Later Mughals v2.c17.s1.4

v2.c17.s1.4

The loss caused by domestic discord among the Mughals themselves was multiplied by the slaughter in operations against rebels like the Sikhs, Jats, Bundelas and Mahrattas and on two occasions against the Rathors. The gaps thus created in the ranks of the martial nobility were not filled by the natural succession of worthy offspring, nor by the rise of new men from the commonalty and recruits from abroad in sufficient number and of the right quality. To the thoughtful student of Mughal history nothing is more striking than the decline of the peerage. The heroes adorn the stage for one generation only and leave no worthy heirs sprung from their loins. Abdur-rahim and Mahabat, Sadullah and Mir Jumla, Ibrahim and Islam Khan Rumi,—who had made the history of India in the 17th century, —were succeeded by no son, certainly by no grandson even half as capable as themselves. In reading the huge biographical dictionary of the Mughal peerage (the Masir-ul-umara in 3 volumes of 900 pages each), one frequently comes across such entries as these: "This nobleman (naming a general or minister of the first rank) died in such and such a year; he left two sons who did not attain to much advancement" or that "he had three sons none of whom did anything worthy of being recorded here." Often, while the career of the founder of the family occupies eight or ten pages in this dictionary, his son's achievements are exhausted in half a page, and the grandson meets with a bare mention which he earns merely because he is his father's son.