Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/173

Rh (1675). Then he turned to his father's old jágír in the south, which extended as far as Tanjore, and was now held for the King of Bíjápúr by Sivaji's younger brother. After forming an alliance with the King of Golkonda, who was jealous of the predominance of Bíjápúr, and after visiting him at the head of 30,000 horsemen and 40,000 foot, Sivají marched south to conquer the outlying possessions of the common enemy, and to bring his brother to a sense of fraternal duty. He passed close to Madras in 1677, captured Jinjí (600 miles from the Konkan) and Vellór and Arní, and took possession of all his father's estates, though he afterwards shared the revenue with his brother. On his return to the Gháts, after an absence of eighteen months, he compelled the Mughals to raise the siege of Bíjápúr, in return for large cessions on the part of the besieged government. Just as he was meditating still greater aggrandizement, a sudden illness put an end to his extraordinary career in 1680, when he was not quite fifty-three years of age. The date of his death is found in the words Káfir bejahannam raft, 'The Infidel went to Hell .'

'Though the son of a powerful chief, he had begun life as a daring and artful captain of banditti, had ripened into a skilful general and an able statesman, and left a character which has never since been equalled or approached by any of his countrymen. The distracted state of the neighbouring