History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s4: § 4. Causes of Mughal weakness in the Deccan.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s4
- Language
- English
§ 4. Causes of Mughal weakness in the Deccan.
v4.c58.s4.1
From January 1658 when Aurangzib left the Deccan to contest his father's throne till March 1682 when he returned to the South to wear out the last quarter century of his life in ceaseless warfare, a period of 24 years intervened, during which there were five viceroys of the Mughal province of Deccan, among whom Prince Shah Alam held the office for 11 years, Bahadur Khan for 6 years, Shaista Khan for 4, Jai Singh for nearly two, and Dilir Khan for one year. During these twenty-four years the Mughals pursued a vigorous forward policy against Bijapur only under Jai Singh (1666), Bahadur Khan (1676—77), and Dilir Khan (1679—80). Military operations against the Marathas were actively carried on by Shaista Khan (1660—62), Jai Singh (1665), Mahabat Khan (1671—72), Bahadur Khan (1673—75), and by Dilir Khan for a short while in 1678—79. A state of war between Shivaji and the Mughals existed for a much longer period, but during most of it the imperial generals acted languidly, so as to hoodwink their distant master, while maintaining a secret understanding with Shivaji (and, later, with Shambhuji) and accepting bribes from him. From Shivaji's side the attacks on Mughal territory were more frequent, though twice or thrice varied by pretended submission to the Emperor, with a view to outwitting the Mughal viceroy of the Deccan and lulling him into inactivity or friendliness.
v4.c58.s4.2
Only a few clear successes but no decisive result was achieved by the Mughal arms in the Deccan during these 24 years. The cause of this failure was partly personal and partly political. Shah Alam was a timid unenterprising prince, inclined by nature to peace with his neighbours and the pleasures of the harem or the chase. But even if he had been made of sterner stuff, success would have been beyond his power, because his father suspected him of a design to rebel and often saddled him with a refractory lieutenant like Dilir Khan, whose open defiance of his authority made the viceregal camp in the Deccan as powerless as a country torn by civil war. Shah Alam and Dilir always worked at cross purposes and thus ensured Mughal failure in the Deccan.
v4.c58.s4.3
Secondly, the imperial officers were heartily sick of the ceaseless war with Shiva, the hardships of campaigning in the Mavals and Konkan or besieging Maratha hill-forts, and in constant dread of his deadly surprise attacks. The Hindu officers in Mughal pay secretly fraternized with the Deccani champion of Hinduism,—the defender of cows and Brahmans, of *tilak* and *tiki*, (as his laureate Bhushan called him); while several of the Muslim generals were glad to bribe him to let them live in peace. Above all, no Mughal governor of the Deccan was supplied with men and money even half adequate to the task of defeating Bijapur and the Marathas, as the vast military and financial resources that Aurangzib had to employ against these two monarchies during his final campaigns in 1685—89 clearly proved.
v4.c58.s4.4
The rebellion of Prince Akbar, though it was fostered by the Rajputs and originated, grew to fulness and expired in Northern India,—changed the history of the Deccan and hastened the fate of the Mughal empire as well. His flight to Shambhuji raised a danger to the throne of Delhi which could be met only by Aurangzib's personal appearance in the South. But for this alliance between the "Disturber of India" and "the infernal son of the infernal infidel,"—as Aurangzib called the two,—the Emperor would probably have let Deccan affairs follow their wonted course; he would have left Bijapur and Golkonda to be occasionally threatened and fleeced by his generals, who were open to bribes, and his sons, who lacked his own remorseless ambition and tireless energy. At all events, after Jai Singh's costly failure (in 1666), he could not have been easily induced to risk all the material resources and armed strength of the empire on the speculative Deccan adventure, and without such expenditure Bijapur and Golkonda could never have been forcibly annexed. The Maratha king would have been tolerated by Aurangzib as a necessary evil, or even encouraged as a thorn in the side of the Bijapuris and therefore really an ally of the Mughals, —which was the very policy towards Shiva advocated by the astute Jai Singh. And the monarchy built up by Shivaji's genius would have naturally fallen down when that master-mind was withdrawn, if Bijapur and Golkonda had not been driven by a common danger into the arms of Shambhuji.
v4.c58.s4.5
But Akbar's flight to the Deccan forced a complete change on the imperial policy in that quarter. The first task of Aurangzib now was to crush the power of Shambhuji and render Akbar impotent for mischief. For this he patched up a hurried peace with the Maharana (June 1681) and left for the Deccan to direct the operations of his armies there in person.