History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s2.3

v4.c58.s2.3

These European historians further maintain that it would have been wiser for Aurangzib to have left Bijapur and Golkonda in independence to serve as the police of the Deccan against the growing Maratha lawlessness which finally proved too strong for the Mughals. This view also attaches too much importance to mere appearances and names and is based on ignorance of the true political condition of the Deccan during the period in question. By the time Shivaji had succeeded in forming a national State as a nucleus round which the Maratha chiefs hitherto in Muslim pay might cluster, the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golkonda had arrived at the last stage of decline. Their kings were mere puppets sunk in pleasure, their capitals ran blood during the frequent faction-fights for the office of wazir, the administration had utterly broken down, law and order had disappeared, the provincial governors had become independent, the generals were selling themselves to the highest bidder. In the touching words of the last historian of Bijapur, "No man from *sardar* down to *ryot* ate his bread for a single day in peace; none from the Sultan down to the pauper slept for a single night in happiness." (B. S. 523.) And such Governments were expected by Elphinstone to tame Shambhuji and chastise Shanta Ghorpare more effectually than Aurangzib himself could do!