Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/239

CHAP. IX.] Deogarh was so hard pressed by other claimants to the throne that he went to Aurangzib, accept- ed Islam as the price of Imperial support against his rivals, and promised to serve in the Emperor's wars with the Marathas. Aurangzib, proud of effecting a conversion, baptised the Rajah as Buland Bakht or Lucky (1686). But afterwards (1699) the Rajah's rival died, he fled to his own country and sided with the Maratha raiders! The Emperor was too busy with his enemies in the South to punish him. He vented his impotent rage by ordering the traitor's name to be changed in the official papers into Nagun Bakht or Luckless! The Deogarh chief extended his kingdom at the expense of Chanda and Mandla, and founded the city of Nagpur, which his son, Chand Sultan, walled round and made his capital.

The little State of stands north of of Bombay on a plateau between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. On the north and east it adjoined the Mughal districts of Baglana and Nasik respectively, and on the south it touched the Konkan. Through it one could have access to the rich port of Chaul. Except in some places in the south and west, the country