(who still led a shadowy Nizam Shahi king by
the string), and the capture of a few forts like
Udgir and Ausa, where the old Nizam Shahi
officers still defied the Mughals. The Bijapur
king, therefore, requested Shah Jahan to return
to Northern India, as his continued presence with
a large army was scaring away the Deccan
peasantry from their homes and fields, and preventing the restoration of cultivation. As for
the five forts in Shahji's hands, Adil Shah himself
would wrest them from the usurper for the
Mughals.
Nothing being now left for Shah Jahan to do in the Deccan, he turned his back on Daulatabad (11th July, 1636) and set out for Mandu. Three days afterwards he sent away Aurangzib after investing him with the viceroyalty of the Deccan.[1]
The Mughal Deccan at this time[2] consisted of four provinces:—
I. Khandesh or the Tapti valley, between the Satpura range in the north and Mughal provinces in the Deccan. the Sahyadri mountain in the south, with its capital at Burhanpur and fort at Asirgarh.