Jinji, having stood a siege of about eight years, was captured by Zu’lfiqar Khan in January, 1698. But Rajaram had escaped to Satara, where he gathered -a powerful army and resumed the struggle in the northern Deccan, where Aurangzeb had assembled his forces. The imperialists besieged the fort of Satara in December. 1699, but the garrison defended it heroically till, after the death Of Rajaram on the 12th March, 1700, it was surrendered on certain terms by his minister, Parashuram. The Emperor now seized fort after fort of the Marathas in person, but what they lost one day was regained by them the next day and the war was protracted interminably.
After the death of Rajaram, his widow, Tara Bai, a lady of masterly spirit, guided the destiny of the Maratha nation at this juncture as regent for her minor son, Shivaji III. She was, as even the hostile critic Khifi Khan admitted, “a clever, intelligent woman, and had obtained reputation during her husband’s lifetime for her knowledge of civil and military matters”. Having organized the administration of the State and suppressed the quarrels of the rival parties’ for succession to the throne, she, as Khafi Khan tells us, “took vigorous measures for ravaging the imperial territory and sent armies to plunder the six subahs The party of Tara Bai and her son; that of Raja Bai, anotbor wife of Rajaram and mother of Shembhuji 11; and that which supported the cause of Shihu, son of Shambhuji 1. of the Deccan as far as Sironj, Mandasor and the subshs of Malwa. The Marathas had already invaded Malwa in -1699. In 1703 a party of them entered Berar (a Mughul province for a century). In 1706 they raided Gujrat and sacked Baroda , and in April or May, 1706, a large Maratha army threatened the Emperor is camp at Ahmadnagar, whence they were repulsed after a long and severe contest. Thus by this time the Marathas, with their resources enormously increased through raids, practically became masters of the situation in the Deccan and also in certain part of Central India. As an eye-witness, Bhimsen, wrote: “The Marathas became completely dominant over the whole kingdom and closed the roads. By means of robbery they escaped from poverty and -rose to great wealth.” Their military tactics also underwent a change, the immediate effect of which was good for them. As Manucci noted in 1704: “These (Maratha) leaders and their troops move in them days with much confidence, because they have cowed the Mughul commanders and inspired them with fear. At the present time they posses artillery, musketry, bows and arrows, with elephants and camels for all their baggage and tents. . . . In short, they are equipped and move about just like the armies of the Mughuls. . . . Only lances few years ago they did not march in this fashion. In those days their arms were only lances and long words two inches wide. Armed thus, they used to prowl about on the frontiers, pinking up here and there what they could; then they made off home again. But at the present time they move Mm conquerors, showing no fear of any Mughul troops.” Thus all the attempts of Aurangzeb to crush the Marathas proved quite futile. Maraths nationalism survived a triumphant force which his feeble successors failed to resist.
The Later Mughul Emperors
The death of Aurangzeb on the 3rd Much, 1707, was the signal for the disintegration of the mighty Mughul Empire. Aurangzeb’s apprehension that a civil war would break out among his sons after him, to prevent which, it is said, he left a will directing his three surviving sons, Muazzam, Muhammad `A’zam and Muhammad Kam Bakhsh, to partition the Empire peacefully, was justified. No sooner had he breathed his last than his three sons entered into bitter fratricidal quarrels for the possession of the throne of Delhi. Of the three brothers, Mu`azzam was then governor of Kabul, ‘A’zam of Gujarat, and the youngest, Muhamamad Kam Bakhsh, of Bijapur. Kam Bakhsh though he assumed “all the attributes of sovereignty”, could not leave the Deccan. But the eldest, Mu`azzam, hurried towards Agra from Kabul; and A`zam also marched towards the same city. Mu`azzam proposed to `A`zam a partition of the Empire on the lines laid down by their deceased father, but the latter did not accept these suggestions and resolved to fight for his right to the throne. Nothing but the sword could now decide the issue, and the two brothers soon resorted to it. They met at Jajau a few miles from Agra in June 1707, and `A`zam lost the day as well as his life. After a brief expedition to Rajputana, Mu`azzam marched to the Deccan, and Kam Bakhsh, being defeated near Hyderabad, died of wounds early in 1708.
Mu`azzam ascended the throne under the title of Bahadur Shah (also known as 9th ‘Alam I). Though “a man of mild and equitable temper, learned, dignified and generous to a fault”, he was too old to prevent the decline of the Empire. His death on the 27th February, 1712, was followed by a fresh war of succession among his four sons, Jahandar Shah, `Azim-us-Shan, Jahan Shah and Rafi-us-Shan. The last three were killed in course of the war, and Jahandar Shah secured the throne with the help of Zu`lfiqar Khan, who became the chief minister of the State. Jahandar was completely under the influence of a favourite lady named Lal Kumari. “In the brief reign of Jahandar”, observes Khafi Khan, “violence had full sway. It was a fine time for minstrels and singers and All the tribes of dancers and actors.” He was not, however, destined to enjoy power for a long time, but was deposed and strangled in the fort of Delhi under the order of ‘Azim-us-Shan’s son, Farrukhsiyar, who proclaimed himself Emperor in A.D. 1713. The king maker, Zu’lfiqar Khan, was also executed.
