The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.109

v4.c20.109

At the death of Aurangzīb (1707) his empire consisted of twenty-one *sūbas* or separate provinces, of which fourteen were situated in Hindūstān (viz. Āgra, Ajmer, Allahābād, Bengal, Bihār, Delhi, Gujarāt, Kashmīr, Lahore, Mālwā, Multān, Orissa, Oudh and Tatta or Sindh), and six in the Deccan (namely, Aurangābād, Berār, Bīdar or Telingāna, Bījāpur, Hyderābād and Khāndesh), while one, namely Kābul, lay in what now forms Afghānistān. Another *sūba*, Qandahār or south Afghānistān, had been long lost, and even Kābul was a barren possession, being assessed at a revenue of only four million rupees, little of which was ever realised. The empire embraced, in the north, Kashmīr and all Afghānistān from the Hindukush southwards to a line thirty-six miles south of Ghaznī; on the west coast it stretched in theory to the northern frontier of Goa and inland to Belgaum and the Tungabhadrā river. Thereafter, the boundary passed west to east in a disputed and ever shifting line through the centre of Mysore, dipping south-eastwards to the Coleroon river (north of Tanjore). In the north-east Chittagong and the Monās river (west of Gauhātī) divided it from Arakan and Assam. But throughout Mahārāshtra, Kanara, Mysore and the eastern Carnatic the emperor's rule was disputed and most places had to submit to a double set of masters.