Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5.33

v2.c21.s5.33

The utter bankruptcy of the Government makes us only wonder that it did not collapse even earlier. All the provinces except Bengal had long ceased to send any revenue to the central Government, some having become independent under their subahdars and others having been usurped by Afghans Jats and Marathas. Thus, the territory still obeying the Emperor's authority was reduced to a belt round the capital, *viz.*, the upper Doab or the Mirat Division on the east and the Rohtak and Gurgaon districts on the west. Here, as nearest and most easy to control, the Emperor had originally reserved to himself the rent of a number of villages for meeting the salaries of his household servants and palace guards (especially the Delhi garrison artillery) and the cost of clothing and feeding himself, his family, and State pensioners like the captive offsprings and widows of former Emperors. These lands formed his Crownlands (khalsa) and privy purse estates (sarf-i-khas.) But, because they were nearest the capital and their revenue was least irregular and easiest to collect, they roused the greed of his wazir, whose cowardice and incompetence prevented him from subduing and administering his jagirs more distantly situated.