Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/143

Rh brought the vizir to his knees; in a year's campaign Ahmadnagar was recovered, and Malik Amber became a tributary vassal. Then followed Shah Jahan's rebellion, disgrace, and flight, and the Deccan province was intrusted to his brother Parviz, who speedily drank himself to death, leaving the command to the general, Khan Jahan.

Throughout Shah Jahan 's reign the Deccan had been constantly disturbed by wars and rebellions. Khan Jahan had revolted in 1629, only to be defeated and killed in Bandelkhand two years later; but his conciliatory policy towards the Deccan kings, to whom he sold Ahmadnagar in order to strengthen his power, had weakened the Moghul position. The campaigns of A'zam, Mahabat, and Asaf Khan did little to restore the lost prestige; but when Shah Jahan advanced in person in 1635, the King of Bijapur at length found himself outmatched, and in the following year consented to a peace by which he agreed to pay £200,000 to Delhi in annual tribute. The Nizam Shah's dominions were absorbed in the Moghul empire, and his dynasty extinguished. So matters remained for nearly twenty years, until Aurangzib became viceroy of the Deccan in 1655, and proved it once more to be the way that led to the steps of the throne. This third son of Shah Jahan, born in 1618, had already been governor of the Deccan in 1636 immediately after his father's successful campaign against Bijapur; but the youth of seventeen seems to have been more occupied with thoughts of the world to come than with the earth