Under Aurangzeb’s successors the decay of empire was hastened by several causes and the spirit of lawlessness rampant throughout the land. In such circumstances ruin of Mughal Empire was inevitable.
Aurangzeb, as a ruler of India proved to be a failure. He hardly realised that the greatness of an empire depends on the progress of its people as a whole, largely owing to the emperor’s each of political foresight. The symptoms of the integration of Mughal Empire appeared before he left the world. His successors only hastened the process of decay.
Disintegration of the Mughal Empire
The death of Aurangzeb on the 3rd March, 1707, was a signal for the disintegration of the mighty Mughal Empire, which dazzled the contemporary world by its extensive territories, military might and cultural achievements. The reign of Aurangzeb was the swan-song of the Mughal rule in India. No sooner had he breathed his last then his three sons Muazam, Muhammad Azam and Muhammad Khan Baksh entered into bitter oratorical quarrels for the possession of the throne of Delhi. While nine Mughal Emperors followed one another in quick succession in the fifty years following the death of Aurangzeb, many adventurers Indian and foreign carved out independent principalities for themselves. Mughal government of Oudh, Bengal and the Deccan freed themselves from the control of the Central Government. The Hindu powers found the time opportune for assertion of their independence. Invaders from the North-West repeated their incursions in search of wealth and the European trading companies interfered in Indian Politics. In spite of all these external and internal dangers, dissolution process of the Central structure of the great Mughal Empire was slow and long drawn out process. BajiRao’s raid of Delhi(1773) and Nadir Shah’s invasion(1739) exposed the hollowness of the Mughal Empire and by 1740 the fall of the empire was an accomplished fact. Among the various causes responsible