CHAPTER II
Haidar rises into notice–Contest for supremacy in Southern India
During the reign of the Emperor Sháhjahán, when his son Aurangzeb was Viceroy of the Deccan, a great part of the Karnátik was overrun by the troops of the King of Bíjapur under the command of Ran Dulhá Khán and Sháhjí, father of the great Sivají. But when Aurangzeb mounted the throne, he determined to crush both the Maráthás and the Musalmán sovereign of Bíjapur, which capital was taken in 1687, when Sírá became the headquarters of an imperial deputy. This post, at the time when Fatah Muhammad, Haidar's father, distinguished himself, as previously mentioned, was held by Dargáh Kuli Khán, who was nominated to it in 1729. He was succeeded by his son Abd-ur-Rasúl Khán, in whose service Fatah Muhammad was killed, with his chief, while fighting against Saádat Ullah Khán, the Nawáb of Arcot. His children, with their mother, were tortured and plundered by the son of the late Súbahdár, and sent adrift to seek a refuge elsewhere.
