History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c78.s5.2

v5.c78.s5.2

Thus a second regency ensued in the Maratha kingdom; but it was of a different kind from the earlier regency of 1689-1697. There was no longer a grown-up king or regular Court, as a final authority and source of reference, even in distant Jinji. The new king was a minor, a mere child; nor was his right undisputed among his subjects, as his half-brother Shambhuji II was set up as his rival for the throne. The supreme guiding force in Maharashtra now was not any minister but the dowager queen Tara Bai Mohité. Her administrative genius and strength of character saved the nation in the awful crisis that threatened it in consequence of Rajaram's death, the disputed succession to his throne, and Aurangzib's unbroken victories from 1699 to 1701. Already in her husband's lifetime she had displayed masculine energy and intelligence, and begun to draw the threads of the administration into her own hands. The hostile Muslim historian Khafi Khan is constrained to call her wise, enterprising, expert in administration, and popular with the army. The entire Mughal camp had exulted on first hearing the news of Rajaram's death, "as if the roots of the Maratha disturbance had been thereby cut away. Alas! they knew not God's will. Under Tara Bai's guidance,* Maratha activity began to increase daily." [K. K. ii. 469.] "She took into her own hands the control of all affairs,—such as the appointment and change of generals, cultivation of the country and planning raids into Mughal territory. She made such arrangements for sending troops to ravage the six subahs of the Deccan, nay even up to Sironj and Mandesor in Malwa,—and winning the hearts of her officers, that all the efforts of Aurangzib against the Marathas down to the end of his reign failed." [Ibid, 516.]