History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t2.4

v5.c84.s1.t2.4

The repeated victories of Man Singh and, even more than these, his spirit of moderation in victory and natural desire to spare old houses, had maintained peace in Bengal during Akbar's last years. But with the accession of Jahangir (1605) and the recall of Man Singh from Bengal (1606) a change in the situation became inevitable. The change was, however, precipitated and intensified by the character of the Emperor's new viceroy, Islam Khan, who governed the province for six years, (May 1608—11 August 1613). A most ambitious active and high-spirited noble, he gave himself royal airs and could not brook the least insubordination in any zamindar. By a series of campaigns, which have been most graphically described in the memoirs of his general Mirza Sahin Shitab Khan,—he crushed all the independent zamindars of Bengal, destroyed the last remnant of Afghan power in Mymensingh, Sylhet and Orissa, and imposed full Mughal peace and direct imperial administration upon all the parts of Bengal. This revolutionary and beneficent change was completed by the year 1613. Thereafter Bengal enjoyed profound internal peace for nearly a century and a half, because the wars with Kuch Bihar, Kamrup, and Assam were all outside the province, the rebellious incursion of Prince Shah Jahan (1624) was a quickly passing blast, and the piratical raids from Chatgaon in the rivers of the Delta and the contest between Aurangzib and Shuja (1659-1660) touched only the southern and western fringes of the province.