Akbar had been trying to cajole Sambhaji into joining him and the Rajputs (Hindus) against Agra.

Aurangzeb and the court had therefore come to the Deccan in 1681, living in a vast tent city thirty miles in circumference while Aurangzeb acted as his own commander-in-chief.

Aurangzeb was initially successful, but not against the Marathas, who raid from their forts.

Instead, he has attempted to cut off the Hindu Marathas from Muslim Bijapur and Golconda, which are, as a result of earlier Mughal offensives, similarly predisposed against Aurangzeb.

With the objective of conquering the Marathas outright, he targets the two principal successor states to the Muslim sultanate of Bahmani in the Deccan, seizing the dying Sunnite sultanate of Bijapur in 1686.