History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c6.3

v1.c6.3

Towards the close of Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire began to extend beyond the Narmada river, which had so long been its southern boundary, except for the coast-strip running from Guzerat to Surat. Khandesh, the rich Tapti valley, was annexed in the year 1599.* Taking advantage of the discord and weakness reigning in Ahmadnagar, Akbar wrested from it Berar, the southern portion of the present Central Provinces. The murder of the heroic Chand Bibi by her factious nobles delivered the city of Ahmadnagar into his hands (1600); the boy Sultan was deposed and the kingdom annexed.† Thus in a few years the Mughal frontier had been pushed from the Narmada to the upper courses of the Krishna river (here called the Bhimá). But the annexation was in form only. The new territory was too large to be effectively governed or even fully conquered. Everywhere, especially in the south and the west, local officers of the old dynasty refused to obey the conqueror, or began to set up puppet princes as a screen for their self-assertion. The Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda seized the adjacent districts of their fallen neighbour.