Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/157

Rh Agra as hostages for his loyalty. The change of command made no difference, as it happened; for Jumla at once joined his troops to Aurangzíb's, in close alliance, and the two proceeded to wrench the castle of Bídar from the possession of 'Ádil Sháh of Bíjápúr. Kaliání and Kulbarga were then taken, and the conquest of Bíjápúr itself seemed imminent, when the serious illness of Sháh-Jahán summoned Aurangzíb away to graver matters.

Seven years passed before the troubles in the north, the war of succession, and the initial difficulties of settling his kingdom, left the new Emperor leisure to attend to the affairs of the Deccan. Meanwhile a new power had arisen in the south, a power which sprang from such needy and insignificant beginnings that no one could have foretold its future malignant domination. The Maráthás began to make themselves felt.

This notorious Hindú people inhabited the country lying between the Indian Ocean and the river Warda; their northern boundary was the Satpúra range, and on the west coast they extended as far south as Goa. Their strength lay in the inaccessible fastnesses of the Western Gháts, which climb precipitously to the great plateau that stretches right across the Deccan to the Bay of Bengal.

'The whole of the Gháts and neighbouring mountains often terminate towards the top in a wall of smooth rock, the highest points of which, as well as detached portions on