366 NORTH-IVESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH. Kanauj, fled first to Delhi, then to Lahore, and finally to Sind; while Sher Shah made himself Emperor, and proceeded to carry out a magnificent scheme for the consolidation of all India. For this purpose he constructed a great military road from Bengal to the Indus, and improved the conumunications throughout his whole dominions. After a reign of five years, however, he was killed by the explosion of a magazine at the siege of KALINJAR, a hill fort in Bundelkhand. His two sons successively followed him on the throne, but failed to maintain their dynasty. In 1555, Humayún returned from Kábul to Hindustan, which he found in a state of complete anarchy, and re-established himself as Emperor, placing his capital at Delhi. The Mughal dynasty, thus restored, continued to hold the empire of India till the rise of the Maráthá power. During the flourishing period of the Mughals, the North-Western Provinces had no proper history of their own. The great Akbar, the reorganizer of the Mughal system, lived for the most part at Agra, where he built the magnificent fort in 1566, afterwards beautified by the palace of Jahangir, the famous Taj Mahal, and the great mosque of Shah Jahán. In 1570, Akbar founded the city of FATEHPUR SIKRI, where he intended to place the seat of government; but after erecting several splendid architectural works, he again changed his plans, and finally died at Agra in 1605. It was not till the reign of Aurangzeb that Delhi became the permanent capital. Amongst other incidents of this prosperous age, may be mentioned the first construction of the Eastern Jumna Canal by Ali Mardan Khán, the engineer of Shah Jahán ; and the erection of many of the principal buildings which still remain in all the great towns of the Provinces. With the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, began the rapid downfall of the Mughal power. The Maráthá reaction to the south, and the rise of the Sikh religion to the north-west, began to threaten the integrity of the Delhi empire, which received a severe shock in 1737 when Bájí Ráo marched to the gates of the capital; and a still more terrible reverse in the succeeding year, when Nadir Shah crossed the Indus, and, after defeating the Emperor, plundered Delhi of a vast treasure, variously stated from 9 to 32 millions sterling. Within the NorthWestern Provinces, the process of disintegration had already begun. As early as 1671, during the lifetime of Aurangzeb, Chhatar Sál, a young Bundela chief, had headed an insurrection in his native hills, which continued intermittently throughout the next half-century. (See BANDA District.) After a desperate struggle, Chhatar Sal finally accepted, in 1732, the aid of the Peshwa Baji Ráo, who was then slowly working his way up through Khandesh and Málwá to Hindustán. About two years later, Chhatar Sál died, and bequeathed one-third of his dominions to the Peshwa, while the remainder was divided amongst his own descendants.
