The Central Asian Policy
The Central Asian adventures of the Mughuls also ended in disasters. Shah Jahan, like his father and grandfather, dreamt of reconquering the old territories of his ancestors in Central Asia. “Ever since the beginning of his reign,” writes ‘Abdul Hamid Lahori, “the Emperor’s heart had been set upon the conquest of Balkh and Badakhshan, which were”hereditary territories of his house, and the keys to the acquisition of Samarqand, the home and capital of his great ancestor Timur,”. But the difficulties of mobilising a large army through the lofty -anges of the Hindukush were great, an ‘ d the utility of the enterprise for the Mugbul Empire in India was very doubtful. Shah Jahan, however, did not consider this. “The prosperity o f his reign and the flattery of his courtiers had turned his head and he was dreaming the vainest of vain dreams.” In 1646, circumstances being favourable owing to the outbreak of a civil war in the ruling house of the Oxus region, Prince Murad and ‘Ali Mardan occupied Balkh and Badakhshan, which lay hemmed in between the Hindukush and the Oxus. But to consolidate these conquests became impossible. Sick of the uncongenial climate of Balkh and other difficulties, Prince Murad came back to India against the desire of his father, for which he was disgraced. The wazir, Sa’dullah Khan, was soon sent to Balkh to set things right. In the next year the Emperor, determined not to give up his conquests, dispatched Aurangzeb to Balkh with a large army. But the Uzbegs now organised a national resistance against the Mughuls in the face of which Aurangzeb, in spite of his sincere and earnest efforts, could achieve nothing and had to retreat to India after suffering terrible hardships. The Central Asian campaigns cost the Mughul Empire immense loss of men and money. As Sir J. N. Sarkar remarks: “Thus ended Shah Jahan’s fatuous war in Balkh-a war in which the indian treasury spent four krores of rupees in two years and reahsed from the conquered country a revenue of 22« lakhs only. Not an inch of territory was annexed, no dynasty changed, and no enemy replaced by an ally on the throne of Balkh. The grain stored in the Balkh fort, worth five lakhs, and the provisions in other forts as well, were all abandoned to the Bukharians, besides Rs. 50,000 in cash presented to Nazar Muhammad’s grandsons and Rs. 22,500 to envoys. Five hundred soldiers fell in battle and ten times that number (including camp-followers were Salin by cold and snow on the mountains. Such is the terrible price that aggressive imperialism makes India pay for wars across the northwestern frontier.”
Shah Jahan and the Deccan State
Shah Jahan resumed the traditional policy of expansion in the South, the whole of which had not been, as we have already noted, thoroughly subdued by Akbar. Akbar could only conquer Khindesh and annex a portion of Berar. Jahangir’s attempt to conquer Ahmadnagar was successfully checked by its able minister, Malik ‘Ambar. Bijapur and Golkunda continued to enjoy independence. Much was still left to be accomplished before Mughul imperialism could triumph completely over the Peninsula.
The Nizam Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar, because of its proximity to the Mughul frontier in the south, was the first to feel the weight of Mughul After the death of Malik ‘Ambar, the saviour of Ahmadnagar from Mughul attack during the reign of Jahangir, in 1626, the kingdom was in a moribund condition. Internal dissensions between the Sultin and his minister, Fateh Khan, the unworthy son of the noble Abyssinian Malik ‘Ambar, brought the kingdom within the clutches of the Mughuls in the course of a few years. In 1630 the Mughuls failed to capture Parenda, a strong fortress belonging to Ahmadnagar. But Fateh Khan, dissatisfied with Sultan Nizam-ul-mulk, entered into negotiations with the Mughul Emperor and at the suggestion of the latter secretly made away with his master. To perpetuate his own influence he placed on the throne Nizam-ul-mulk’s son, Husain Shah, a boy only ten years old. He was not at all sincere in his friendship with the Mughuls. When the Mughuls besieged the fortress of Daulatabad in 1631, he at first went against the imperialists but was soon won over by them with a bribe of ten and a half lacs of rupees, and surrendered the fortress. Thus the same ignoble means which had given Asirgarh to the Mughuls were used by them also to secure Daulatabad. Ahmadnagar was annexed to the Mughul Empire in A.D. 1633, and the nominal king, Husain Shah, was consigned to life-long imprisonment in the fort of Gwalior. The dynasty of the Nizam Shahis thus came to an end, though an successful attempt to revive it was made in 1635 by Shahji, father of the celebrated Shivaji. As a reward for his help to the Mughuls, Fateh Khan was enrolled in the imperial service at a liberal salary.
The independence of the Shiah States of Golkunda, and Bijapur was highly offensive to the imperialistic and religious zeal of Shah Jahan. The encroachments of the imperial troops on their territories had already begun in 1629 and 1631 respectively. In the year 1635, when the rulers of those two States secretly helped Shivji, who made an attempt to set up a Nizam Shahi boy as the nominal Sultan of the now defunct kingdom of Admadnagar, the Mughul Emperor called upon them to acknowledge his suzerainty, to send tribute regularly, and to abstain from helping Shahji. He marched in person to the Deccan to enforce his demands and on reaching Daulat&bad on 21st February, 1636, made vigorous preparations to attack the Deccan States. Overawed by these, ‘Abdullah Shah, Sultan of Golkunda,, acknowledged the suzerainty of Shah Jahan by complying with all the demands of the latter, au(,h as paying an annual tribute to the Emperor, and to striking coins, and having the Khutha read, in his name.
But the Adil Shah of Bijapur refused to submit to the imperial behest and made a bold stand to defend his rights. Three Mughul armies then attacked his kingdom from three side me, under Khan-i-Daurin, from Bidar in the north-east, another, under Khan Jahan, through Sholapur in the west, and the third, under Khan-i- Zaman, by way of Indrapur in the north-west. Though by resorting to the time-honoured expedients of cutting off the supplies of the enemy and poisoning the wells, the Bijapur soldiers bravely defended the capital city, the rest of their kingdom was devastated by the Mughuls. Thus the Sultan was compelled to sue for peace, which was concluded in May, 1636. He acknowledged the suzerainty of the Mughul Emperor, and was required not to molest the kingdom of Golkunda, which was now a dependency of the Emperor. Besides being allowed to hold his ancestral kingdom, the Sultan got portions of the territory of the Ahmadnagar kingdom, the rest of which was absorbed into the Mughul Empire. Both the parties agreed not to suborn their respective officers, and the Sultan was not to assist, or give shelter to, Shahji. “Thus after forty years of strife (15951636),” writes Sir J. N. Sarkar, “the affairs of the Deccan were at last settled. The position of the Emperor was asserted beyond challenge, his boundaries clearly defined, and his suzerainty over the southern kingdoms formally established.” The Emperor left the Deccan on the 11th July, 1636, and sent his third son, Aurangzeb, then a youth of eighteen, as viceroy of the Mughul Deccan. It was then a fairly extensive territory, comprising four provinces, Khindesh, Berar, Telingana, and Daulat,b&d, and estimated to yield an income of five crores of rupees a year. It contained sixty-four hill forte, some of which were still in the on of Shahji and other hostile chiefs.
