Chap. IV.] REIGN OF AURUNGZEBE. 307
suspicions were aroused, saw the necessity of no longer dallying. Accordingly, ad. noo. after allowing Rajah Ram to escape, he carried on his operations in earnest, and soon made himself master of the place.
This success was partly owing to internal dissensions which had broken out Mahmttji
, . . . *, . disseiisiouB.
among the Mahrattas. Danajee and Santajee, after acting in concert, had given way to feelings of mutual jealousy, and come to an open ruptm-e. Santajee, as the stricter disciplinarian of the two, was the less popular ; and, after an attempt to maintain his position, found his party so weakened that he had no alternative but flight. He was pursued, overtaken, and, notwithstanding all his services, remorselessly put to death. At this time Rajah Ram had taken up his residence in Sattarah, where he had not only succeeded in again organizing the government, but soon found himself so strong as to be able to take the field at the head of the largest army which the Mahrattas had ever raised. Proceeding northward he crossed the Godavery, levying the chout, and when it was refused, spreading devastation as far as Jaulna, forty miles east of Aurungabad. Here hie progi'ess was checked by a Mogul detachment, headed by his old opponent Zulfikar Khan, who pressed closely upon his track, and inflicted upon him several defeats. These, however, were soon repaired, and the Mahrattas only dispersed for the time, to re-appear in another quarter as strong as ever. On the whole, therefore, the Moguls, even when they gained a victory, were seldom permitted to reap the fruits of it, and hence were gradually becoming more and more exhausted and dispirited.
Aurungzebe could not shut his eyes to the difficulties of his position : and Capture of
® .... . Sttttarali.
though now far advanced in life, gave proof of indomitable energy in the efforts which he made to improve it. Quitting his cantonments on the Beema, he suddenly appeared before Sattarah, which was taken in April, 1700, after a desperate defence, which protracted the siege for several months. While it was carried on. Rajah Ram had died, and been succeeded by a minor son under the regency of his mother, Tara Bai. It is not improbable that this event favoured the Moguls, as, in the coui'se of a few years, all the principal forts of the Mah- rattas were wrested from them. The war, however, still continued, and with every new success gained by Aurungzebe, seemed rather to enlarge its sphere. Under the Mahratta system of devastation, the whole Deccan was converted into a desert, and districts which had previously escaped were thrown into consterna- tion by their incursions. Malwah was almost overrun, and no part of Gujerat felt secure. Even the forts, in the capture of wliich the Mogids had spent so much time and treasure, and lost so many lives, cotdd not be retained, and began to fall, one by one, into tlie hands of their former possessoi-s.
To meet the dangers which thus environed him, all the energy which -Mming- Aurungzebe possessed in the most vigorous period of his life would scarcely have cuitiea. sufficed, and this energy was now forsaking him. Borne down by the weight of years he longed for repose, and was not unwilling to have purchased it by
