Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/66

36 independent charge, with its separate viceroy and capital, (November, 1634). Early in the next year a Mughal force from Daulatabad gave Shahji a long chase, but returned to Ahmadnagar without being able to catch the swift Maratha. The Emperor himself arrived at Daulatabad to direct the operations (21st February, 1636.) Three large armies, totalling 50,000 men, were held ready to be launched upon Bijapur and Golkonda if they did not submit, while a fourth, eight thousand strong, under Shaista Khan, was despatched to capture the Nizam Shahi forts in the north-west, and to take possession of the Junnar and Nasik districts.

The news of this immense armament cowed down Abdullah, the king of Golkonda, and without striking a blow in defence of his independence he agreed to become a vassal of the Mughals. With an abjectness shameful in a crowned head, he promised an annual tribute, coined gold and silver pieces at his capital in the name of Shah Jahan, and caused the Mughal Emperor to be proclaimed from the pulpit as