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 CHAPTER XI

The Fall of Golkonda

Aurangzíb had been badly served by his generals in the Deccan: but the fault was his own. His morbid distrust had thwarted their efforts; the command had been divided between jealous rivals; the forces at their disposal had been insufficient to crush Sivají or subdue the southern kings; and the commanders had been too frequently superseded to permit of connected and prolonged energy. It is possible that the languid progress of his arms in the Deccan was not wholly undesigned by the Emperor. He may have intended to give the rival forces in the south time to destroy each other, and anticipated an easy triumph over a disorganized and exhausted enemy. So far as the two kingdoms of Bíjápúr and Golkonda were concerned, his forecast was accurate enough. Their armies seem to have melted away; they had fallen so low as to pay blackmail to the Maráthás; Golkonda had already grovelled before the Mughals, and it was only owing to the interference of Sivají that Bíjápúr had not become a Mughal city in 1679. But the weakening of the old Deccan kingdoms had