History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c44.s3.6

v3.c44.s3.6

The first serious attempt to enforce peace on the n. w. frontier was made by Akbar. Incautious Mughal commanders suffered losses, and the terrible disaster of February 1586, when an army of 8,000 men under Rajah Birbal was cut off in a Swat defile, created a terror of Afghan prowess and aversion to hill fighting throughout the imperial dominions. The defeat was, no doubt, soon avenged by Rajput valour and skill, but the Mughals had finally to patch up a peace by pensioning the tribal leaders and overlooking their depredations. Under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, the same state of things continued, varied by occasional risings of the clans, which cost the Mughals dear. The march of vast armies from India into Afghanistan for the wars in Balkh and Qandahar awed the frontiersmen into peace for a time in the middle of the 17th century. But there was a revival of trouble in the closing years of Shah Jahan's reign. With the accession of Aurangzib the evil grew worse.*