Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c6.s1.2

v1.c6.s1.2

But in the second half of Aurangzib’s reign we first see this natural progress arrested, and then, after a quarter century of heroic struggle by that monarch, when at last he closed his aged eyes in death (1707) we find that decline had unmistakably set in; Indo-Mughal civilization, whose agent was the Empire of Delhi, was now a spent bullet; its life was gone, it had no power for good left in it. But dissolution did not take place immediately after Aurangzib’s death. His wonderful capacity, strength of character, and lifelong devotion to duty had generated a force which held together the frame of the Delhi Government seemingly unchanged for thirty years after him. Whatever might happen in the frontier provinces, the Central Government still stood intact. But with a succession of weaklings and imbeciles on the throne, the downfall of the Empire was bound to come at last. The dry rot in the heart of the Mughal State manifested itself publicly when Bāji Rāo’s cavalry insulted the imperial capital in 1737 and his example invited Nādir Shāh’s invasion and the utter collapse of the Government of Delhi in 1739.