injury. When a young man he had been sent with CHAP. VII. an army to conquer Balkh." He had been defeated, Balkh embassy. humiliated, and subjected to severe privations. When he had established himself on the throne of Hindustan, the Sultan of Balkh sent an embassy with presents to congratulate him on his accession. The Sultan was afraid lest Aurangzeb should march against him with the whole force of the Moghul empire. Aurangzeb had no stomach for another expedition against Balkh, but he is charged with having resented his defeat on the Tartar ambassadors.22 Whilst Aurangzeb was carrying out his reforms in The Dekhan. Hindustan, he was not unmindful of the Dekhan. For many years he had been Viceroy in the Dekhan. He had given his name to the city of Aurangabad. Before the fratricidal war the Dekhan had been the principal sphere of his ambition. The Dekhan is the central zone of India lying be- Geography. tween Hindustan and the Peninsula. On the north it is bounded by the river Nerbudda; on the south, by the river Kistna. East and west it is bounded by the sea. The Muhammadan Dekhan was the square mass of tableland in the centre of the zone. On the west was the mountain territory of the Konkan to the back of Bombay. On the east were the hills and jungles of 21 Balkh, the ancient Bactria, is a famous region, but little known to modern geography. It lies ensconced between the Himalayas and river Oxus. It was there that Alexander the Great lost his heart to Roxana, the fair maiden of Bactria. In modern times it has been a bone of contention between Afghanistan and Bokhara. It never belonged to the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan. 22 Manouchi through Catrou. Bernier denies the fact that the Balkh envoys were insulted. The matter is of no consequence. There was also a sham embassy from the King of Abyssinia. It is described at considerable length by Manouchi and Bernier, but the event is devoid of historical interest or significance. Muhammadan 23 CHAP. VII. Gondwana, which at this period were out of the pale of history. The Muhammadan Dekhan was the causeway which ran from Hindustan towards the Peninsula; it was bounded on one side by mountains, and on the other side by jungles; it was the great highway by which, at different intervals, the conquerors of Hindustan have marched towards the south to plunder the Hindú Rajas of the Peninsula. Bijapur and Rise of The Konkan. The Moghul province of the Dekhan occupied the northern half of this causeway. The southern half was occupied by the Muhammadan kingdoms of Bíjápur and Golkonda. These two kingdoms blocked up the advance of the Moghuls into the Peninsula. For many years Aurangzeb was bent on the conquest of Bíjápur and Golkonda. The two Sultans were Muhammadans, but Aurangzeb detested their creed. They were more or less Shíahs, and the Persian element prevailed in both kingdoms. To make matters worse, the two courts were Hinduised by the employment of Hindú officials. Aurangzeb's early schemes of conquest were thwarted by his father, Shah Jehan. Meantime a cloud was rising in the western Ghats. The Mahrattas of the Konkan were becoming troublesome. Sivaji, the Mahratta chief, was becoming the terror of the Dekhan. He was already a thorn in the side of Bíjápur; he was doomed to become a thorn in the side of the Moghul. The Konkan has always had a history of its own. In ancient times it was a seat of civilisation. Roman merchants traded at its ports; Brahman sages founded 23 This easterly region is shrouded in a mist of legend. It was a terra incognita to Aurangzeb. In the present day it is known by the name of Nagpore and the Central Provinces. Until the administration of Sir Richard Temple in the Central Provinces, it was almost a blank in the map of India. temples and hermitages in the secluded mountains. CHAP. VII. Subsequently the ports swarmed with pirates, whilst the mountains were the strongholds of bandits. Nominally the Konkan was a province of Bíjápur; Origin of Sivaji. practically the Konkan was ruled by a line of chieftains, more or less independent, who were known as Mahrattas. The forefathers of Sivaji were the illegitimate offspring of some Rajpút Raja; they were counted among the vassals of the Sultan of Bíjápur. Sivaji himself acknowledged the superiority of Bíjápur, but lived in rude independence in his mountain fortresses. Sivaji. Sivaji was the type of a Hindú freebooter-a happy Character of mixture of superstition and audacity. He was strict in the worship of Hindú gods, and reverential towards. Brahmans; he was gifted with the intelligence, enterprise, and restless energy of the bandit. Outlaw as he was, he had a tinge of Rajpút blood. He treated women with respect; he never insulted the religion of the Koran. But he wanted the pride, the bearing, the sense of honour, which make up the true Rajpút. He was a rude mountaineer, who could neither read nor write. He was short and active, with long arms and sharp eyes; he was cunning, faithless, treacherous, without shame or scruples of any kind. He had some genius for organisation; plundered on a regular system; planned expeditions into the plains which returned at intervals to the fortresses in the hills. He spared villages and districts on being paid a certain blackmail, which amounted to about one-fourth of the land revenue, and was known as chouth. He 24 Khafi Khan hated the Mahrattas, but does justice to their good traits in the character of Sivaji. CHAP. VII. maintained a strict discipline amongst his bands of marauders. Treachery and assassination. Aurangzeb's alliance with Sivaji. The proceedings of Sivaji and his Mahrattas caused much trouble at Bíjápur. At last the Sultan sent a large army to suppress Sivaji. The Bíjápur general held the Mahrattas in contempt. Sivaji played a game of artifice. He feigned to be in a panic of fear; begged forgiveness; promised obedience for the future; prayed for a private interview to make his submission, receive orders, and arrange about pay. The Bíjápur general was deceived, and consented to a lonely meeting. The details vary in different narratives. All agree that Sivaji carried a secret weapon ringed to his fingers, with steel hooks or spurs, known as tigers' claws. The Mahratta prostrated himself before the Mussulman; he rose up and stood in a respectful posture; he then drove the tigers' claws to the Mussulman's heart. The general fell dead. The Bíjápur army was seized with panic. The Mahrattas fell upon the invaders, routed them in all directions, and returned to their fortresses with the booty. This exploit was noised abroad throughout the Dekhan. Aurangzeb saw that Sivaji would prove a useful ally in the event of a war with Bíjápur. He was already beginning the war against his brothers which led to his obtaining the throne; and in the event of defeat he might find a refuge with Sivaji in the strongholds of the Konkan. He made friends with Sivaji, concluded a treaty, and ceded territory. The alliance reveals the utter hypocrisy of Aurangzeb. He was playing the part of a pious Muhammadan, a devout penitent, vowing to spend the rest of his life in tears and prayers at the tomb of the Prophet. At the same time he was planning a rebellion against his father and a war against his brothers, and providing CHAP. VII. against defeat by securing a refuge with a Hindú brigand who worshipped idols. The fratricidal war broke out. In course of time Amfr Jumla. Aurangzeb became Emperor of Hindustan. He had overcome all his brothers, but he could not leave Delhi whilst his father was a prisoner at Agra. His old friend and supporter, Amír Jumla, had restored quiet in Bengal. Amír Jumla wanted to return to the Dekhan, to conquer Bíjápur and Golkonda, and stamp out Sivaji. But Aurangzeb was jealous of Amír Jumla; he suspected that Amír Jumla wanted to found an independent kingdom in the Dekhan. Accordingly he sent Amír Jumla on a hopeless expedition against Assam, with orders to conquer the whole country as far as the Chinese frontier. and Jaswant Aurangzeb appointed his uncle, Shaista Khan, to be Shaista Khan Viceroy of the Dekhan. He disregarded his treaty with Singh. Sivaji, and told Shaista Khan to suppress the Mahrattas and their Raja. He ordered Jaswant Singh, Raja of Jodhpur, to join Shaista Khan with his Rajpút auxiliaries. He thus got rid of a dangerous man. Jaswant Singh was not loyal to Aurangzeb. He was strongly suspected of seeking to restore Shah Jehan to the Moghul throne. It was, therefore, a stroke of policy to send Jaswant Singh into the Dekhan to fight against the Mahrattas under the eye of Shaista Khan. Sivaji soon saw that Aurangzeb had broken faith Broken faith. with him; but breaches of faith were common enough in India. Sivaji did not take the field against the Moghuls. He permitted Shaista Khan to advance and capture the Mahratta fortress at Poona. The rains were about to begin. Shaista Khan built a |