Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/242

212 famous for centuries. To its smiling cornfields, tanks teeming with fish, and flourishing handicrafts, must be added the diamond and gold mines which made the name of Golkonda known even in far-off Europe. The kingdom also possessed in Masulipatam the best anchorage in the Bay of Bengal and the only place on the East Coast whence ships sailed for Pegu, Siam, Bengal, Cochin China, the Manillas, and even Mecca and Madagascar. The forests of the kingdom sheltered large herds of highly prized elephants, which added to the wealth of the king. Tobacco and the palm flourished exceedingly, and the excise on tobacco and toddy juice yielded a large revenue.

Since his return to the Deccan in 1653, Aurangzib had frequent cause to quarrel with the king of Golkonda. The annual tribute of two lakhs of hun was always in arrears, and frequent dunning on the part of the Mughal viceroy only met with excuses and petitions for delay. The Emperor asked the Sultan to pay half his tribute in cash and the other half in elephants, of which he had a vast stable. But even this was not done. At