have kept 32,000 horsemen inspite of your (pretended) poverty. Send me 5,000 of them quickly,
as you promised. Do not delay in providing the
arrears of tribute. Recall your men from Mir
Jumla's estates in the Karnatak." A harsh and
rude officer, Mir Ahmad Said, was sent as Mughal
envoy to Golkonda to hustle the defaulting king
and exact the arrears of tribute. "When Aurangzib retreated from Bidar, he thus rebuked Qutb
Shah: "I learn that on hearing of the march of
the Imperial army from Bidar and the circulation
of some false rumours (about Shah Jahan's death)
among the vulgar, you have changed your attitude of fidelity, and your silly ministers have
given you improper counsels,—so that you are
making delay in sending escort and despatching
the collected arrears of tribute; you are trusting
to a fox-like policy and are passing your time
idly under a false hope Relying on false news, you have ceased to keep your former promises!"[1]
But soon afterwards his own needs forced Aurangzib to assume a gentler whose king is at last conciliated. tone. First, he instructed Mir Ahmad not to pain the king's mind in realising the tribute due. Later on, the objectionable envoy was recalled and one more acceptable to the king was sent in his place, with
- ↑ Adah, 69a, 70a-71a.
