[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937) › v4.c19.56 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.56 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.56 - **Language:** English ### [v4.c19.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.56) Aurangzīb was the champion of Muslim orthodoxy, and yet he had to wage many wars with his fanatical Muslim subjects of the north-western frontier. The causes were political and economic, not religious. The Afghān clans living in and around the passes leading out of India into Afghānistān have followed highway robbery as a hereditary profession from time immemorial. Their fields yield too scanty a sustenance for their fast growing numbers, and stout hearts, strong muscles and cunning brains do not remain satisfied with the poor and slow gains of agriculture, as compared with the plunder of industrious and tame plainsmen and of rich traders passing within easy reach. The Mughul emperors had learnt by bitter experience that it was cheaper to bribe these hillmen, as a means of keeping the passes open and the valleys at their foot safe, than to coerce the robbers. A sum of 600,000 rupees was annually allotted by Aurangzīb's government for paying subsidies to the various border chieftains and headmen of families. But even these political pensions did not always ensure peace on the frontier. In every generation some leader of ungratified ambition would gather together a band of fiery youths and raid the imperial territory or the villages of his rivals. The pressure of growing population made peace and a static condition impossible on this frontier. - [Previous: v4.c19.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.55) - [Next: v4.c19.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.57) - [Up: v4.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.56) · Pramāṇa