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Aurangzeb
- Aurangazeb (AD 1658-1707) was considered one of the ablest of the Mughal kings
- Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s 49 years of ruling period are considered as the “Golden age” of the Mughal Empire
- Under the Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb’s reign, the empire reached its greatest height, and although the Deccan policy and The Religious Policy led to its dissolution
- He adopted the regnal title Alamgir (Persian: “Conqueror of the World”)
- The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri was compiled by Aurangzeb. He was among the few monarchs to have fully established Sharia law and Islamic economics throughout the Indian subcontinent
- Aurangzeb was called “Zinda Pir” due to his simple living and high thinking
- When Aurangzeb died after ruling for nearly 49 years, the Mughal empire was confronted with many challenging problems. His successors failed to cope with them which led to the collapse of the empire in the mid-18th century
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Deccan Policy of Aurangzeb
- During the first half of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb’s rule, which lasted till about 1707, Aurangzeb was an efficient Muslim emperor of a mixed Muslim-Hindu empire
- Aurangazeb was feared and esteemed by many for his robustness and skill but disliked by many for his barbarity and orthodox policies
- During the early period of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb’s rule, he diverted his attention toward protecting the northwest province from Central Asian Turks and Persians
- It was at this time, that he had a conflict with the Maratha chief Shivaji Maharaj, who twice raided the great port of Surat in 1664 and1670
- Aurangzeb pursued his great-grandfather Akbar’s policy for conquest which was to defeat your enemies, reconcile with them, and place them in imperial service
- Following the policy, Shivaji Maharaj was defeated and was called to Agra for reconciliation in 1666, and was given an imperial rank
- However the plan broke down, Shivaji Maharaj fled to the Deccan and died as the ruler of an independent Maratha kingdom in 1680
- Then, to contain the spread of the Marathas, Aurangazeb decided to invade Bijapur and Golconda in 1686- 87
- Aurangzeb defeated Sikandar Shah of Bijapur and annexed the Bijapur kingdom. After this, he proceeded against Golkonda and eliminated the Qutub Shahi dynasty
- Though he destroyed the Deccan provinces, it was a political blunder
- Destruction of Deccan Kingdoms brought Mughals and Marathas face to face, which ensued confrontation between these two powers
- In addition, his Deccan campaigns exhausted the Mughal treasury
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Religious Policy
- Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb was an ardent Sunni Muslim and a champion of Sunni orthodoxy
- This prompted him to strictly enforce the Quranic laws according to which, to his mind, every pious Muslim must carry on Jihad i.e. holy war against Dar-ul-Harb i.e. the land of the non-Muslims till they were turned into Dar-ul-Islam that is the land of Islam
- He established a separate department to enforce moral codes under an officer called Muhtasib
- The use of bhang and other drugs was prohibited. Drinking was prohibited in the Mughal emperor Aurangazeb period
- Aurangazeb forbade music in the Mughal court
- He discontinued the practice of Jharokha darshan (addressing the public from the balcony)
- He discontinued the practice of inscribing the Kalima on the coins. He also banned the Navroz festival (a Parsi New Year Day)
- At first, he banned the construction of new Hindu temples and the repair of old temples. Then started destroying it
- The celebrated temples at Benares and Mathura lost their charm
- He re-imposed jaziya (pilgrim tax)
- He was an orthodox Sunni Muslim and was not tolerant of other Muslim sects such as Shia
- Aurangzeb even punished the Sufi saints because of their liberal religious views
- He was against Sikhs and he also executed the ninth Sikh Prophet, Guru Teg Bahadur
- Because of his religious policy, the Rajputs, the Jats of Mathura, the Satnamis of Mewars, the Marathas, and the Sikhs turned into the enemies of the Mughal Empire
- Aurangzeb made the grave mistake of identifying his religion with the state and that generated a feeling of discontent among different sections of people which even during his lifetime distracted his energies and became the major cause of the decline and fall of the Empire
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Conclusion
Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir was the sixth ruler of the Mughal empire and was considered to be the last of the great Mughals. Perhaps his early experiences of being held hostage by his grandfather and being constantly overworked by his father distorted the young prince’s personality.
Although Aurangzeb was certainly a fearless man who knew what he had to do in order to survive, the choices made by him left the Mughal empire itself resisting foreign imperialism in the end. During his 49 years long reign, he had done much to extend the frontiers of the empire he had inherited from his father, Shahjahan, but the extensive military campaigns he conducted created a financial drain on his resources. The burden of oppressive taxation started to fall on the peasantry and political feudatories who owed their position to Aurangzeb were constantly breaking loose from the emperor’s control.
