History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c58.s4.2

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.