History of India . ofthe whole territory of the vanished kingdoms, even asfar south as Mysore, was swiftly accomplished. Sivajisbrother was hemmed in at Tanjore, and the Marathaswere everywhere driven away to their mountain crown these successes, Sambhaji was captured bysome enterprising Moghuls at a moment of careless self-indulgence. Brought before Aurangzib, he displayedhis talents for vituperation and blasphemy to such adegree that he was put to death with circimistancesof exceptional barbarity in 1689. The brigands wereawed for a while by the commanding personality andirresistibl
History of India . ofthe whole territory of the vanished kingdoms, even asfar south as Mysore, was swiftly accomplished. Sivajisbrother was hemmed in at Tanjore, and the Marathaswere everywhere driven away to their mountain crown these successes, Sambhaji was captured bysome enterprising Moghuls at a moment of careless self-indulgence. Brought before Aurangzib, he displayedhis talents for vituperation and blasphemy to such adegree that he was put to death with circimistancesof exceptional barbarity in 1689. The brigands wereawed for a while by the commanding personality andirresistible force of the Great Moghul. He had accom-plished a military occupation, not merely of the Deccan,but of the whole peninsula, save the extreme point southof Trichinopoly and the marginal possessions of thePortuguese and other foreigners. Military occupation,however, was not enough, and he determined to makethe southern provinces an integral part of his settledempire, as finally and organically a member of it as the. IS 5H V S •I !? §0, 2 « ca E Si CO o FAILUEE TO HOLD THE DECCAN 165 Panjab or Bengal. With this aim he stayed on and on,till hope and will, unquenchable in life, were stilledin death. The exasperating struggle lasted seventeenyears after the execution of Sambhaji and the captureof his chief stronghold, and at the end success was asfar off as ever. The explanation of this colossal failure is to befoimd partly in the contrast between the charactersof the invaders and the defenders. Had the Moghulsbeen the same hardy warriors that Babar led from thevalleys of the Hindu Kush, or had the Rajputs beenthe loyal heroes who had so often courted destructionin their devoted service of earlier emperors, the Mara-thas would have been allowed but a short shrift. ButAurangzib had alienated the Rajputs for ever, and theywould not risk their lives for him in exterminating apeople who were, after all, Hindus, however inferiorto themselves in caste and dignity. As for the Mogh
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