Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/72

42 (who still led a shadowy Nizam Shahi king by the string), and the capture of a few forts like Udgir and Ausa, where the old Nizam Shahi officers still defied the Mughals. The Bijapur king, therefore, requested Shah Jahan to return to Northern India, as his continued presence with a large army was scaring away the Deccan peasantry from their homes and fields, and preventing the restoration of cultivation. As for the five forts in Shahji's hands, Adil Shah himself would wrest them from the usurper for the Mughals.

Nothing being now left for Shah Jahan to do in the Deccan, he turned his back on Daulatabad (11th July, 1636) and set out for Mandu. Three days afterwards he sent away Aurangzib after investing him with the viceroyalty of the Deccan.

The Mughal Deccan at this time consisted of four provinces:—

I. or the Tapti valley, between the Satpura range in the north and the Sahyadri mountain in the south, with its capital at Burhanpur and fort at Asirgarh.