Aurangzeb - Deccan Campaigns and the Maratha War

Aurangzeb spent the last 25 years of his reign in the Deccan, engaged in protracted wars that exhausted the imperial treasury and army.

Conquest of Bijapur and Golkonda

In 1686, Aurangzeb annexed the Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur, and in 1687 he conquered the Qutb Shahi Sultanate of Golkonda after a long siege. With these conquests, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, spanning almost all of India except the deep south. However, these victories stretched the empire beyond administrative capacity.

War with the Marathas

The Marathas, under Shivaji (d. 1680) and later his son Sambhaji, posed a formidable challenge through guerrilla warfare (ganimi kava). Aurangzeb personally moved to the Deccan in 1681. He captured and executed Sambhaji in 1689, but Rajaram, Shivaji’s younger son, continued the resistance from Jinji.

The Maratha war became a quagmire. Mughal armies were tied down in endless sieges, ambushes, and mountain warfare. Maratha chiefs like Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav harassed the imperial forces. The prolonged war drained resources, and many jagirdars faced a crisis as the number of claimants outstripped available land revenue.

Consequences

Aurangzeb died in 1707 at Ahmednagar, leaving the empire overextended and internally weakened. The Deccan campaign broke the financial backbone of the empire. Soon after his death, the Mughals lost control of the Deccan, and the Maratha power expanded rapidly.