Aurangzeb Dies, Mughal Empire Unravels

March 3, 1707

At eighty-eight, after forty-nine years of austere rule and endless war in the Deccan, the last great Mughal emperor died in his tent, asking to be buried without ceremony. His sons fell instantly to fighting. The empire he had stretched to its greatest extent began immediately to come apart. Within a generation, provincial governors in Hyderabad, Bengal, and Awadh would rule as kings in all but name.