New History of the Marathas v2.c24.83

v2.c24.83

1. Imperial politics favour Shahu.—Shahu’s position as King of the Marathas came to be stabilized during the six years that elapsed between his release and the appointment of Balaji Vishwanath to the Peshwaship. But Maratha politics received special vigour not so much through domestic occurrences, as from the many momentous and rapid changes that came over the Court of Delhi after Bahadur Shah’s death on 17th February 1712. His successor Jahandar Shah suffered a sad fate within less than a year, and Farrukhsiyar came to occupy the throne on 17th January 1713, mainly with the support of the well-known Saiyad brothers, Abdulla and Husain Ali, who put to death the old experienced general Zulfiqar Khan, who had an eye on the Deccan and who, if he had lived, would possibly have established his rule at Haidarabad. The six years of Farrukhsiyar’s reign were taken up by intrigues and counter-intrigues between him and these two powerful ministers, each doing his utmost to contrive the other’s ruin. The Saiyad brothers possessed not only power but talents of a rare order combined with administrative capacity. If they had been given a free hand, they could possibly have raised the tone of the decaying Mughal administration, and brought it to the level of that of Bahadur Shah. But the Mughal house came to be hopelessly divided and afforded the Marathas their coveted chance to expand themselves in all directions outside their national frontiers.