History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s2.2

v4.c58.s2.2

European historians like Elphinstone have charged Aurangzib with political blindness because he destroyed Bijapur and Golkonda first, instead of crushing the Maratha power with the help of these two States. (*Hist. of India*, 6th ed., p. 649.) But this criticism misses the cardinal fact of Deccan politics in the 17th century. From the day when the Emperor Akbar launched forth into a policy of conquest south of the Vindhyas to the day 94 years later, when Aurangzib rode in triumph into the fallen capital of the last of the Qutb-Shahis, the Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda could never for a moment forget that the sleepless aim of the Mughal Emperor was their final extinction and the annexation of all their territories. They had at all times had Maratha auxiliaries,—Shahji Bhonslé was only the most eminent among many such,—and now they found in the genius of Shivaji and the reckless audacity of Shambhuji their only shield in the hour of supreme danger. A union of hearts between Bijapur or Golkonda and the Mughal empire was a psychological impossibility.