History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c74.s14.25

v5.c74.s14.25

Zulfiqar Khan renewed the siege of Jinji towards the close of the year 1694, but it was a mere show intended to deceive the Emperor. The fact of his treasonable collusion with the Marathas was notorious in the country. Francois Martin, the founder of Pondicherry, who was in close and constant touch with the Court of Jinji "frequently in his letters and Memoirs, expressed the opinion that Zulfiqar Khan had, during the course and particularly at the end of the siege of Jinji, an understanding with Rajaram; in expectation of the death of the very old Aurangzib and the civil wars that would fatally follow among his sons, he had conceived the ambition of carving out for himself an independent principality, and with that object he wished to placate (manage) the Marathas." (Kaeppelin, 295 n.) So, too, the English merchants of Madras record on 5th November 1696: "Zulfiqar Khan has been frequently ordered to take Jinji, and it has been in his power to do so and destroy all the Marathas in the country. But instead of that it appears plain that he hath joined council with them." Even Bhimsen, the right-hand man of Zulfiqar's right-hand man Dalpat Rao, frankly charges the Khan with treasonable neglect of duty: "If he had wished it, he could have captured the fort on the very day that he reached Jinji. But it is the practice of generals to prolong operations (for their own profit and ease)." And, again, "God alone knows what policy he adopted." [Dil., 123a and 106a.] Manucci says the same thing [iii. 271.]