3 S CHAP. IX.] DECCAN MISGOVERNED. 177 had declined in number and resources, and the revenue had fallen off greatly. vernors. This wretched state of things was the natural result of a succession of short due to frequent changes of go- viceroyalties and incompetent viceroys. Khan-i-Dauran who had succeeded Aurangzib, was murdered a year afterwards. The veteran of a hundred battles, he also worked hard at the administration, transacting public business for twelve hours a day and inspecting everything himself. But he was so pitiless in exacting money from the vil- lage headmen, so harsh in squeezing the ryots, and so rough and strict to all the people under him, that the news of his death threw them into a transport of joy and was celebrated at Burhanpur as a divine deliverance. Islam Khan Mashhadi, a very old man in- capable of riding a horse, next governed the Deccan for two years, and during this short period he estranged the Deccanis by his harsh and strict conduct and enriched himself by sell- ing the Government stores of the forts when
- Khan-i-Dauran succeeds Aurangzib on 28 May, 1644,
and is murdered, during absence in N. India, on 22 June, 1645. Jai Singh then officiates for him. Islam Khan is appointed 17 July, 1645, dies on 2 November, 1647. Shah Nawaz Khan then officiates. Murad Bakhsh is appointed on 15 July, 1648, and Shaista Khan replaces him on 4 Sep., 1649, and continues till September, 1652. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ Į2
