"After desecrating Tuljapur, the Bijapur general, Afzal Khan marched to Pandharpur with a cavalry of 10,000, and destroyed all the images he could find. The temple priests had, however, learnt of the sacrilege at Tuljapur, and removed the image of Vithoba before Afzal Khan’s arrival. According to the nineteenth century Sivadigvijaya bakher, the head priest of Pandharpur sent a missive to Shivaji, It is your fond ambition to establish the Hindu faith; but the king of the Yavanas has sent a general to punish you. He has oppressed in various manners the Hindus, Brahmanas and cows of Tuljapur and Pandharpur. If you can protect us from his tyranny, then alone will Hinduism prosper...Otherwise...what shall we do in that case but commit suicide and throw upon you the sin thereof? But if this message fires you with rightful wrath, and you exert your valour and punish the Yavanas, a quarter of what virtue we have acquired in the past and may win in future by our religious performances will be yours; but for our sins we alone shall suffer."