History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t7.16

v5.c84.s1.t7.16

In fear of Murshid Quli, the ruling chiefs on the frontiers of Bengal began to pay their due tributes punctually. They all felt that a strong master had come to the province. He collected the revenue by his own agents directly and thus saved the profits which middlemen or zamindars used to make. "He did not go to the expense of maintaining a provincial militia or [large] regular army. Two thousand cavalry and five thousand infantry were sufficient for all his purposes. ......The orders of Murshid Quli Khan were so absolute that the most refractory men trembled in his presence, and his commands were so implicitly obeyed that it was sufficient to send a footman to sequester an estate or to punish an offender at a distance. He did not allow the inferior zamindars even public audience, nor permit the Rajahs to be seated in his presence. Two days in the week he administered justice in person, and was so impartial in his decisions and rigid in their execution that no one dared to commit oppression.......He did not place absolute confidence in his accountants, but himself examined the daily accounts of the receipts expenditure and balances and then signed them." Defaulting zamindars were put to unspeakable kinds of torture in order to make them pay the Government dues. [Gladwin.]