Emperor's personal friends were
Brahmans and Rajputs, and the principal Hindu states (except Mewar) sent
daughters to his harem. In religion he was eclectic and loved to hear
theological argument. Towards the end of his life he adopted many Hindu
usages and founded a new religion which held as one of its principal
tenets that Akbar was God's Viceregent. His successors, Jehangir and
Shah Jehan, were also tolerant of Hinduism, but Aurungzeb was a
fanatical Moslim and though he extended his rule over all India except
the extreme south, he alienated the affection of his Hindu subjects by
reimposing the poll tax and destroying many temples. The Rajputs, Sikhs
and Marathas all rebelled and after his death the Empire entered into
the third period in which it rapidly disintegrated. Hindu states, like
the Maratha confederacy and Rajputana, asserted themselves. Mohammedan
governors declared their independence in Oudh, Bengal, the Nizam's
dominions and elsewhere: Persians and Afghans raided the Panjab: French
and English contended for the possession of southern India.

It would be outside the purpose of this book even to outline the
establishment of British authority, but I may mention that direct
European influence began to be felt in the sixteenth century, for Vasco
da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498 and Goa was a Portuguese possession
from 1510 onwards. Nor can we linger over the fortunes of the Marathas
who took the place of Vijayanagar as the Hindu opposition to
Mohammedanism. They are, however, important for us in so far as they
show that even in matters political the long Moslim domination had not
broken the spirit of the Hindus. About 1660 a chieftain named Sivaji,
who was not merely a successful soldier but something of a fanatic with
a belief in his divine mission, founded a kingdom in the western Ghats
and, like the Sikh leaders, almost created a nation, for it does not
appear that before his time the word Maratha (Maharashtra) had any
special ethnic significance. After half a century the power of his
successors passed into the hands of their Brahman ministers, known as
Peshwas, who became the heads of a confederacy of Maratha chiefs,
including the Rajas of Gwalior, Berar and Orissa, Indore and Baroda.
About 1760 the Marathas were practically masters of India and though the
Mughal Emperor nominally ruled at Delhi, he was under their tutelage.
They had a chance of reviving the glories of Asoka and the Guptas, but,
even a