History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t2.2

v5.c84.s1.t2.2

In the midst of this internal decay and exhaustion of the old order, its conquest by Akbar came as a blessing to the province. But it took twenty years to complete the change of masters, and therefore during Akbar's reign Mughal rule in Bengal was more like an armed occupation than a settled administration. His viceroys had to content themselves with the nominal submission of the old independent Afghan princelings and Hindu ruling zamindars, and to leave the actual government of the province to them. The Emperor's subahdars merely received the tributes, but did not establish direct imperial administration over the people, except in the district round the capital and the strategic cities held by their assistants, the faujdars. Over most of the country zamindars and humbled scions of ancient sultans ruled as before, though not with the title and pomp of kings. The Mughal governor's writs did not run beyond the capital city and its environs. The huge though irregular armed forces under the various zamindars remained quiescent but undestroyed. They only waited for some weakening of the Emperor's power, some catastrophe at Delhi, to assert their independence once again. Such an explosion might occur any day. The Mubarak Shahi, Iliyas, Muhammad Shahi, Abyssinian, Sharifi, Sur and Karrani dynasties had each ruled over Bengal for its brief day and then gone. Who could say that the upstart Turki house of Babur would last longer?