The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.78

v4.c20.78

The endless wars in which Aurangzīb became involved in the Deccan reacted on the political condition of northern India, which continued during the second half of his reign to be annually drained of its public money and youthful recruits. The rich old provinces of the empire north of the Narbadā were left in charge of second-rate nobles with insufficient troops and the trade routes unguarded. The great royal road leading from Delhi to Āgra and Dholpur, and thence through Mālwā to the Deccan, passed directly through the country of the Jāts, a brave, strong and hardy people, but habitually addicted to plundering. In 1685, these people raised their heads under two new leaders, Rājā Rām and Rām Chehrā, the petty chiefs of Sinsanī and Soghor, who were the first to train their clansmen in group organisation and open warfare. Every Jāt peasant was practised in wielding the staff and the sword; they had only to be embodied in regiments, taught to obey their captains and supplied with fire-arms to make them into an army. As bases for their operations, refuges for their chiefs in defeat, and storing places for their booty, they built several small forts amidst their almost trackless jungles and strengthened them with mud walls that could defy artillery. Then they began to raid the king’s highway and carry their depredations even to the gates of Āgra.