest merchants which were shown to him by his spies. Hambirrao's force soon joined Sambhaji Maharaj and the combined Maratha force started looting the city. Hambirrao, then sealed the city's entrances to ensure that the word of the attack did not spread. Marathas looted the city consecutively for three days. Marathas earned a loot estimated to be around 2 crore rupees.^[2][3][4]

Movies

The sacking is depicted in the opening scenes of the 2025 Hindi film Chhaava.