Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c8.s1.1

v1.c8.s1.1

The decline of the Mughal Empire presented an opportunity by which the Marāthas profited more than any other people of India. Already, before Aurangzib was dead they had arrested the imperial expansion in their home-land and forced the Delhi Government to acknowledge defeat. The successors of that monarch were too weak to make any attempt at recovering their lost suzerainty in the Deccan and had much difficulty even in holding their own. Selfish quarrels among the Delhi nobility, no less than the moral decadence of the later Emperors and their army, hastened the collapse of the imperial authority in the South. When noble fought noble for the *subahdāri* of Gujrāt or the Deccan, whichever side won, the invariable result was to increase the relative strength of the Marāthas. Thus, the Mughal Government failed to derive any benefit from the utter anarchy that devastated the Mahārāshtra country for several years after Shāhu’s return home from captivity (in 1707) and the factious jealousy that raged among the Marātha nobles.