"At the beginning of this period, there was music and drinking, noisy entertainers and crowds of prostitutes, a time of foolery and joking, effeminacy, and chasing ater transvestites.
"All pleasures, whether forbidden or not, were available and the voice of the spiritual authorities grew indistinct, drowned out in the uproar of partying.
"People got used to vice and forgot to promote what was decent, for the mirrors of their hearts could no longer reflect a virtuous face -- so much so, that when the catastrophe happened and socierty was torn apart, it was no longer capable of being mended."
Shakir Khan, a contemporary nobleman, describes social conditions at the time of the fall of the Mughal empire in India, c. 1740 AD. Quoted in The Anarchy: The East India Comopany, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire, by William Dalrymple, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.
When the Persian Nadir Shah invaded India in 1739, he found the Mughal army in complete disarray, defeating them easily in the battle of Karnal. There followed the massacre of hundreds of thousands, unprecedented looting, rapine and plunder.
Nadir Shah took away billions of dollars (in today's money) of treasure, as well as the Peacock Throne. He left Mughal Empire impotent and vulnerable to complete decomposition. It never recover its glory and power. All that remains of the Mughal empire in India are a few crumbling ruins to be seen in Delhi and elsewhere, as well as the famous Taj Mahal, which is also crumbling.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)
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