(i) During the phase of Mughal decline many states arose in terms of resources, longevity and economic character.

(ii) States like Hyderabad were located in an area that had harboured regional state in the immediate pre-Mughal period and thus had an older local or regional tradition of state formation. Others were states that had a more original character and derived from very specific processes that had taken place in the course of the late 16th and 17th centuries.

(iii) Many of the post Mughal states were based on ethnic or sectarian groupings-the Marathas, the Jats, and the Sikhs.

(iv) In due course, the enrichment of the regions emboldened local land and power- holders to take up arms against external authority. However, mutual rivalry and conflicts prevented these rebels from consolidating their interests into an effective challenge to the empire. They relied on support from kinsfolk, peasants, and smaller zamindars of their own castes. Each local group wanted to maximise its share of the prosperity at the expense of the others.

(v) The necessity of emphasising imperial symbols was inherent in the kind of power politics that emerged. Each of the contenders in the regions, in proportion to his strength, looked for and seized opportunities to establish his dominance over the others in the neighbourhood. They all needed a kind of legitimacy, which was so conveniently available in the authority of the Mughal empire. They had no fear in collectively accepting the symbolic hegemony of the Mughal centre, which came to coexist with their ambitions.

(vi) The gradual weakening of the central authority set in motion new types of provincial kingdoms. Nobles who had ability and strength sought to build a regional base for themselves. For example, having failed to reform the administration, the wazir Chin Qilich Khan. relinquished his office in 1723 and in October 1724 marched south to establish the state of Hyderabad in the Deccan.

(vii) At this state the chief concern of the Mughal court was to ensure the flow of the necessary revenue from the provinces and maintenance of at least the semblance of imperial unity.

(viii) Disintegration of the empire provided opportunities to the Marathas to begin their northward expansion and overran Malwa, Gujarat, and Bundelkhand.