The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.5

v4.c21.5

It was a splendid heritage into which Āsaf Jāh had entered. The six Deccan provinces had a standard revenue of 160 million rupees, against 170 million from the other twelve provinces of the Indian empire taken together; and though the actual collection here had now fallen to 130 million or even less, it was still larger than what came to the impoverished exchequer of Delhi, and was capable of rapid improvement under an orderly and beneficent administration. For the land in the old Qutb Shāhī kingdom was exceedingly fertile and its wealth had excited the cupidity of prince Aurangzīb in 1654, when he described it to his father as “a spacious kingdom, well cultivated, rich in mines of diamond, crystal etc.—a money-yielding country, unmatched by the imperial dominions”. Its annexe of the eastern Carnatic was proverbially rich, “a kingdom by itself”. Bījāpur, though less favoured by nature, was enriched by the tributes of a wide belt of vassal states on its south and west, which made it the richest among the six provinces, Hyderābād being a close second. The population in Hyderābād and Berār was dense and industrious. Such a soil required only peace to yield gold, and that peace Āsaf Jāh’s long and uninterrupted rule for a quarter of a century assured to it.