Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/244

214 The treaties of 1636 has divided the old Ahmadnagar territory between the Emperor of Delhi and the Sultan of Bijapur, made Golkonda a protected tributary State, and clearly marked out the boundary between the Empire and the two Deccani monarchies. Barred in the north by the strong arm of the Mughals, these two States began to give employment to their troops and a free vent to their ambition by engaging in a career of conquest in other directions. Bijapur took possession of the Nizam Shahi Konkan, which had been ceded to it by the treaty with the Emperor, and even attacked the Portuguese possessions north of Goa with some success. Golkonda was cut off by foreign territory from the west. But it was in the eastern side of Southern India that both the Sultans found free scope for expansion. The whole of the Karnatak, from the river Krishna to Tanjore beyond the Kaveri, was covered with a number of petty Hindu principalities, the jarring fragments of the ruined empire of Vijaynagar. These now rapidly fell a prey to Muslim arms. The Golkonda troops advanced conquering to the Bay of Bengal, and occupied the country from the Chilka lake to the Penner river.