New History of the Marathas v1.c6.69

v1.c6.69

At the beginning of his reign Shah Jahan was full of vigour and activity, and not the luxury-loving pacific monarch he developed into in his later years. During his father's regime he had repeatedly distinguished himself in his expeditions to the Deccan, the circumstances and situation of which he had thoroughly grasped. He well knew the policy of Malik Ambar and the power and influence of Shahji and the other Bhosles. He was personally acquainted with the geographical formation of the districts of Nasik, Junnar and north Konkan and the declining condition of the Kingdom of Ahmadnagar. The first subject that attracted his attention after his coronation, was the subjugation of the Deccan, particularly the Nizamshahi state which had so long dragged on a precarious existence and which had successfully defied the might of both Akbar and Jahangir for a quarter of a century. Shah Jahan rightly judged that the troubles of the Deccan were the creation of Khan Jahan Lodi’s mischievous policy and set himself to right them. It is this Mughal expansion in the south which first Shahji and later his son Shivaji undertook to resist. Shah Jahan, however, took nine years to accomplish the conquest of Ahmadnagar, contrary to his expectation of a short campaign.