Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/149

 CHAPTER IX

The Deccan

'Delhi is distant,' says an old Deccan proverb, and many an Indian king has realized its force, when grappling with the ineradicable contumacy of his southern province. The Deccan (Dakhin, Dak-han, 'the South') was never intended by nature to have any connexion with Hindústán. The Vindhya and Satpúra mountains and the Narbadá river form a triple line of natural barricades, which divide the high table-land of Central India from the plains of the Ganges and its tributaries, and should have warned the sovereigns of Delhi that it was wiser to keep to their own country. But the Deccan lands were fertile; their wealth in gold and diamonds was fabulous; and every great ruler of the northern plains has turned his eyes to the mountain barriers and longed to enter the land of promise beyond. They entered, however, at their peril. To conquer the Deccan was another phrase for risking the loss of Hindústán; for he who invaded the southern people who dwelt between the Gháts was in danger of teaching them the road to the north.