Undaunted. bravery, grim tenacity of purpose, and ceaseless activity, were some of his prominent qualities. His military campaigns give sufficient proof of his unusual courage, and the manner in which he baffled the intrigues of his enemies shows him to have been a past-master of diplomacy and Eitate-craft-. His memory was wonderful, and his industry indefatigable. He personally read all petitions and orders on them with his own hand. The Italian physician Gemelli-Careri, who visited India ‘during the reign of Aurangzeb and saw him in 1695 when he was seventyseven years old, ” to see him endorse the petitions with, his own hand, without spectacles, and by his cheerful, smiling countenance seemed to be extremely pleased with the employment”.
In spite of his vitality and strength of character, Aurangzeb, as a ruler of India, proved to be a failure. He hardly that the greatness of an Empire depends on the progress of its people as a whole. In the intensity of his religious zeal he ignored, the feelings of important sections of the people and thus roused forces hostile to his Empire. Indeed, the history of India since the days of the Mauryas clearly shows ,that political progress in this land is dependent on the policy of religious toleration which would seek to create harmony in the midst of various discordant elements. To build up a united India, while accentuating religious differences, is bound to remain an idle dream. Further, Aurangzeb’s plodding industry and capacity for work in one sense went against him by implanting in his mind a sense of over-confidence, and excessive distrust of his officers. This led him to interfere constantly in the minutest &&ire of the State., It resulted in keeping the local officers in a state of perpetual tutelage, and crushing their initiative, sense of responsibility, and efficiency, which could not but produce “administrative degeneration in an extensive and diversified empire like India”. Khafi Khan gives the following estimate of the Emperor from the point of view of an orthodox Sunni: “Of all the sovereigns of the House of Tim(ir -nay of all the sovereigns of Delhi-no one, since Sikandar Lodi, has ever been apparently so distinguished for devotion, austerity and justice. In courage, long-suffering and sound judgment, he was unrivalled. But from revise of the injunction of the Law he did not make use of punishment, and without punishment the administration of a country cannot be maintained. Dissensions had arisen among his nobles through rivalry. So every plan and project that he formed came to little good and every enterprise which he undertook was long in execution and failed of its object.”
The Marathas and the Mughuls in the Seventeenth Century
Rise of the Marathas
The rise of the Maratha power introduced an important factor in Indian politics during the second half of the seventeenth century, as that of Vijayanagar had done in a previous age. The Marathas had brilliant traditions of political and cultural activities in the early Middle Ages of Indian history, when they upheld the national cause under the Yadavas of Devagiri. They lost their independence with the fall of the Yadava Ramchandradeva in the time of ‘Ala-ud-din, but in forty years they began again to play an important- part in the Bahmani kingdom and subsequently in the succeeding Sultanates. The seventeenth century saw them organized into a national State. There is no doubt that Shivji was the hero of this Maratha national unity, but it has to be noted that the ground was prepared for his glorious achievements by several other factors.
Firstly, the geography of Maharashtra exercised a profound influence in moulding the character and history of its people. Enclosed on two sides by mountain ranges like the Sahyadri ,running from north to south, and the Satpura and the Vindhya running from east to west, protected by the Narmada and the Tapti rivers and provided with numerous easily defensible hill-forts, the Maratha country ” could not be annexed or conquered by one cavalry dash or even one year’s campaigning”. The rugged and unproductive soil of the land, its precarious and scanty rainfall, and its meagre agricultural resources, kept the Marathas immune from the vi of luxury and idleness and helped them to develop the Virtues of ” self-reliance, courage, perseverance, a stem simplicity, a rough straight-forwardness, a sense of social equality, and consequently pride in the dignity of man as man “. Secondly, the Maratha religious reformers, Ekanath, Tukaram, Ramdas and Vaman Pandit, preaching, through successive centuries, the doctrines of devotion to God and of equality of all men before Him, without any distinction of caste or position, and the dignity of action, had sown in their land the seeds of a renaissance or self-awakening which is generally the presage of a political revolution in a country. Ramdas Samarth, Guru of Shivaji, exerted a profound influence on the minds of his countrymen and inspired them with ideals of social reform and national regeneration through his disciple in maths (monasteries) and his famous work known as Dasabodha. Thirdly, literature and language supplied another bond of union among the sons of Maharishtra. The devotional songs of religious reformers were composed in the Marathi language, and consequently a forceful Marathi literature grew up during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to inspire the people of the land with noble aspirations. “Thus,” observes Sir J. N. Saxkar, “a remarkable community of language, creed and life was attained in Maharastra ‘ in the seventeenth century even before political unity was conferred by Shivaji. What little was wanting to the solidarity of the people was supplied by his creation of a national State, the long struggle with the invader from Delhi under his sons, and the imperial expansion of the race under the Peshwas.” The Marathas had also acquired some previous experience of political and military administration through their employment in the Sultanates of the Deccan. Shahji, father of the famous Shivaji, began his career as a trooper in the army of the Sultan of Ahmadnagar. He gradually rose to distinction, acquired vast territorial possessions in that State, and played the king maker during the last years of the Nizam Shahi rule. But his success excited the jealousy of others, and after the annexation of Ahmadnagar by Shah Jahan, he entered the service of the Bijapur State in 1636. Here also he earned considerable fame and received an extensive fief in the Karnatak, besides his old jagir of Poona which he had held as a servant of the Ahmadnagar State.
