Tempo:
— HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
68 1675-1708.
obedience to the sovereign power; it was also studded over with feudal retainers, and all these hereditary princes and mercenary 'Jagirdars' were ever ready to resist, or to pervert, the measures of the central government. They considered then, as they do now, that a
monarch exercised sway
Sivaji the
Maratha.
Guru Gobind.
Gobind's plans of active opposition,
(about) 1695.
His military posts;
CHAP. lU
for his
own interests only,
without reference to the general welfare of the country; no public opinion of an intelligent people systematically governed controlled them, and applause always awaited the successful aspirant to power. Akbar did something to remove this antagonism between the rulers and the ruled, but his successors were less wise than himself, and religious discontent was soon added The southern to the love of political independence. portions of India, too, were at this time recent conquests, and Aurangzeb had been long absent,^ hopelessly endeavouring to consolidate his sway in that The Himalayas had scarcely been distant quarter. penetrated by the Mughals, except in the direction of Kashmir, and rebellion might rear its head almost unheeded amid their wild recesses. Lastly, during this period, Sivaji had roused the slumbering spirit of the Maratha tribes. He had converted rude herdsmen into successful soldiers, and had become a territorial chief Gobind in the very neighbourhood of the emperor. added religious fervour to warlike temper, and his design of founding a kingdom of Jats upon the waning glories of Aurangzeb's dominion does not appear to have been idly conceived or rashly undertaken.
Yet it is not easy to place the actions of Gobind in due order, or to understand the particular object of each of his proceedings. He is stated by a credible Muhammadan author to have organized his follow^ers into troops and bands, and to have placed, them under the command of trustworthy disciples.- He appears to have entertained a body of Pathans, who are everywhere the soldiers of fortune,^ and it is certain that he established two or three forts along the skirts of the hills between the Sutlej and Jumna. He had a post at Paunta in the Kirda vale near Nahan, a place long afterwards the scene of a severe struggle between the [ 1
A reference to the conquest by Aurangzeb of the king-
(1686) and Golconda (1687). From 1681 to his death in 1707 the Emperor was almost incessantly engaged in a series of campaigns against these kingdoms and the rising power of the Marathas. Ed.]
dom of Bijapur
2
Star ul Mutakharin, i. 113.
The Maratha histories show that Sivaji likewise hired bands of Pathans, who had lost service in the declining kingdom of Bijapur. (Grant Duff, Hist, of the Marathas, i. 165.) 3
68 1675-1708.
obedience to the sovereign power; it was also studded over with feudal retainers, and all these hereditary princes and mercenary 'Jagirdars' were ever ready to resist, or to pervert, the measures of the central government. They considered then, as they do now, that a
monarch exercised sway
Sivaji the
Maratha.
Guru Gobind.
Gobind's plans of active opposition,
(about) 1695.
His military posts;
CHAP. lU
for his
own interests only,
without reference to the general welfare of the country; no public opinion of an intelligent people systematically governed controlled them, and applause always awaited the successful aspirant to power. Akbar did something to remove this antagonism between the rulers and the ruled, but his successors were less wise than himself, and religious discontent was soon added The southern to the love of political independence. portions of India, too, were at this time recent conquests, and Aurangzeb had been long absent,^ hopelessly endeavouring to consolidate his sway in that The Himalayas had scarcely been distant quarter. penetrated by the Mughals, except in the direction of Kashmir, and rebellion might rear its head almost unheeded amid their wild recesses. Lastly, during this period, Sivaji had roused the slumbering spirit of the Maratha tribes. He had converted rude herdsmen into successful soldiers, and had become a territorial chief Gobind in the very neighbourhood of the emperor. added religious fervour to warlike temper, and his design of founding a kingdom of Jats upon the waning glories of Aurangzeb's dominion does not appear to have been idly conceived or rashly undertaken.
Yet it is not easy to place the actions of Gobind in due order, or to understand the particular object of each of his proceedings. He is stated by a credible Muhammadan author to have organized his follow^ers into troops and bands, and to have placed, them under the command of trustworthy disciples.- He appears to have entertained a body of Pathans, who are everywhere the soldiers of fortune,^ and it is certain that he established two or three forts along the skirts of the hills between the Sutlej and Jumna. He had a post at Paunta in the Kirda vale near Nahan, a place long afterwards the scene of a severe struggle between the [ 1
A reference to the conquest by Aurangzeb of the king-
(1686) and Golconda (1687). From 1681 to his death in 1707 the Emperor was almost incessantly engaged in a series of campaigns against these kingdoms and the rising power of the Marathas. Ed.]
dom of Bijapur
2
Star ul Mutakharin, i. 113.
The Maratha histories show that Sivaji likewise hired bands of Pathans, who had lost service in the declining kingdom of Bijapur. (Grant Duff, Hist, of the Marathas, i. 165.) 3
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