CHAPTER VII THE FALL OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE THE HINDU REVIVAL 1707-1765 A. D. A UBANGZIB was the last of the Great Moghuls, -j^- in all save the name. He had been by far the most powerful of the line; he had ruled wider terri- tories and commanded vaster armies than Akbar; and he had governed his teeming populations with an ab- solute despotism in which no other man had a voice. What Akbar had achieved by broad-minded statesman- ship, and Shah Jahan by imposing majesty and pano- plied array, Aurangzib had accomplished by the ex- ercise of an iron will and indomitable personal labour. Through the greater part of his long reign no sovereign was ever more abjectly feared and obeyed; certainly none showed a more marvellous grasp of administra- tion. Then, at the last, the effects of too close re- pression, of overgovernment, and of excessive central- 173
