Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s3.6

v1.c13.s3.6

The prospect after the death of Muhammad Shah became even more gloomy than before. That monarch's habitual indolence and neglect of the administration had inevitably brought about military impotence and financial bankruptcy. There being no longer any common master to be feared and no protector to be appealed to, each noble took what he could of the public revenue; each zamindar usurped lands in his neighbourhood or levied blackmail on the roads and villages outside his jurisdiction. The Marāthas possessed themselves of the frontier provinces in the south, while their annual raids into Bengal and Orissa cut off the revenue supply from these provinces after 1746. Thus, the treasury became empty and the most abject poverty and distress subjected the Emperor and his family to public humiliation.