History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c12.94

v1.c12.94

Next, Shah Jahan quickly lost patience and complained of Aurangzib’s failure to restore cultivation and prosperity in the Deccan. Aurangzib rightly answered that it was too early to judge him. “I have always tried to extend tillage and increase the number of houses; but as I am not a vain man I have not reported it to you. A country that has been desolated by various calamities cannot be made flourishing in two or three years!...How can I, in one season or two, bring back to cultivation a *parganah* which has been unproductive of revenue for twenty years?” But Shah Jahan was not satisfied. He often made caustic remarks in open Court about Aurangzib’s promise of restoring prosperity to the Deccan and the wretched condition of the province. He even contemplated a change of viceroys as likely to mend matters, and asked Shuja if he would accept the *subahdari* of the Deccan as Aurangzib could not govern the province well.†