New History of the Marathas v1.c18.78

v1.c18.78

Rājārām during 1698 and the next year made an extensive tour of his country, established contact with local officers and the guardians of forts, and cheered up by his personal presence the drooping spirits of his wearied soldiers. During this tour of inspection, he discovered clear evidence of the decline of the Mughal power. The Emperor was already too old to control the extensive and conflicting elements of his government. Every soldier was tired of the war in which the Emperor obstinately persisted and in which no Mughal had any heart. The Emperor's sons and officers looked more to their personal prospects than to the details of war and thought only of the eventual changes that were sure to follow the Emperor's death. Buland Bakht, the Raja of Devgad, who like the Maratha kings, was manfully resisting Mughal aggression in his territory, sent his agents to Rājārām proposing a combined attack upon the northern possessions of the Emperor. Rājārām thereupon deputed Nemāji Sinde with some other chiefs to ravage Khandesh and Berar and exact *Chauth* from those districts. Early in 1699 Nemāji encountered the Mughal governor of Talner, Husain Ali Khan, captured him in a sanguinary action and released him after exacting a fine of two lacs from him. This news distressed the Emperor beyond measure.