History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c85.s2.1

v5.c85.s2.1

The economic drain caused by Aurangzib's quarter century of warfare in the Deccan was appalling in its character and most far-reaching and durable in its effects. The operations of the imperial armies, especially their numerous sieges, led to a total destruction of forests and grass. The huge Mughal forces, totalling 1,70,000 troops according to the official records, with perhaps ten times that number of non-combatants, soon ate up everything green wherever they moved. In addition, the Maratha raiders destroyed whatever they could not carry off, feeding their horses on the standing crops, and burning the houses and property too heavy to be removed. At the siege of Satara, the Marathas had prepared for defence by burning the grass for twenty miles round the fort; while the Mughals in their turn, in building a raised battery opposite the fort tower "had left not a single tree standing within a range of 60 or 80 miles from the place." [M.A. 414.] The mischief was multiplied by the immense number of sieges in which the Mughals engaged in that land of the mountain and the flood. Hence, it is no wonder that when at last in 1705 Aurangzib retired after his last campaign, the country presented a scene of utter desolation. "He left behind him the fields of these provinces devoid of trees and bare of crops, their places being taken by the bones of men and beasts." [*Storia*, iv. 252.]