Short notes on the relation between Aurangzeb and the Marathas

After the conquest and annexation of Bijapur and Golcunda, Aurangzeb decided to take action against the Marathas. Sambhaji had made no preparation to avert the danger that threatened all the Deccan States alike. It is true that his soldiers raided the Mughal Provinces as usual but he was not wise enought to follow any well-concerted plan of action so that the Mughals might be diverted from Bijapur and Golcunda.

There were frequent rebellions, desertions and plot against Sambhaji after 1684. He had gone from Raigarh to Khelna and from there to Sangmeshwar where he wested his time in sensual pleasures. The usual Maratha vigilance was slackened. Muqarrab Khan, a young and enterprising Myghal Officer, started with 2000 picked cavalry and 1000 infantry and after a series of forced marches surprised and captured Sambhaji on 3 February, 1689. After giving him the most barbarous treatment, Sambhaji was executed on 11 March, 1689 by the oders of Aurangzeb.

This incident closed the first phase of the Deccan Wars of Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb could certainly take pride in the fact that he had come out victorious all around. He could claim the conquest of Bijapur and Golcunda, occupation of Sagar, Raichur, Adoni, Bangalore, Wandiwash, Conjivaram, Belgaum and Banapur in the South and East, the conquest of many Maratha Fortresses and the capture and execution of Sambhaji.

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His rebellious son Akbar had sailed for Persia, never to return to India again. It appeared as if Aurangzeb had come to the end of his mission. He had only to sweep off the “accursed Marathas” into the hell, devastate and annex their territory and then come back to Delhi.

However, he had not reckoned the potentialities of the Marathas correctly. He encountered a stubborn resistance actuated by a grim determination on the part of the Marathas. It is true that the States of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golcunda had disappeared never to rise again but unlike them the Marathas were full of energy, initiative and daring. They were a rising people.

It is true that the execution of Sambhaji stunned the Marathas and Raja Ram was driven south to take shelter in Jinji. However, at that hour of national crisis, the genius of the Maratha people saved them. The people and their leaders took up in right earnest the task of self-defense. It was no more a war between a Maratha King and the Mughal Emperor but a war of the Maratha people against foreign aggression.

Only five days after the capture of Sambhaji, Raja Ram was taken out of the prison and set up on the throne in the Fort of Raigarh, but the fort was besieged by the Mughals in the same month. After holding out for month Raja Ram slipped out of it and ultimately entered Jinji in November 1689 in the guise of a poor man. Raja Ram had gone there with the object of dividing the Mughal Forces between Maharashtra and Karnataka so that he may be able to make a stand against the Mughals with the help of Shahji II of Tanjore who was his first cousin.

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Raja Ram was to direct operations from Jinji in consultation with Prahlad Niraji, Dhanaji Jadhav, Santaji Chorpade and other Maratha Leaders. Ramchandra Pant Amatya was to take the supreme control of the affairs in Maharashtra with the help of Shankarji Malhar and other Maratha leaders. Ramchandra Pant was given the title of Hukumatpanah which made him virtually the Ruler of Maharashtra in the absence of Raja Ram.

During the year 1689, many important Maratha Forts fell into the hands of the Mughals along with their capital. Acting in the interest of Aurangzeb, the Siddi compelled the Marathas to evacuate Chaul and Underi. Aurangzeb did not pay much attention to the conquest of the remaining barren hill forts of the Marathas in the West. He kept himself busy with the occupation of Bijapur and Golcunda for three years from 1689 to 1691.

It was during this period that the Marathas made a supreme effort to recover from the shock and reorganise themselves for fighting in the future. On 25 May, 1690, Santaji Ghorpade surrounded Rustam Khan and won a decisive victory over the Mughals. In the same year, Ramchandra Pant and Shankarji Malhar won back the Forts of Pratapgarh, Rohira and Torna from the Mughals.

In 1692, Panhala was recovered by the Marathas; Aurangzeb deputed Prince Muizuddin to take back that fort. The fort held out for a year till October 1693 when Dhanaji Jadhav appeared with a vast army of the Marathas and inflicted a defeat on the besiegers and withdrew.

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Aurangzeb was not satisfied with the performance of Prince Muizuddin and deputed Prince Beedar Bakht in 1695, but he also did not do well. Severe reverses were sustained by the Mughals in the South. By the end of 1695, Santaji Ghorpade defeated and killed Qasim Khan and Himmat Khan who were first-rate Generals of the Mughal Empire.

The year 1690 opened badly for the Mughals in Karnataka. The old Haidarabadi Officers who had been taken in the Mughal Service revolted but their rebellion was suppressed by Zulfikar Khan. Zulfikar Khan was ordered to besiege Jinji but that was not an easy matter. The reason was that there was a group of forts and Raja Ram could conveniently manage to slip in and slip out of those forts. The result was that the Mughals were not able to achieve anything substantial in 1691 and 1692.

In December 1692, Santaji Ghorpade looted Kanjivaram and arrested its Governor; Dhanaji Jadhav surrounded the trenches of Zulfikar Khan around Jinji and cut off his supplies. Prince Kambaksh, another son of Aurangzeb, opened treasonable negotiations with Raja Ram. He not only slighted Zulfikar Khan but also hampered the progress of the siege of Jinji. The result was that the Mughals abandoned the siege of Jinji in January 1693 and renewed the same towards the end of 1694. Once again, Dhanaji Jadhav and Santaji Ghorpade appeared on the scene and forced the Mughals to raise the siege of Jinji.

Raja Ram opened negotiations for peace in 1696 but Aurangzeb rejected him and ordered Zulfikar Khan to capture Jinji without delay. The siege of Jinji was renewed in November 1697 but two months after, Raja Ram managed to escape from Jinji along with his chief officers first to Vellore and then to Vishalgarh. In September 1698, Raja Ram again asked for peace but the same was rejected. Early in 1699, Raja Ram visited the Konkan Territory.

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In September of the same year, he made preparations for raiding Khandesh and Berar. He had to give up his plan because Aurangzeb himself took over the command in October 1699. Aurangzeb pursued Raja Ram from place to place till the latter died on 2 March, 1700. In spite of his death, the people rose to defend themselves. Aurangzeb was determined to crush the Marathas and he decided to conquer all the Maratha Forts which were considered to be the backbone of Maratha power. Aurangzeb started from Islampuri on 19 October, 1699 to fight against the Marathas and he continued the war for 6 years.

Inspite of that, the important hill forts of Satara, Parli, Panhala were captured. With the exception of Torna, all the forts were captured without paying any money. The last campaign of Aurangzeb was against Wagingera which was obstinately defended from 8 February to 27 April, 1705. After that, Aurangzeb had to withdraw on account of his health. In the rainy season of that year, the Marathas recovered Singharh and many other forts. The truth was that the Marathas recovered the forts as soon as Aurangzeb moved away from them.

During the year 1706-7, the roving bands of the Marathas under Dhanaji Jadhav, Nimaji, Sindhia and others ruthlessly ravaged Gujarat, Berar and Khandesh. Under the table guidance of Tara Bai, the widow of Raja Ram, the Marathas followed the policy of carrying war into the territory of the enemy and that proved to be highly effective. Already, the Mughal Government in the provinces beyond the Narbada had been paralysed.

The Maratha raids worsened the situation and there was confusion all round. Mughal prestige, along with the Mughal Government, was wrecked. Fighting against the Marathas. Aurangzeb died on 20 February, 1707. He must have been unhappy that the mighty Mughal Empire had failed to crush the Marathas.

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The view of V.A, Smith is that the Deccan proved to be not only the grave of Aurangzeb but also of the Mughal Empire. It was unwise on the part of Aurangzeb to conquer the States of Bijapur and Golcunda. The annexation of those states destroyed the check on the Marathas.

It was difficult for Aurangzeb to deal with the Marathas from so distant a place as Delhi and therefore he had to spend the rest of his life in the Deccan to subdue the Marathas. It was a fatal step which Aurangzeb took. On account of his long absence from the North, the administration of the country was thrown out of gear The Provincial Governors and Faujdars defied the central authority and there was none to curb them. The result was that towards the end of his life, Aurangzeb could see his own Empire breaking up.

The oeprations of the Mughal Armies led to a total destruction of forests and grass. The Mughal Armies are up everything green. The Maratha raiders destroyed whatever they could not carry. They fed their horses on the standing crops and burnt the houses and property.The country presented a scene of utter desolation. The power of resistance of the common man was weakened on account of the long duration of the war.

When famine and drought came, the peasants and landless laborers perished like flies. Village industries and industrial classes almost died out. The financial condition of the Mughal Empire became so weak that it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The morale of the Mughal Army in the Deccan was broken.

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Soldiers grew sick of the endless and futile war. Sir Jadunath Sarkar writes that “The war in the Deccan exhausted the Mughal Treasury and the Government became bankrupt. The soldiers, starving from arrears to pay, mutinied. Napoleon used to say that the Spanish ulcer ruined him and it could be said of Aurangzeb that the Deccan Ulcer ruined him.

Menisci writers that Aurangzeb left behind him “The fields of these provinces devoid of trees and bare of crops, their places being taken by the bones of men and beasts.” The total deforestation injured agriculture. Scarcity was chronic in the imperial camp and often deepened into famine. Raiding bands were locally formed and many got an opportunity of making money. Trade almost ceased to exist in the Deccan.

Caravans could travel to the South of the Narbada only under strong escorts. The Deccan wars lowered the mechanical skill and standards of civilization of the Indians. To quote Sir Jadunath Sarkar again, “All seemed to have been gained by Aurangzeb now, but in reality all was lost. It was the beginning of his end.” Lawlessness reigned in many parts of Northern and Central India. Mughal Administration became slack and corrupt. Art and learning decayed on account of withdrawal of imperial patronage. Not a single grand edifice, finely written manuscript or exquisite picture commemorates the Reign of Aurangzeb.

The question can be raised why Aurangzeb failed in the Deccan. A part of the answer is to be found in the contrast between the characters of the Mughals and the Marathas. The Mughals themselves had degenerated during their stay in India and also due to too much of prosperity.

Three or four generations of court life ruined their manliness. They had their heavy armor and comfortable saddles. They were adorned for processions and not to fight in a hilly country like the Deccan. The Maratha soldiers were quite the opposite of it. They were hardy soldiers who could put up with hardships with a smile.

They felt that they were fighting a patriotic war and that gave them all the courage and tenacity to fight against the Mughals. The Mughals were more in numbers and resources and they could defeat the Marathas in pitched battles but they were helpless against the guerilla tactics of the Marathas. The result was that Aurangzeb lost the war in the Deccan.

It is rightly said that Akbar began the Deccan conquest with the full support of the Rajputs, with the full sympathy of the Hindus and a strong and stable frontier line on the North-Western Border of the Mughal Empire. His successors continued the war of conquest in the Deccan but the internal troubles of the Mughal Empire, sometimes the revolt of a royal prince or of a noble, sometimes a war on the North-Western Frontier or a revolt of the people, came as a great handicap.

The situation became worse in the time of Aurangzeb. The whole of India was seething with disaffection. The frontier tribes were up in arms. In spite of that, Aurangzeb wanted to conquer the Marathas and the Deccan States. With the Rajputs alienated, the Hindus, the Sikhs and the people of the Deccan antagonized, he had no chance to win and no wonder he lost.