Salam,

Can anybody please kindly tell me wat was the reason behind Aurangzebs repeated interest in Deccan..........Wat compelled him to divert his attention from north west of sub cont to south??

AoA

i do pray for ur welbeing and prosperity, well i can summarize my own view point in following lines:

- Aurangzeb, at the time of Shahjehan, had served as Governor of Deccan and then to Badakhshan and Kabul... The period he spent in Deccan was more succesful, tranquil nd region was giving good revenue as compared to North West where he suffered from many defeats from Safavids rulers....

- During last years of Shahjehan, Aurangzeb was again made governor of Deccan but at that time the province was not tranquil and was giving less benefits in shape of revenue. aurangzeb tried to introduce some measures for checking corruption and increasing revenue but his efforts were proved to be drastic for masses as such resentment increased. its stated that during this period he demolished first temple, but perhaps main reason behind this action was getting some wealth from the temple......

- after sitting on throne of Delhi, aurangzeb's ideas could be:

a) increasing wealth of his kingdom
b) consolidation & expansion

- the Deccan region was having wealth and it also required consolidation as well as had room for expansion. shah ji than his son shiva ji had created harasment in the region against the mughal rulers and the region required great attention of the emperor.

- certainly north west region also required attention of the emperor but that area was bordering safavid kingdom and had poor sources of revenue thats why aurangzeb would have thought for diverting his attentions towards the south.

- aurangzeb remained engaged in deccan actively for more thn two decades but it proved to be coffin for him. though shiva ji had to make truce and he made his presence in capital whereby aurangzeb made him general of 5000 soldiers, this was not acceptable to shiva ji as he was thinking himself of getting a good post under emperor resultantly shiva ji fled and again rose maratha flag against mughals.... after shiva his son shahu led the movement.... ....

waisay perhaps in 2005 a question came with regard to deccan activities of aurangzeb, whereon after answering the question i put up my own view point, a gist of which is given below:

"aurangzeb was fighting both in south and north western region, he made a grave mistake by letting shiva go from his darbaar.... he should have made shiva a general of at least 10-15 thousand soldiers (with three small generals under him having 5 thousand soldiers each). the emperor could have asked shiva to add at least 5-8 thousand marathas in this army and would have directed him to fight in north western region... yes against safavids. in this way this stronger army would have easily crushed the army at badakshan, kabul, tranxonia, herat/kandhar etc. and there wont have been presence of great number of soliders in south to rise against the empire... in this way there wont have been any rise of maraatha in the south...... "

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