The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.49

v4.c20.49

The fall of Gingee enabled Aurangzib to concentrate all his resources in the western theatre of war, and now began the last stage of his career, the siege of successive Marāthā forts by the emperor in person. The rest of his life is a repetition of the same sickening tale: a hill-fort captured by him in person after a vast expenditure of time, men and money, the fort recovered by the Marāthās from the weak Mughul garrison after a few months, and its siege begun again a year or two later. His soldiers and camp-followers suffered unspeakable hardship in marching over flooded rivers, muddy roads and broken hilly tracks; porters disappeared, transport beasts died of hunger and overwork, scarcity of grain was ever present in the camp and the Marāthā and Berad "thieves" (as he officially called them) not far off. The mutual jealousies of his generals ruined his cause or delayed his success. The siege of eight forts, Sātārā, Parlī, Panhālā, Khelnā (= Vishālgarh), Kondhānā (= Sinhgarh), Rājgarh, Tornā and Wāgingerā, besides five places of lesser note, occupied him for five years and a half (1699–1705), after which the broken down old man of eighty-eight retired to die.