honourable captivity in his own palace, where he was treated with the greatest respect, and survived his deposition seven years; but Aurungzebe did not consider his throne secure while there remained any member of his A.D. family to disturb it. Morad was invited to an entertain- 1658 ment, and allowed to drink himself into a state of helplessness, when he was taken up and conveyed to the fort of Agra. Soojah was chased by Meer Joomla out of India. Dara fled to Lahore, but was driven from thence to Guzerat, where he obtained aid from the governor, and was 1660 enabled to advance against the emperor, but was defeated, and sought refuge with the raja of Jun, whom he had formerly laid under great obligations. That ungrateful chief, however, betrayed him to his vindictive brother, who paraded him on a sorry elephant through the streets of Delhi, where he had recently been beloved as a master. A conclave of Mahomedan doctors was convened, who gratified the emperor's wishes by condemning him to death as an apostate from the creed of the Prophet. His body was exhibited to the populace on an elephant, and his head was cut off and carried to Aurangzebe. His son, Soliman, was betrayed by the raja of Cashmere, and, like his father, was paraded through the streets of the capital, but with his hands bound in gilded fetters; and his noble bearing and his deep calamity are said to have moved the spectators to tears. He and his younger brother, together with a son of Morad, were consigned to death in the dungeons of Gwalior. Morad himself, after a mock trial for some execution he was said to have ordered when viceroy of Guzerat, was likewise put to death.

One

Aurangzebe had thus in the space of three years secured, to all appearance, the stability of his power by the confinement of his father, and the destruction of his brothers and their families, when his own life was threatened by a dangerous attack of illness, and his court was filled with intrigues while he lay helpless on his couch. party espoused the cause of his eldest son, Muazzim, and another that of Akbar, his brother, while the rajah Jeswunt Rao advanced from Rajpootana and Mohabet from Cabul, to liberate and reinstate Shah Jehau. But Aurangzebe, having passed the crisis of the disease, summoned the officers of his court to renew their allegiance to him, and his recovery dissolved all these disloyal 1662 projects.

A short time previous to the illness of the emperor,

Meer Joomla, who had been appointed governor of Bengal, Meer Joomla assembled a large army and proceeded up the in Assam. Brumhapooter, for the conquest of Assam, and eventually of China. The capital was reduced without difficulty, but the rains set in with extraordinary violence; the river rose beyond its usual limits, and the whole country A.D. was flooded. The supplies of the army were cut off, and a 1663 pestilence completed its disasters, while Meer Joomla was obliged to retreat, and was pursued by the exasperated Assamese. He returned to Dacca in disgrace, and died there at a very advanced age, leaving behind him the reputation of the ablest statesman and general of that age of action. In the letter of condolence which the emperor sent to his son, on whom he conferred all his father's honours, he said, "You have lost a father, and I, the greatest and most dan"gerous of my friends." After the recovery of Aurungzebe, it became necessary for him to send an army to check the devastations of the Mahrattas; and the reader's attention must now be called to the origin and progress of this nation, which rose to dominion on the ruins of the Mogul empire, and for more than a century swayed the destinies of India.

SECTION III.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE MAHRATTAS.

THE Country inhabited by the Mahrattas, designated in the Hindoo shasters, Muharastra, is generally considered to Rise of the extend from the Wurda on the east to the sea Mahrattas. coast on the west, and from the Satpoora range on the north down to a line drawn due east from Goa. The salient feature of the country is the Syhadree mountains, called the ghauts, which traverse it from north to south at a distance of from thirty to fifty miles from the sea, and which rise to the height of 4,000 or 5,000 feet above its level. The strip of land along the sea coast is called the Concan. The inhabitants are of diminutive stature, and present a strong contrast to the noble figure of the Rajpoot, but they are sturdy, laborious, and persevering, and distinguished for cunning." The Rajpoot is the most worthy antagonist, "the Mahratta the most formidable enemy." This mountain region was difficult of access, and its salient points were

strengthened by fortifications. For centuries the Mahrattas had been known as plodding accountants and managers of villages and districts, and it was not till the sixteenth century that they came to be noticed as soldiers. Their country was comprised within the territories of Beejapore and Ahmednugur, and the two kings, who were incessantly at war with each other, or with their neighbours, were happy to employ the Mahratta chiefs in raising levies of their hardy countrymen, each one commanding his own body of free lances. It was the wars which raged for a century in the Deccan which cradled their military prowess, and no small portion of the national aristocracy trace their origin to the distinction gained in these conflicts and the lands they acquired; but it was chiefly under Malik Amber that they made the most rapid strides to military and political importance. A community of village clerks and husbandmen was transformed into a nation of warriors, and it only required a master spirit to raise them to empire. Such a spirit appeared in Sevajee.

Mallojee Bhonslay was a man of ignoble rank, but a valiant captain of horse in the service of the king of Ahmednugur at the beginning of the seventeenth Origin of century, and obtained from the venal court the Shahjee. jageers of Poona, Sopa and some other districts. His son Shahjee inherited the jageers on his death in 1620, and A.D. augmented his military force and his importance by a close 1620 alliance with Malik Amber. Nine years after he joined the revolt of Jehan Lodi, already mentioned, but deserted his cause when it began to wane, and went over to the Moguls, by whom he was rewarded with the title of a commander of 5,000, and the confirmation of his jageer. Soon after he again changed sides, and on the capture of the young king was sufficiently strong to set up a pretender and obtain possession of all the districts of the kingdom, from the sea to the capital. After a warfare of three years with the imperial troops, he was driven out of the country, and having obtained an asylum at the court of Beejapore, was entrusted with an expedition to the Carnatic. His success was rewarded with the extensive jageers in the vicinity of Bangalore, which he had conquered, and he formed the design of establishing an independent Hindoo kingdom in the extreme south of the peninsula, resigning his Poona jageer to his son Sevajee.

Sevajee, the founder of the Mahratta empire, was born 1627 in 1627, and his father having taken a second wife-was

A.D.

Birth and

Sevajee.

placed under the tutelage of Dadajee Punt, a Brahmin, who, in conformity with the national usage in a community in which all the chiefs were illiterate, early life of managed the affairs of the estate. Sevajee, who was never able to read or write, became expert in the use of the weapons required in the hills, and in all manly exercises, and an accomplished horseman. He likewise grew up a devout and rigid Hindoo, with a profound veneration for brahmins and a cordial hatred of mahomedans. His young imagination was kindled by the recital of the national epics, and he longed to emulate the exploits cele1643 brated in them. At the age of sixteen, he formed an association of youths of wild and lawless habits, with whom he engaged in hunting or marauding expeditions, and thus became familiar with every path and defile in the hills. Having trained the inhabitants of his native glens, the Mawulees, to arms and discipline, he commenced his career 1646 of ambition at the age of nineteen by capturing the hill Captures the fortress of Torna, and the next year erected the fort of Torna fort of Rajgurh, which became his headquarters. These proceedings roused the attention of the king of Beejapore, and Shahjee, to whom the jageer belonged, was called to account for them. He remonstrated with Dadajee Punt, the guardian of his son, who entreated Sevajee to desist from a course which must inevitably bring destruction on the family; but the old man perceived that the purpose of his pupil was not to be shaken, and, worn out with age, disease, and anxiety, sunk into the grave; but just before his death is said to have sent to Sevajee, and advised him to prosecute his schemes of independence, to protect brahmins, kine, and husbandmen, and to preserve the Hindoo temples from violation.

Sevajee immediately took possession of the jageer, and 1648 with the treasure which had been accumulated by his guarSevajee's ac- dian, augmented his force, and within two years quisitions. extended his authority over thirty miles of territory, attacked a convoy of royal treasure and carried off three lacs of pagodas to his eyrie in the mountains. The audacity of these and similar proceedings roused the indignation of the Beejapore monarch, who seized the father Shahjee, and threatened him with death. Sevajee, then twenty-two, entered into a negotiation with the emperor Shah 1649 Jehan on his father's behalf, which is believed to have saved him from a cruel death, though he was detained for four years at Beejapore, till the increasing disorders in the Carnatic

induced the king to release him and send him back to his government. During the period of his father's detention, Sevajee discreetly abstained from further encroachments, but renewed them on his release, and by an act of base treachery, which has inflicted a deep stain on his memory, caused two chieftains of Jowlee to be assassinated.

While Aurangzebe was engaged in hostilities with Beejapore, Sevajee professed himself a devoted servant of the throne of Delhi, and obtained a confirmation His interof his title to the lands he had wrested from the course with Aurungzebe. empire. But no sooner had the prince set his face towards Delhi to secure the crown, than the Mahratta chief began to ravage the Mogul territories. To extend his A.D. operations to a more distant sphere, he likewise organised 1657 that corps of light horse which afterwards became the scourge of India. At the same time, he took a body of mahomedans into his service, but placed them under Mahratta officers. The success of Aurungzebe's efforts to obtain the throne gave just alarm to Sevajee, and he sent an envoy to Delhi to excuse his incursions and to conciliate the emperor, and offered to protect the Mogul interests in the Concan if they were intrusted to his charge. Aurungzebe considered that the security of these possessions in the Deccan was likely to be promoted by encouraging the Mahratta adventurer, and consented to his occupation of that maritime province; but in his attempt to take possession of it, Sevajee experienced the first reverse he had ever sustained.

The court of Beejapore was at length roused to the danger of these incessant encroachments, which had been 1659 increasing in audacity for fourteen years, and sent Afzool Khan Afzool Khan with a body of 12,000 horse and assassinated. foot and a powerful artillery to suppress them. He was a vain and conceited nobleman, and Sevajee determined to destroy him by treachery. He professed a humble submission to the king, and offered to surrender all the territories he had usurped if he were allowed to hope for forgiveness. Afzool Khan was thrown off his guard by this flattery, and agreed to give a meeting to Sevajee with only a single attendant. Sevajee performed his religious devotions with great fervour, and advanced with all humility to the interview, and while in the act of embracing Afzool, plunged a concealed weapon into his bowels, and despatched him with his dagger. The troops of the murdered general were suddenly surrounded by a body of