Jump to content

History of Aurangzib/Volume 1/Chapter 9

Add links
From Wikisource
←
Chapter VIII
History of Aurangzib, Vol. I
by Jadunath Sarkar
Chapter X
→
4574473History of Aurangzib, Vol. IJadunath Sarkar

​

CHAPTER IX.

Second Viceroyalty of the Deccan, 1653-1658.

On 17th July, 1652, Aurangzib, then returning from Qandahar, was appointed Aurangzib goes to the Deccan. Governor of the Deccan for the second time. Exactly a month afterwards he took leave of the Emperor in Afghanistan and proceeded to his charge. Crossing the Indus at Attock on 9th September, he passed through Delhi and Agra on 17th and 28th November respectively, and reached the Narmada river on 1st January 1653. As the palace in Burhanpur was not yet ready for his occupation he encamped outside for some days, while the repairs were being completed, and entered this city, the capital of Khandesh, as late as 30th January. Here he wooed and won the graceful singer Hira Bai, surnamed Zainabadi Mahal, and here he lingered for the next nine months inspite of Shah Jahan's repeated orders urging ​him to go to Aurangabad, the official capital of Mughal Deccan. At last leaving Burhanpur on 28th October, 1653, he entered the fort of Daulatabad on 25th November.[1] At Aurangabad he spent the next four years of his life, leaving it only to invade Golkonda and Bijapur, and finally on 5th February, 1658, to contest the throne of Delhi. Here his son Akbar was born (11th September, 1657), and here he buried his wife Dilras Banu (died 8th October 1657,) and his favourite concubine Zainabadi (probably in 1654.)

Of Aurangzib's life during this period we have his own reminiscences, written in old age to his grandson Bidar Bakht: "The village of Sattaraht[2] near Aurangabad was my hunting ground. Here on the top of a hill, stood a temple with an image of Khande Rai. By God's grace I demolished it, and forbade the temple dancers (murlis) to ply their shameful profession....Aurangzib's life there: hunting and journeys. During my viceroyalty, while I was living at Daulatabad and Aurangabad,—the latter city having been populated by me after its first foundation [by Malik Ambar] under ​the name of Khirki,—I used in my folly to ride about, and make forced marches under the instigations of Satan and of my own passions. I used to go far on horseback to hunt the nilgau and other kinds of game. Other idle deeds did I do. I used to visit the lake of Qatluq in the valley of the watershed, Chamar Tikri and Jitwārā, and to make pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints Burhanuddin and Zainuddin,[3] or to climb up the hill fort of Daulatabad and to the caves of Ellora, (which are wondrous examples of the Creator's art), sometimes with my family, at others alone."[4]

Game was very abundant in the neighbourhoodShikar near Aurangabad. of Aurangabad. Herds of wild deer grazed four miles from the city, and nilgaus were found in plenty in the direction of Lauhgarh and Ambar. Tigers could be shot in the hills which hemmed the valley round. At the lake of Qatluq, near the "valley of the watershed," six miles from the fort of Daulatabad, countless flocks of heron rested. Aurangzib, and afterwards his sons Muazzam and Azam, delighted to hunt the nilgau and the heron. The nilgaus were shot from a fixed station as they were driven down the ​narrow valley, and the herons were struck down by trained hawks.[5]

It was during his second rule over the Deccan that Aurangzib clearly unfolded not only his administrative skill and energy, but also the limitations of his character which finally blighted his fame and wrecked his empire. We have already seen him boasting how he had destroyed the temple on a hill six miles south of Aurangabad. He is taxed by Shah Jahan with being unfriendly to the Rajputs, and tries to answer the charge by recommending a Rajput captain, Rao Karan,[6] to an administrative post.Early examples of his religious bigotry. Evidently there was no love lost between him and the Rajputs already. People perceive instinctively when they are disliked, and though they may be wrong in guessing the cause, their feeling always indicate correctly the spirit in which they are being treated.

A clearer proof of his religious bigotry even in youth is furnished by the following letter which he wrote at this time to the prime minister Sadullah Khan:

"The Brahman Chhabila Ram, the qanungo of property-tax of the city of Bihar, had uttered improper words with ​reference to the Prophet. After investigation and verification of the charge by order of the Emperor, Zulfiqar Khan and other officers of the place had beheaded him, as was required by justice. Now, the scholar Mulla Muhan has written to me that the brothers of the accursed misbeliever, out of bigotry, have sought justice at the Imperial Court against Shaikh Muhammad Muala, the lord justice, and Shaikh Abdul Mani, the ecclesiastical judge of the province. I, therefore, remind you of this affair, as it is proper for all Muslims to do their utmost to assert the rules of the Prophet's religion, and it is the duty of kings and nobles to protect the scholars of Islam in enforcing the injunctions of the Holy Law. You should exert yourself more than your peers to close the road of the complaint of this wretched tribe [to the Emperor's feet] and to take care of the letters (i.e., explanations) of the guardians of the honour of the Faith."[7]

The city of Aurangabad[8] bears the Prince'sCity of Aurangabad described. name and commemorates his first viceroyalty. Originally it was a petty hamlet named Khirki. When Malik Ambar revived the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar, he transferred the capital to this village, and built a palace ​for the Sultan known as the Green Bungalow and a mansion for himself close to the Royal Market (Shahganj). To form a large centre of population in a dry soil like this, the first thing needful is water. So he constructed big tank close to the town and also brought water to his own house by means of a canal from the river near Arsul. The tank was about four miles round, and the village grew up on its side. Aurangzib at first resided in the fort of Daulatabad. But it could hold only a small body of men. So he looked round for a good site on the plain for the seat of his government, chose Khirki, built a princely palace there close to the tank, and allotted lands to all his nobles and officers to build their quarters on. Then he removed from the fort to the new city, which got his name and grew rapidly as the capital of Mughal Deccan.

The splendid mausoleum or Muqbara of his wife Dilras Banu, surnamed Rabia-ud-daurani, is an imitation of the Taj Mahal. It was built after his accession and was thoroughly repaired by his son M. Azam. It is still the finest architectural ornament of the city, and next to it stands the vast Juma Masjid which was completed by him. Aurangzib's residence, though greatly altered by later occupants, still remains ​and is pointed out to travellers as the Alamgiri Mahal.

Years afterwards, when he returned to the Deccan in 1682, a wall four miles long was built round the city by his order to protect it from Maratha raids. The work cost three lakhs of rupees and was completed in four months through the active exertions of Dianat Khan Khafi. The city has undergone much change at the hands of the Nizams whose first capital it was, and of their French officers who lived here with almost regal authority.

We now turn to his public life during these five years.

Since Aurangzib had laid down the viceroyalty of the Deccan in May 1644,Decay and misery of Mughal Deccan, the Mughal administration there had not prospered. True, the country enjoyed unwonted repose after a half century of war with Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golkonda. True, there was no disturbance of public peace by invasion from across the frontier, and no expedition against refractory feudatories. But agriculture had not been promoted, the peasantry had not been cherished, and new lands had not been brought under tillage. On the contrary, much cultivated soil had lapsed into the jungle, the cultivators ​ had declined in number and resources, and the revenue had fallen off greatly.

This wretched state of things was the natural result of a succession of short due to frequent changes of governors. viceroyalties and incompetent viceroys.[9] Khan-i-Dauran who had succeeded Aurangzib, was murdered a year afterwards. The veteran of a hundred battles, he also worked hard at the administration, transacting public business for twelve hours a day and inspecting everything himself. But he was so pitiless in exacting money from the village headmen, so harsh in squeezing the ryots, and so rough and strict to all the people under him, that the news of his death threw them into a transport of joy and was celebrated at Burhanpur as a divine deliverance.

Islam Khan Mashhadi, a very old man incapable of riding a horse, next governed the Deccan for two years, and during this short period he estranged the Deccanis by his harsh and strict conduct and enriched himself by selling the Government stores of the forts when ​ prices ruled high and replacing them with fresh purchases made in the season of low prices! He was keen on settling ryots on new lands, but actually effected little during his short term.

Then followed nearly a year (Nov., 1647—July, 1648) of officiating rule by Shah Nawaz Khan. Prince Murad Bakhsh a dull and indolent youth, not yet twenty-four, was the next viceroy; but he quarrelled with his guardian and de facto governor, Shah Nawaz Khan, the administration fell into confusion, and at the end of a year the Emperor was forced to make another change of viceroys! Shaista Khan replaced Prince Murad in September 1649, and held charge till he was succeeded by Aurangzib. Thus, in eight ears there were six viceroys, if we count the acting tenure of Rajah Jai Singh in 1645.[10]

The Deccan had long caused a heavy drain on the Imperial treasury. The province was large, the country broken, with plenty of jungles, and imperfectly settled and organised, and there were two powerful States across the frontier. Therefore, a very large force had to be stationed there. But as the soil was sterile in com​parison with the river-plains of Northern India, and the rainfall precarious and variable, bad harvests and scarcities were too frequent, and the standard revenue was never collected. In spite of an abatement of 12Revenue greatly decreased. lakhs of rupees on their first assessment made by the Imperial settlement officers in the hope that the collection in future would be more easy and certain, the land revenue still proved to have been pitched too high. For the four provinces which then constituted Mughal Deccan, it stood at three krores and 62 lakhs of rupees a year; but the actual collection in 1652 was only one krore, or less than one-third.[11]

Out of the total territory, land estimated toPublic expenditure. yield 37½ lakhs a year was assigned as jagir to Aurangzib and his sons, and the rest to various officers, excluding the portion which was created Crownland (khalsa sharifa) and of which the revenue was collected directly by Imperial officers[12] and spent at the discretion of the Emperor without being touched by the local governor. The financial condition of the jagirdars depended on the actual collection of land reve​ nue. Aurangzib and the higher officers also received a part of their salary in cash from the Imperial treasury. This was a fixed amount, not liable to variation with the agricultural condition of the year, as was the case with the income drawn from jagirs.

The land revenue actually collected was scanty and variable, and the arrears and remissions from the standard assessment large.Chronic deficit: the Deccan a drain on the Imperial Treasury. Hence, the public income of the Deccan did not balance the expenditure, and the deficit had to be made good by sending money from the older and richer provinces of the empire to support the administration of the South. This had gone on for years. Once only Khan-i-Dauran had tried to reverse the process. By torturing the collectors and mercilessly stripping the peasants he succeeded in collecting a large sum, which he despatched to the Emperor with the boastful remark, "Other Governors had to get money from Hindustan; I am sending money there!" But the policy of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs soon failed. The desolation of the country and the misery of the peasantry became worse than before, and the bankrupt administration of the South had to be kept going by Imperial bounties from Malwa and ​Guzerat. Shah Jahan was alarmed at this chronic deficit and strongly urged Aurangzib to improve the peasant's lot, extend the cultivation, and relieve the Imperial treasury from the annual drain.[13]

On his arrival in the Deccan, Aurangzib was faced with a serious financial difficulty. Poverty of officers holding jagirs there.The actual yield of the jagirs was only a fraction of their nominal revenue. The Mughal officers posted in the Deccan would have starved if they had to depend solely on their jagirs in that province. Therefore, during his first viceroyalty, both Aurangzib and his chief officers had been given additional fiefs in other and more prosperous parts of the empire, so that they managed to live on the combined income. And now, also, his officers besieged him with clamour, saying that they could not maintain their quotas of soldiers on the poor revenue of their existing jagirs, and demanding that more productive jagirs should be transferred to them, so that they might be sure of getting a fixed portion of their income at least.[14]

Everywhere Aurangzib found signs of maladministration, the work of his predecessors. The actual collection was sometimes only one-​tenth of the normal assessment. Even Baglana, noted for its fertility, was in no better state than the other districts. "Baglana has not been well administered since Syed Abdul Wahhab's time," he writes to his father. And again, "the affairs of Painghat (Lowlands) are greatly in disorder," "the Deccan is in disorder, as it has not been governed well for the last ten years;"—"the ryots of the Ausa mahal complain of Uzbak Khan's oppression . . . and those of the Trimbak parganah about the tyranny of Darvish Beg Qaqshal."[15]

The new viceroy found it impossible to make Aurangzib's financial difficulties.both ends meet. At this time the civil and military expenditure of the Deccan, exclusive of the salary derived by the officers from their jagirs, amounted to Rs. 31,76,000,—out of which the cash allowances of Aurangzib and his sons absorbed Rs. 25,43,000, and the expenses of the artillery department, the cash salary of certain officers, and other necessary disbursements required Rs. 6,30,000. The only means of providing this sum were, first the revenue of the Crownland which actually yielded Rs. 2,40,000, and secondly the tributes from the rulers of Golkonda and Deogarh, eight lakhs and ​ one lakh respectively. Thus there was an annual deficit of Rs. 20,36,000, which was made good by drawing on the reserve stored in the treasuries of the Deccan, especially in the fort of Daulatabad. This cash balance fell from Rs. 80,60,000 to Rs. 40,50,000, probably in two years. But in such a frontier province it was necessary to keep a large reserve for emergencies. Aurangzib grew alarmed at the rapid decrease of his cash balanceHow to increase his income? and suggested a remedy to the Emperor: he wished to take away from the jagirdars and place under collectors of the Crown as much land as would yield the 203 lakhs needed to make both ends meet. But where were the dispossessed officers to be provided for? Losing their means of support with the resumption of their jagirs, they would be forced to return to the Emperor's Court and so decrease the Deccan army by one-third. Such a diminution of armed strength was unsafe with two powerful States, Bijapur and Golkonda, across the frontier. To avoid the evil, Aurangzib proposed that jagirs in part should be given to him and his higher officers in other provinces, and that the cash portion of his salary might be made a charge on the flourishing treasuries of Malwa and Surat.[16] ​ Aurangzib shared the difficulty of other jagirdars in the Deccan in having to keep up his normal contingent of troops on an income reduced to a fraction of his normal pay. His fiefs in Multan had been fertile and lucrative; those in the Deccan were estimated to yield 17 lakhs less, and were, besides, liable to frequent and large arrears in collection. He rightly protested to his father, "If your Majesty wishes me to be honoured with a great viceroyalty, give me the means The more productive jagirs of the officers are transferred to him. worthy of it." The Emperor ordered him to exchange his own sterile fiefs for more productive ones in the hands of other jagirdars.[17] Aurangzib took care to leave the estates of his competent officers untouched, but appropriated the fiefs of lazy or minor officers who did not deserve considerate treatment. The Revenue Department was ordered by Shah Jahan to transfer to him good jagirs yielding Rs. 3,17,500 in place of desolate unproductive lands with the same nominal rent-roll. But the jagirdars threatened with dispossession tried to in-

​ fluence the Emperor by accusing Aurangzib of picking out for himself the best villages in each mahal and leaving to them scattered possessions. Aurangzib refuted the calumny and asserted that he had taken entire mahals, as, in his opinion, a mahal divided among a number of owners could not be well administered or made to flourish. So, the Emperor at last confirmed the transfer of lands.[18]

Aurangzib's second prayer, that the cash portion of his pay should be sent to him from the province of Malwa and the port of Surat, was not granted. He was told to select productive mahals in the Deccan either from the Crownland or from the fiefs of the officers. The Prince, accordingly, asked for Elichpur and Ankot, his cash allowance being reduced by the amount of the revenue of these two distncts. but the Emperor fixedShah Jahan's refusal to give him financial relief. the standard revenue of Elichpur greatly above its real collection, and then Aurangzib naturally demanded cash payment as before, instead of taking such a losing jagir. The Emperor was displeased and made caustic remarks about the Prince in open Court.[19] In 1654 twenty-five lakhs of rupees were ​sent to Aurangzib from the revenue of Malwa, and for the remaining five lakhs he was asked to take away some fiefs from the officers in Nandurbar. But the revenue of that district actually brought in Rs. 92,000, and Aurangzib desired some other jagir to make up the balance.[20]

The financial wrangle between father and son dragged on for years. Shah Jahan Wrangle between the two about Aurangzib's income; false charges and Aurangzib's defence.wished to put a stop to the drain of money to the Deccan, and here was Aurangzib asking for cash from other provinces in the place of jagirs in the Deccan! The jagirdars whose lands he had appropriated by Imperial sanction, intrigued at Court and persuaded the Emperor that the Prince was realising from these fiefs more than his sanctioned pay, while the ousted officers, with only sterile jagirs left to them, were starving. An incorrect reading of the revenue papers deepened the same conviction in the Emperor's mind and he angrily wrote to Aurangzib: "It is unworthy of a Musalman and an act of injustice to take for yourself all the productive villages of a parganah and to assign to others only the less productive lands. I order you to take half a lakh worth of less productive land in the parga​nah of Asir, and decrease your cash stipend by the same amount, so that your actual income [may be made normal.]" Aurangzib replied in a tone of righteous indignation, "I have never in my life acted unjustly, but always tried to please God and His vicegerent on earth. You have censured me for this lakh of rupees……I have not myself taken away these lands; but the revenue officers of your Majesty's Court, by your order before I left for the Deccan, transferred them from Shaista Khan to me at the same [estimated] revenue. I wonder why the revenue officers, especially the wazir who has a retentive memory, did not point this fact out to you……Contrary to the usual practice, your Majesty has, without making an inquiry or calling for my explanation, and on merely receiving a complaint, passed orders [in this case] and brought the term Musalman into use in connection with his perishable affair! I am helpless. As they have made you believe that I am getting more than my fixed salary, and you have ordered half a lakh of rupees to be deducted from my cash stipend,—what need is there of giving me anything in exchange [of the latter]?"[21]

When appointing him to the Deccan, Shah ​

Jahan had urged Aurangzib to pay special attention to the improvement of the peasantry and the extension of cultivation.Shah Jahan's impatience at the delay in improving the revenue of the Deccan. Aurangzib had promised to do his best for these objects, and appealed to his exertions in the same direction during his first viceroyalty. He only pleaded for a sufficiently long tenure and the men and money necessary for his purpose. The Emperor, however, soon lost patience. Order after order was sent to the Prince to increase the cultivation and population. Aurangzib was hastily censured for his failure as an administrator, as the Emperor imagined it to be, and he was threatened with loss of income in order to make him increase his exertions. But he rightly pleaded that the depopulation and ravage caused by a generation of warfare, followed by ten years of mal-administration, could not be undone in two or three years. He had been (he said) silently and steadily promoting his object and had in three years succeeded in doubling the revenue of many mahals.[22] Very soon his viceroyalty was destined to become memorable for ever in the history of land-settlement in the Deccan.

​For the purposes of revenue administration, Mughal Deccan had been divided The diwans of the Deccan.into two portions, each with its own diwan or revenue minister. The Pahighat or Lowlands comprised the whole of Khandesh and one-half of Berar, while the other 2½ subahs formed the Balaghat or Highlands. The diwan of Painghat was Multafat Khan, a strong civil administrator and a man of pleasant manners, charming by his easy sociability all who came in contact with him. But he was after all a mere departmental head, with considerable executive capacity no doubt, but devoid of any genius for administrative reform or innovation.[23] Glory of the latter kind belonged to his colleague, Murshid Quli Khan, the diwan of Balaghat, and one of the many noble gifts of Persia to India.

Murshid Quli Khan[24] was a native of KhurasanMurshid Quli Khan: his character who had migrated to India in the train of Ali Mardan Khan, the fugitive Persian governor of ​ Qandahar. He "combined the valour of a soldier with the administrative capacity of a civil servant." As Paymaster of Aurangzib's army in Balkh he had displayed ability, and when Aurangzib came to the Deccan again, Murshid Quli accompanied him as diwan of Balaghat. The Emperor highly commended him to the Prince as his adviser in revenue matters. The Prince, too, valued him as highly, and soon afterwards secured for him the title of Khan or Lord. Three years later Painghat was added to his charge, and he became diwan of the entire Deccan (28th January, 1656). But it was in Balaghat that he began his revenue reforms and first achieved success for his new system.

A century earlier the revenue collection of Northern India had been brought into a system by Todar Mai, the diwan of Akbar. But the Deccan had no system at all. Here the marking out of plots, the measurement of land by chain survey, the assessment The old irregular revenue administration of the Deccan of revenue at so much per higha, or the sharing of the actual produce between the State land-lord and the cultivator, were unknown. The ​ peasant in the Deccan cultivated as much land as he could with a plough and a pair of oxen, grew whatever crop he liked, and paid to the State a small amount per plough,—the rate of revenue varying in different places and being fixed arbitrarily, without bearing a definite proportion to the actual yield of the field, because it was not the practice there to inspect fields and estimate the quantity and value of crops.

This utter absence of system and principle in revenue matters laid the peasantry open to the caprice and extortion of the petty collectors. The long wars of Mughal aggression and a succession of rainless years, completed their ruin. The oppressed ryots fled from their homes, the deserted fields lapsed into the jungle; many once flourishing villages became manless wildernesses. Shah Jahan had reduced the revenue of Khandesh to one-half in 1631, but even this amount was never fully realised before Murshid Quli's time.

The new diwan's reform consisted in extending Todar Mai's system to the Murshid Quit's Revenue System. Deccan. First, he worked hard to gather the scattered ryots together and restore the normal life of the villages by giving them their full population and proper ​ chain of officers. Everywhere wise amins and honest surveyors were deputed to measure the land, to prepare the record of well marked out holdings (raqba), and to distinguish arable land from rocky soils and water-courses. Where a village had lost its headman (muqaddam), he took care to appoint a new headman from the persons whose character gave the best promise of their readiness to promote cultivation and take sympathetic care of the peasantry. The poorer ryots were granted loans (taqavvi) from the public treasury, for the purchase of cattle, seeds and other needful materials of agriculture, and the advance was recovered at harvest by instalments. In one year he granted loans of forty to fifty thousand rupees to the ryots of Khandesh and Berar for making embankments to impound water for irrigating low-lying lands.

To prevent partiality or corruption "this honest and God-fearing diwan often dragged the measuring chain with his own hands" and checked the survey work of his subordinates. By personal inquiry in the fields and villages he won the confidence of the peasantry; he allotted the holdings with care and attention to detail, so that the ryots prospered at the same time that the revenue increased. He had the wisdom to modify his system according to differences of ​ local conditions. Where the peasantry were Three methods of assessment of land. backward and the population scanty, or where the villages were situated in obscure nooks, he left the old usage of a fixed lump payment per plough undisturbed. In many other places he introduced the system of metayership or sharing of the actual produce. For this there were three rates: (i) Where the crop depended on rainfall, the State took one-half of it. (ii) Where agriculture depended on well-irrigation the share of the State was one-third in the case of grain, and from ⅓ to ½ in the case of grape, sugar-cane, anise, plantain, pea-wort, and other special and high-priced crops requiring laborious watering and length of culture. (iii) Where the field was irrigated from canals (pát), the proportion of the revenue to the crop varied, being sometimes higher and sometimes lower than in lands irrigated from wells.

His third method of revenue settlement was the elaborate and complex one of Northern India. The standard or maximum Government share was one-fourth of the total produce, whether grain or pot-herb, fruit or seed. The revenue at the fixed rate of so many rupees per bigha was assessed and collected after considering the quantity and quality of the crop from seed-time ​ to harvest and its market-price, and actually measuring the sown area. Hence, its name of jarib (survey). Under Murshid Quli this became the prevalent system in the subahs of Mughal Deccan and was known for centuries afterwards as "the dhárá of Murshid Quli Khan."

His excellent system, backed his constant vigilance and personal supervision, led to the improvement of agriculture and increase of the revenue in a few years. In 1658 the accurate observer Bhimsen Burhanpuri saw not a single piece of waste land near Aurangabad; wheat and pulse sold at 2½ maunds a rupee, jawar and bajra at 3½ maunds, molasses at half a maund, and yellow oil (ghee?) at four seers.[25]

Immediately Official changes made by Aurangzib. on assuming the viceroyalty, Aurangzib sent off his own men to the different sub-divisions to take over charge of the localities. He found that the official staff must be greatly increased before the country could be brought under proper control, and much money must be spent before the administration could be made efficient. And he acted accordingly. First, there was a wholesale redistribution of offices; old and incompetent men were dismissed or removed to minor posts; a number of officers of ​proved ability were selected by the Prince, and to them all situations of trust and importance were given.[26] This change of personnel was naturally accompanied by a reshuffling of jagirs. As we have already seen, able officers were left in undisturbed possession of their old jagirs if these were good, or given better ones if they were unproductive. The loss of the change fell only on the undeserving or minor officers.

After thus securing for himself and his leadingHe saves his officers from a new and strict muster, officers the income necessary for maintaining their contingents, he fought and won for them another battle with the Imperial accounts department. In order to reduce expenditure, Shah Jahan ordered that every military officer serving in the Deccan should bring his force to the muster, and the troop horses should be branded, so that commanders who had been keeping less than their proper contingents while drawing full pay, might be asked to refund the sums they had thus taken in excess from the State. Aurangzib pleaded for them by pointing out the real state of affairs in the Deccan: no officer could realise the full amount of his nominal from his jagir; many had pay failed even to take possession of the lands ​ assigned to them; their main support was the cash allowance paid from the Treasury. If, therefore, by reason of the shortage in the regulation number of their retainers, a part of their former salaries was debited against them and the amount recovered by deduction from their pay in future, the officers would be worse off than before. The operation of the order would decrease the strength of the army, which was a dangerous contingency in "a province on the frontier of two rich and armed rulers." Shah Jahan had decreased the stipend of armed followers from Rs. 20 per month to Rs. 17 or even Rs. 15.and raises the pay of troopers. Aurangzib protested against this order, saying that a horseman who got less than Rs. 20 a month could not possibly keep himself in proper fighting trim, especially as, under Murshid Quli Khan's metayership settlement, rent was now paid in kind and the rent-receivers had to undergo heavy expenditure in watching and storing their share of the grain. The price of horses (he added) had greatly risen in the Deccan, and to make up the full complements of all the officers in the terms of Shah Jahan's new order would require the entertainment of 9,000 additional mounted retainers by the officers. As the result of Aurangzib's protest ​ Shah Jahan raised the stipend of each trooper to Rs. 20 a month, and the order about muster and branding was apparently dropped.[27]

Keen on securing military efficiency, Aurangzib first of all assured that financial support without which an army cannot be kept up to the mark. About his own immediate followers he wrote to the Emperor, "Your Majesty well knows that I seldom make useless expenditure. What I get from you, I spend in supporting the army. Now, as my men are paid in cash, my contingent will decrease in the same proportion as my cash allowance is reduced."[28]

The Deccan being far away from the centre of the Empire, the officers posted there used to embezzle the public money and to neglect their duty, without fear of inspection and detection. We have seen how one governor, Islam Khan, used to make money by selling the stores of the forts dear and afterwards buying fresh provisions cheap. Fifty years afterwards the Venetian traveller Manucci noted the utterly decayed and neglected condition of the Mughal forts in these parts. But in 1650 Improvement of garrison artillery by Mir Khalil. Mir Khalil, a very able and energetic officer, was appointed ​Inspector General of Ordnance (darogha-i-topkhanah) for the Deccan, and he soon made a clean sweep of the old abuses. Though a mere inspector, "his achievements surpassed those of provincial viceroys." He visited every fort, inspected everything, great and small, and supplied every place with the requisite store of food and munitions. Everywhere he found evidence of neglect and corruption. Old and useless men were being borne on the establishment of the artillery and swelling the expenditure, without doing any service at all. Mir Khalil made them undergo an examination in musketry. Setting up a target three yards square, he gathered all the artillerymen and gave them the chance of three shots from their matchlocks at a range of forty paces. Those who could not hit the mark even once were dismissed. Old and disabled soldiers were put on pension in consideration of their past services. Thus in a month and a half this "honest, hardworking, and expert officer" effected a saving of Rs. 50,000 a year, while actually improving the efficiency of the arm.[29] He continued at his post till 18th July, 1653, when he was transferred, on a higher rank and pay, to the responsible post of commandant ​ of Dharur, a fort on the frontier. Aurangzib highly commended his expert knowledge of artillery matters and success as an administrator, saying, "The presence of such an officer in a frontier fort gives me peace of mind." His successor was Hushdar Khan, a capital marksman, who held the Inspectorship of Ordnance for a year only. The next to fill the office was Shamsuddin (the son of Mukhtar Khan), appointed in the middle of 1654,-who, too, greatly pleased Aurangzib by his ability and received many favours from the Prince.[30]

Aurangzib's second viceroyalty of the Deccan was marked by a series of wrangles with his father, for which, asCauses of Aurangzib's differences with the Emperor. Aurangzib's version alone is before us, the chief blame seems fall on Shan Jahan. Either Aurangzib's enemies had got hold of the Emperor's ears, or the latter failed to appreciate the Prince's difficulties in the South. But the result was that Aurangzib was misunderstood, suspected, and unjustly reprimanded from the very beginning of his term of office. And the bitterness of feeling thus roused was one of the reasons why the War of Succession was conducted so heartlessly and ​ unscrupulously. So complete was the estrangement that, during this long viceroyalty of more than five years, Aurangzib was not once invited to visit his father in Northern India, and, what is almost incredible, among the presents made to the Emperor on his birthdays and the anniversaries of his coronation none from Aurangzib is mentioned in the official history, though the other princes made costly offerings! While Dara's sons were basking in the Imperial favour and every year receiving jewels and cash gifts worthy of princes, only once did Aurangzib's sons get anything from their Imperial grand-father.

At the very time of his appointment to the Deccan Aurangzib objected to it as his jagirs there would yield 17 lakhs of rupees less than the fertile fiefs he was holding in Sindh. "What, I wonder, is the reason of this decrease and of my transfer?" he asked. Before he had reached the Deccan, he was taxed by the Emperor with moving too slowly and taking four months in going from Peshawar to his charge, which had been without a ruler for two months. Aurangzib's explanation was the difficulty of the roads and the unpreparedness of his troops, who had just returned from the arduous campaign of Qandahar and had got no time to visit their jagirs and collect money for fitting themselves ​ out for the transfer to the Deccan. Even after reaching Burhanpur Aurangzib had no peace; the Emperor urged him to proceed to Daulatabad, his capital, as soon as possible after the rainy season. The Prince excused himself for lingering ten months at Burhanpur, on the grounds of pressure of work and the heavy rains at the end of the monsoons that year. Then again, his proposal to be given more productive jagirs in exchange of the existing ones, was the cause of a prolonged and acrimonious correspondence with the Emperor, as we have seen.

In some cases the viceroy's recommendations for postings and promotions among his subordinates were not accepted by the Emperor, and the Prince could only protest his own helplessness in the matter and justify his nominations. In a few instances, such as the Inspectorship of Ordnance, he carried his point after indignantly writing to his father, "I have been a subahdar since the age of 18 years, and I have never recommended a single man who has proved unfit for his post...... The Chief of Artillery should be an expert marksman. I recommended such a person. He has not done any dishonest act. But your Majesty has ordered the post to be given to another."[31] On many other minor points, ​such as elephant catching, sending mangoes to Court, securing skilled weavers for the Imperial cloth factory, the Golkonda tribute, &c., there were differences between father and son.[32]

Next, Shah Jahan quickly lost patience and complained of Aurangzib's failure to restore cultivation and prosperity in the Deccan. Aurangzib rightly answered that it was too early to judge him. "I have always tried to extend tillage and increase the number of houses; but as I am not a vain man I have not reported it to you. A country that has been desolated by various calamities cannot be made flourishing in two or three years! . . . How can I, in one season or two, bring back to cultivation a parganah which has been unproductive of revenue for twenty years?" But Shah Jahan was not satisfied. He often made caustic remarks in open Court about Aurangzib's promise of restoring prosperity to the Deccan and the wretched condition of the province. He even contemplated a change of viceroys as likely to mend matters, and asked Shuja if he would accept the subahdari of the Deccan as Aurangzib could not govern the province well.[33]

Another cause of friction was the charge of ​ diplomatic relations with Bijapur and Golkonda. Aurangzib justly contended that the Mughal envoys at these Courts should take their orders from the viceroy of the Deccan and the Imperial correspondence with them should pass through his hands, "as a better policy and in order to secure greater obedience to the Imperial wishes."[34] But this power was conceded to him only towards the close of his administration, and even then not fully.

Later on we find Shah Jahan charging Aurangzib with receiving costly presents from the king of Golkonda without crediting their price against the tribute due. Aurangzib easily showed that these presents were of small value, the precious stones were full of flaws, and they were all a personal gift to himself and his eldest son.[35] By a Nemesis of fate, a generation afterwards Aurangzib, then Emperor, suspected his son Muazzam of having formed a secret understanding with the king of Golkonda.

In May 1653 we find Aurangzib replying thus to some charge brought against him in one of the Emperor's letters, "What your Majesty has heard against me is false. I consider such conduct ​ towards others as very improper."[36] The nature of the accusation is not known to us. Was it the affair of Zainabadi, which must have happened at this time?

Again, the Emperor took him to task for employing all the best weavers at Burhanpur in his private factory and thereby depriving the Imperial factory of its labour supply. Aurangzib denied the allegation altogether, but the Emperor ordered all cloth factories at Burhanpur to be closed with the exception of the Imperial. This was a public humiliation for the viceroy.[37]

At one time Aurangzib was so disgusted with being constantly misunderstood, censured, and hampered by the Emperor, that he refused to take a most necessary step on his own initiative. Murshid Quli Khan had recommended anAurangzib's disgust at his father's unkind treatment. advance of Rs. 50,000 as loan to the peasants of Khandesh and Berar. Aurangzib simply referred the matter to the Emperor, and when he was told that he ought to have advanced the money from the Imperial revenue, he replied with bitterness, "No wonder that I did not take the responsibility of doing it, seeing that I have been taken to task for acts which I never did. ​In my first viceroyalty I did not wait for previous sanction in such matters. But now I have grown more cautious!" Indeed, in one of his letters to his sister Jahanara he complains that though he had served his father faithfully for twenty years he was favoured with much less power and confidence than his nephew Sulaiman Shukoh.[38]

Before turning to the two great wars undertaken by Aurangzib during this period we shall describe his minor expeditions.

In the 16th and 17th centuries much of the modern Central Provinces owned the sway of aboriginal GondThe Gond kingdoms of the Central Provinces. chiefs and was known in history under the name of Gondwana. The great Gond kingdom of Garh-Mandla had been crippled by a Mughal invasion and sack of the capital in Akbar's reign, and, later, by Bundela encroachments from the north. But about the middle of the 17th century another Gond kingdom, with its capital at Deogarh, rose to greatness, and extended its sway over the districts of Betul, Chindwara and Nagpur, and portions of Seoni, Bhandara and Balaghat. In the southern part of Gondwana stood the town of Chanda, the seat of a third Gond dynasty. A king of ​Chanda had visited the Court of Delhi in the 16th century, and his family had ever since been loyally attached to the empire, because this was their only protection from their hereditary foe and rival, the Rajah of Deogarh.[39]

For a short time the Deogarh Kingdom became so powerful as to over-shadow Mandla and ChandaDeogarh: its relations with the Mughals. and to take the first place among the Gond States. Its wealth was vast enough to tempt the cupidity of the Mughals. We have seen how in 1637 Khan-i-Dauran invaded this kingdom, stormed the fort of Nagpur, and forced Rajah Kukia to pay a large contribution down and to promise an annual tribute of 1⅓ lakhs of rupees. Kesari Singh had succeeded his father Kukia in 1640, after presenting a fee of four lakhs of rupees to the Emperor.[40] But under him the tribute fell into arrears, and repeated demands for it produced no effect. So, in 1655, Shah Jahan ordered the country to be invaded, especially as the Mughal army in the Deccan had its hands free and the Rajah of Deogarh was said to possess 200 elephants, which would be a rich booty. Aurangzib point​ ed out that by deputing an officer to Deogarh he had ascertained that the Rajah was really very poor and had only 14 elephants. He therefore, asked for orders whether Deogarh should be annexed or only the tribute realised, and then added ironically, "Send me the man who has told you of the Rajah having got 200 elephants, and he will guide my troops to the place where these elephants are!" This false information, as may be easily imagined, had come from the envious Rajah of Chanda. Shah Jahan ordered Deogarh to be conquered and annexed. Aurangzib wrote back to say, "It can be easily conquered, but not so easily held or controlled. The annual cost of administration will be very high."[41]

On 12 October, 1655, the expedition started in two divisions, one under Mirza Khan, the Deputy Governor of Berar, by way of Elichpur,Expedition sent against Deogarh and the other under Hadidad Khan, the Deputy Governor of Telingana, by way of Nagpur, with orders to converge upon Deogarh. Manji, the Rajah of Chanda, co-operated with the invaders. Kesari Singh was crushed between the two walls of foes. He humbly waited on Mirza Khan, and promised to pay up his arrears ​ and to be more punctual in future. Only twenty elephants were found in his possession, and these were taken away. The Rajah accompanied the victorious troops on their return, and paid his respects to Aurangzib on 8th January, 1656.extorts submission. He promised to pay five lakhs in cash and kind in the course of the year, on account of his tribute, present and past, and to cede certain parganahs, the revenue of which would be set apart for the payment of the tribute in future. Kesari Singh with a good body of armed retainers accompanied Aurangzib to the siege of Golkonda and rendered good service, praying only for some remission of his piled up arrears of tribute in return.[42]

The later history of Deogarh may be conveniently narrated here. In 1667 Dilir Khan with an Imperial army entered the kingdom,Later history of Deogarh. and imposed a contribution of 15 lakhs on the Rajah, while raising the annual tribute to two lakhs. He had realised about half the current year's tribute, when he was sent to succeed Jai Singh as subahdar of the Deccan,—an officer being left in the Gond kingdom to collect the balance. Towards the close of the century, a new Rajah of ​Deogarh was so hard pressed by other claimants to the throne that he went to Aurangzib, accepted Islam as the price of Imperial support against his rivals, and promised to serve in the Emperor's wars with the Marathas. Aurangzib, proud of effecting a conversion, baptised the Rajah as Buland Bakht or Lucky (1686). But afterwards (1699) the Rajah's rival died, he fled to his own country and sided with the Maratha raiders! The Emperor was too busy with his enemies in the South to punish him. He vented his impotent rage by ordering the traitor's name to be changed in the official papers into Nagun Bakht or Luckless! The Deogarh chief extended his kingdom at the expense of Chanda and Mandla, and founded the city of Nagpur, which his son, Chand Sultan, walled round and made his capital.[43]

The little State of Jawhar stands north ofInvasion of the Jawhar State; of Bombay on a plateau between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. On the north and east it adjoined the Mughal districts of Baglana and Nasik respectively, and on the south it touched the Konkan. Through it one could have access to the rich port of Chaul. Except in some places in the south and west, the country ​ is elevated, rocky, and forest-clad. Its safety lay in the great difficulty which an invader found in crossing the Ghats and penetrating into the country from the land side. A line of Rajahs of the Koli tribe, founded early in the 14th century, ruled the State, and was at this time engaged in a long but successful struggle with the Portuguese power in Northern Konkan. The Rajah, named Sripat, paid no tribute nor owned the overlordship of the Emperor. So, at Aurangzib's suggestion, Shah Jahan sanctioned a war against him. Rao Karan, the chief of Bikanir, had long served in the Mughal wars of the Deccan. He now promised to conquer Jawhar with his own men, if it were granted to him as a fief on a tribute of Rs. 50,000. The Rajput general started from Aurangabad on 3rd October, 1655, threaded his way through a difficult pass in the Western Ghats and approached the frontier of Jawhar. At this Sripat offered submission (5th January, 1656), and bought safety by paying anits success. indemnity, promising to alienate a certain portion of his territory for the payment of tribute in future, and sending his son with Rao Karan as a hostage. The expedition returned to Aurangzib on 20th January.[44]

  1. ↑ Waris, 66a, 67a and b; his journey south is described in detail in Adab-i-Alamgiri, 21a—24a, 25b, 26a, 27a, 144a and b.
  2. ↑ On the top of a hill, six miles due south of Aurangabad.
  3. ↑ At Roza or Khuldabad, on the way to the Ellora hill.
  4. ↑ Kalimat-i-Tayyibat, 7b—8a.
  5. ↑ Dilkasha, 12 and 49. Ruqat-i-Alamgiri, Nos. 12 and 28.
  6. ↑ Adab, 29a.
  7. ↑ Adab-i-Alamgiri, 101a.
  8. ↑ This description of early Aurangabad is based on Dilkasha, 9, 11, 12, Tavernier, 1. 146, Masir-ul-umara, i. 263, ii. 60, Masir-i-Alamgiri, 223. Burgess, in his Cave Temples in the Bidar and Aurangabad Districts (p. 59) says: In 1616 Malik Ambar built at Khirki the Nurkhanda palace and mosque, and his army raised dwellings for themselves around it; ravaged and burnt by Jahangir's army in 1621. Malik Ambar's son Fath Khan named it Fatehnagar (1628). The black stone mosque built by Ambar is described in Murray's Hand-book to India. For a description of the city in 1810, see Seely's Wonders of Elora (2nd ed)., 367—369, 403.
  9. ↑ Khan-i-Dauran succeeds Aurangzib on 28 May, 1644, and is murdered, during absence in N. India, on 22 June, 1645. Jai Singh then officiates for him. Islam Khan is appointed 17 July, 1645, dies on 2 November, 1647. Shah Nawaz Khan then officiates. Murad Bakhsh is appointed on 15 July, 1648, and Shaista Khan replaces him on 4 Sep., 1649, and continues till September, 1652.
  10. ↑ For Khan-i-Dauran, M. U. i. 749-758, Abd. Ham., ii. 376, 426. For Islam Khan, M. U. i. 162—167, Abd. Ham., ii. 430. Waris, 6a. Murad (Waris, 19b). Shaista Khan (Waris, 38a).
  11. ↑ Abdul Hamid, ii. 712, M. U. iii. 497. Adab, 31a.
  12. ↑ Adab, 31a.
  13. ↑ Adab, 31a, M. U. i. 756, iii, 497, Adab, 20a, 23b, 28a.
  14. ↑ Adab, 31a, 24b, 127b.
  15. ↑ Adab, 24b, 23b, 24a, 25b, 26b, 30a.
  16. ↑ Adab, 31a. I have given the figures exactly as in my authority; but the items when added together do not come up to the total stated.
  17. ↑ Adab, 19b, 25a, 173a. But when he was Governor of Multan he had complained of his fiefs there being unproductive! (See Adab, 172a).
  18. ↑ Adah, 25a, 29a, 32b, 33a, 36a, 41a, 36b.
  19. ↑ Adah, 27a, 28a, 29a.
  20. ↑ Adah, 32b, 33a, 37b.
  21. ↑ Adab, 41a.
  22. ↑ Adab, 20a & b, 26b, 28a, 32a & b, 144a.
  23. ↑ M. U. iii. 500—503. The diwans of this period were, (i) Dianat Khan, from the 14th to the 21st year of Shah Jahan's reign, and again from the 22nd to the 27th (M. U. ii. 37), (2) Multafat Khan, diwan of Painghat only from the 25th to the 29th year, (3) Murshid Quli Khan, appointed diwan of Balaghat in 1653 and of Painghat also on 28 Jan., 1656.
  24. ↑ Life of Murshid Quli Khan in M. U. iii. 493—500. Khafi Khan, i. 714, 732—735. Adab, 24b, 27a, 28a, 43a, 99a, 41a, 30b, 47b. Waris, 67b, 101a, 106a.
  25. ↑ Dilkasha, 25, 26, 38.
  26. ↑ Adab, 26b, 24a & b, 25b.
  27. ↑ Adab, 29b, 35a, 97a.
  28. ↑ Adab, 33a, 172a.
  29. ↑ M. U. i. 166, 786, 787, Waris 39b, 79b, Storia do Mogor, iii. 485.
  30. ↑ Adab, 30b, 27b, 39b, Waris, 87a, M. U. iii. 943—946, 620—623.
  31. ↑ Adab, 27b, 28a & b, 29a, 129b.
  32. ↑ Adab, 177a & b, 24b, 31b, 32a, 193b, 191b.
  33. ↑ Adab 28a, 32a & b, Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, 354.
  34. ↑ Adab, 24b.
  35. ↑ Adab, 84b, 85a and b, 192b, 107b.
  36. ↑ Adab, 26a.
  37. ↑ Adab, 98b, 176b.
  38. ↑ Adab, 41a & b, 177a.
  39. ↑ Deogarh, a village about 24 miles S. W. of Chindwara, picturesquely situated on a crest of the hill." Imp. Gazetteer, X. 206, 13. Waris, 73a.
  40. ↑ Chapter III.
  41. ↑ Adab, 42a and b, Waris, 105a.
  42. ↑ Adab, 43a, 45a, 46a, 47a, Waris, 105b.
  43. ↑ Imp. Gazetteer, x. 13, 206, Khafi Khan, ii. 207, 461, Masir-i-Alamgiri, 273.
  44. ↑ Imp. Gazetteer, xiv. 87 and 88, Waris, 106a, Adab, 37b, 39b, 47a.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Aurangzib/Volume_1/Chapter_9&oldid=14373862"