History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c72.s4: § 6. The Emperor's stay at Islampuri, 1695-1699.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c72.s4
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§ 6. The Emperor's stay at Islampuri, 1695-1699.
v5.c72.s4.1
Therefore, in May 1695 he sent his eldest son to govern the north-western portion of the empire (the Panjab, Sindh, and afterwards Afghanistan) and to guard the western gateway of India, while he himself settled at Islampuri in as much permanence of residence as the military situation and his age (now verging on eighty) allowed. This place was his last abode, because though he actually lived here for the next 4½ years only, it remained ever after as his home and stronghold, the base (*bungah*) at the back of his campaigns.
v5.c72.s4.2
During the Islampuri period (1695-1699), the Maratha danger came nearer home and drove the Mughals into the defensive in the Marathi and Kanarese districts of the present Bombay Presidency. The movements of the roving bands under Santa Ghorpare, Dhana Jadav and their imitators were bewilderingly rapid and unexpected. The Mughals could not defend every place; their pursuing columns panted helplessly behind the "robbers" and wore themselves out in vain. Local representatives of the Emperor, who had learnt by bitter experience that aid could not be expected from their master in time,—and sometimes ever at all,—made unauthorised terms with the Marathas by promising them an annual blackmail of one-fourth of the revenue (*chauth.*) They were still more urged to do it by the fact that if the Marathas looted a district the Emperor ordered his local governor to make the loss good to the victims! If a Mughal officer resisted the Marathas and was defeated and captured by them, he had to provide his own ransom, and the Emperor would often dismiss such unfortunate sufferers on the suspicion of cowardice. Hence, it was safer for a Mughal commander to bribe the Marathas than to fight them; certainly, it was cheaper. Worse than these, many imperialists made a concert with the enemy and enriched themselves by robbing the Emperor's own subjects a innocent traders, as these officers had been starving at getting no rent from their devastated fiefs. The Mughal administration had really dissolved, and only the presence of the Emperor with all his troops in the country held it together, but it was now a delusive phantom. Santa and Dhana were the heroes of this period; the initiative lay entirely with them, and they upset every plan and calculation formed by the imperialists.
v5.c72.s4.3
The chief incidents of this Islampuri period were Santa's destruction of two great Mughal generals, Qasim Khan (Nov. 1695) and Himmat Khan (Jan. 1696), the murder of Santa in a domestic feud (June 1697), the Mughal capture of Jinji (7 Jan. 1698), and the return of Rajaram to Maharashtra.
v5.c72.s4.4
§ 7. Aurangzib's last campaigns, 1699-1705.
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This last event forced a change on Aurangzib's policy. Safe in the undisputed possession of the east coast, he could now concentrate all his resources in the western theatre of war. Such a change of objective had become necessary too, as the head and centre of the Maratha power had once more shifted to the west and he could destroy it only by seizing their king's forts and family in Maharashtra and thus repeating once again, but in a more decisive and final form, the success that had followed his capture of Shambhuji and his capital in 1689.
v5.c72.s4.6
Now, therefore, began the last stage of Aurangzib's career,—the sieges of successive Maratha forts by the Emperor in person. The rest of his life (1699-1707) is a repetition of the same sickening tale : a hill-fort captured by him after a vast expenditure of time men and money, the fort recovered by the Marathas from the weak Mughal garrison after a few months, and its siege begun again by the Mughals a year or two later! His soldiers and camp-followers suffered unspeakable hardships in marching over flooded rivers, muddy roads, and broken hilly tracks ; porters disappeared ; transport beasts died of hunger and overwork ; scarcity of grain was ever present in his camp. His officers wearied of this labour of Sisyphus ; but Aurangzib would burst into wrath at any suggestion of return to Northern India and taunt the unlucky counsellor with cowardice and love of ease [Ahkam §46.] One by one the old able and independent officers and courtiers of his earlier years had passed away, and he was now surrounded only by timid sycophants and upstart nobles of his own creation, who could never venture to contradict him in his errors, nor give him honest counsel. The mutual jealousies of his generals—Nusrat Jang against Firuz Jang, Shujaet Khan against Muhammad Murad, Tarbiyat Khan against Fathullah Khan,—ruined his affairs as completely as the French cause in the Peninsular War was ruined by the jealousies of Napoleon's marshals. Therefore, the Emperor must conduct every operation in person, or nothing would be done.
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A bare list of his sieges is given below :— Basant-garh (siege, 22nd—25th Nov. 1699). Satara (siege, 8 Dec. 1699—21 April 1700). Parli-garh (siege, 30 April—9 June). Halt at Khawaspur for the rainy season of 1700 (from 30 Aug.) Panhala (siege, 9 March—28 May, 1701). Pavan-garh (do.) Halt at Khatau for the rainy season of 1701 (29 May—7 Nov.) Capture of Wardhan-garh (6 June) Nandgir, Chandan and Wandan (6 Oct.) by Fathullah Khan. Khelna (siege, 26 Dec. 1701—4 June 1702). Halt at Bahadur-garh for the rainy season of 1702. Kondana (siege, 27 Dec. 1702—8 April 1703). Halt at Puna for the rainy season of 1703 (1 May—10 Nov.) Rajgarh (siege, 2 Dec. 1703—16 Feb. 1704). Torna (siege, 23 Feb.—10 March). Halt at Khed for the rainy season of 1704 (17 April—22 Oct.) Wagingera (siege, 8 Feb.—27 April 1705). Halt at Devapur for the rainy season of 1705 (May—23 Oct.)
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This was the last campaign of the old campaigner of eighty-eight, for here he received a warning of what was to come. At Devapur a severe illness seized him, which was aggravated by his insistence on transacting business as usual. The whole camp was thrown into despair and confusion. At length Aurangzib yielded to their entreaty and the warning of approaching death, and retreated to Ahmadnagar (20 January 1706), to die there a year afterwards.