Page:History of the French in India.djvu/372

 348 BUSSY TO 1754. chap, dynasties to be occupied by the Mughals, he filched J, whole districts for himself. So successful had he been 1751. in such enterprises, that on his death, in 1679, he left as an inheritance to his son the western or seaboard portion of the territories that owed allegiance to the rulers of Aurangabad and Bijapur. The consequence of this, and of the subsequent contest of the Marathas with Aurangzeb, was that on the death of that prince in 1707, the territory called the Dakhan, dependent on Delhi, comprised the ancient kingdom of Golkonda, a portion of the old kingdom of Aurangabad, with Aurangabad itself, and but a small slice of Bijapur. Dependent on this, however, was the long slip of 560 miles of territory on the eastern coast, known as the Karnatik. The western coast, with the exception of the parts occupied by the English and Portuguese, but including the cities of Puna, Satara, and Bijapur, had become permanently Maratha. Aurangzeb was himself exercising regal functions in the Dakhan when his last illness attacked him at Ahmadnagar. On his death — February 21st, 1707 — the authority in that quarter devolved upon his son, Azim Shah, with whom was the best officer of the late Emperor, Zulfikar Khan. When, notwithstanding the efforts of Zulfikar, Azim Shah was defeated and slain by his brother Sultan Muazzam, at Agra, in June of the same year, the latter so highly appreciated the talents of his opponent's general, that he at once appointed him Subadar of the Dakhan, conferring upon him at the same time the title of Amir-ul-umara, or lord of lords. Zulfikar, however, preferred the intrigues of the Delhi court to an independent viceroyalty. He accepted, indeed, the appointment, but, leaving Daud Khan Pani as his deputy, he joined Muazzam, who had assumed the title of Bahadur Shah. On the death of this prince, in 1712, a grand opportunity was offered to Zulfikar for the exercise of the adroit baseness that with