History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c66.s4.8

v4.c66.s4.8

But his attitude to his suzerain had been one of covert disloyalty bursting, on three occasions, into open rebellion, though varied by the offer of presents at intervals. His faults were many. First, the war-indemnity promised in the treaty of April 1656 (ante, i. Ch. 10 § 12) and the older annual tribute of two lakhs of hun, were perpetually in arrears; but that was the normal condition of vassal States during the Mughal period.. Secondly, for a long time past he had made persistent attempts to keep in his own hands the extensive jagir,—almost equivalent to a kingdom,—which Mir Jumla had won in the Karnatak when in his service, (ante, i. Ch. 10 § 14,) and he had taken advantage of the war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons to wrest Gandikota and Sidhout from Mir Jumla's agents. But after the second anniversary of his coronation, Aurangzib had recovered these places. In more recent times, when the Mughals captured Kulbarga, in the declining days of Bijapur, the officers of Qutb Shah had seized Malkhed, Serum, and some other districts beyond their western border and politically appertaining to the new Mughal province of Bidar, after raising the false plea that these tracts had formerly belonged to Telingana and were therefore lawfully included in the kingdom of Golkonda. (K.K. ii. 293.)