Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c11.8

v1.c11.8

War is the only profession for which the Rājput gentleman and noble is fitted by character, tradition and training; and land is the only possession that can give him a life of honour and comfort. But when the Mughal empire reached its fullest expansion and the later Emperors became too timid to embark on new wars and too pleasure-loving to maintain large armies for defence, the Rajput manhood became doomed to unemployment idleness and vice. No honourable and lucrative career abroad was left open to them. Confined within the narrow limits of their sterile homes, they turned their swords against one another. Civil war raged in every family, which quickly involved the neighbouring States as the allies of one or other of the rivals. Every prince's land-hunger at the expense of his neighbours now burst forth, heedless of consequences. The Marātha and the Pindhāri ravaged the land. This sickening tale continued for over eighty years, and the sacrifice of the Indian Iphigenia, Krishna Kumāri, was only one among the many tragedies that blackened Rajput history during this truly dark age. Disorder, public plunder, economic ruin, and moral degradation were the chronic condition of Rājasthān from the declining years of Muhammad Shāh to the day when British suzerainty was accepted by the land and British peace came at last to heal the wounds of the long suffering race. War, domestic and foreign, ceased, and since then the martial manhood of Rājputāna has sunk into the placid sleep of opium, for