Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c28.s10.8

v2.c28.s10.8

Thanks to Sawai Jai Singh, Badan was installed in a higher position than any of his predecessors, and he soon translated that position into the reality of sovereign power. At first he set himself very cunningly to join together the richer among his people under his newly acquired authority. He tolerated neither the very rich nor the very great, but made himself master of the lands and goods of those who had hitherto been the chief men of his clan, reducing them to the level of the common Jats. Thus, in a short time he became the sole lord of all the domains and wealth which had so long lain dispersed among the Jat village headmen. From a zamindar, Badan Singh became shortly a petty Rajah, strong enough to be obeyed at home and feared abroad. During the administrative disorder caused by the Sayyid brothers' usurpation of power at Delhi, the Jats continued their robbery and rebellion in a more intense form than before, because Badan Singh was more powerful, his bands more numerous more hardy more sustained and doing more widespread and irremediable harm than the Jats under Churaman or Rajaram. Besides a large force of infantry, whom he had engaged little by little, he formed a considerable corps of cavalry of whom one portion was employed in robbing the plains, the royal road to Delhi and the environs of Agra, and the remainder in extending his territory in the neighbourhood. In proportion as he gained territory, he increased his army.