History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c62.s1.1

v4.c62.s1.1

Military revolt was the curse of the Bijapur sultanate. It had itself originated in the assertion of independence by a foreign general of the decadent Bahmani empire, and the decline of its own royal power was attended by the same dismemberment of the kingdom into a number of military fiefs. The State was not national; it did not try to strike its roots in the soil. The government was a pure military occupation and its power was upheld by a number of mercenary generals among whom all offices of power and trust were divided. The chief races who formed the dominant aristocracy were the Afghans (with their fiefs in the western parts, from Kopal to Bankapur), the Abyssinians (ruling over the eastern province, viz., the Karnul district and a part of the Raichur Doab), the Sayyids who headed the Mahdavi sect, and the Arab Mullas of the Navaiyat clan of Konkan. The Hindus, both public servants and vassal Rajahs, were a depressed class, and the highest among them, such as Shahji Bhonslé and Venkatadri, had no secure standing or protection from outrage when oppressed by the Muslim nobles.