The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.107

v4.c19.107

Golconda may be left out of our account. ‘Abdullah Qutb Shāh (reigned 1626–72) was throughout his life indolent and almost imbecile, and his narrow escape from assassination by Aurangzīb’s son in 1656 gave him such a fright that he “lost all mental energy and ceased to hold the reins of government, or even to appear outside the walls of the fortress of Golconda” ever afterwards. All his time was given to ingenious forms of sensuality, while his mother and afterwards his son-in-law conducted the actual administration throughout his reign. His successor, Abu-’l-Hasan surnamed Tānā Shāh, was equally indolent and pleasure-loving, though possessed of a more delicate and artistic taste; under him his Brāhman ministers Mādanna and Ākkanna freely misgoverned the realm, following the traditional foreign policy of outward loyalty to the Mughuls with the addition of a secret defensive alliance with Shivājī in return for a subsidy of 500,000 rupees a year.