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THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH COMPANIES had owed its strength to the severe competitive trials in which each successor had proved his capacity for kingship. But as Aurangzib died at an advanced age, the contest had long been foreseen and deliberately pre- pared for. He left his dominions in confusion, with a formidable revolt spread- ing among the Marathas; his empire was unwieldy and overgrown; and this time the struggle among his heirs brought out no successor capable of hold- ing together the ill- joined provinces and discordant races. The freebooting companies of the Maratha chiefs soon developed into roving armies that over- ran the central and west- ern regions. The great viceroyalty of the south- ern provinces was converted into an independent principality under the Nizam. Bengal, the richest province of India, fell away under an Afghan adven- turer; the Sikhs were rising in the Pan jab; a power- ful official was founding his dynasty in Oudh; and various usurpers were setting themselves up in the remoter districts. The dominion which had been planted in the six- teenth century by the vigour and audacity of Babar A CORNER OP THE DIVAN - I - KHAS AT AMBER.