Aurangzeb

Early life

Aurangzeb was born in Dahod on 3 November 1618. He was the sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Aurangzeb was a patrilineal descendent of Timur.

In June 1626, after an unsuccessful rebellion by his father, eight-year-old Aurangzeb and his brother Dara Shikoh were sent to the Mughal court in Lahore as hostages of their grandfather Jahangir and his wife, Nur Jahan, as part of their father's pardon deal. After Jahangir died in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged victorious in the ensuing war of succession to the Mughal throne. Aurangzeb and his brother were consequently reunited with Shah Jahan in Agra in 1628. Aurangzeb's daily allowance was fixed at 500 rupees.

As a Mughal prince, Aurangzeb received an education covering subjects like combat, military strategy, and administration. His curriculum also included areas like Islamic studies, Turkic and Persian literature. Aurangzeb grew up fluent in the Hindustani language. He was also fluent in his ancestral language of Chagatai Turkic, but similar to his predecessors, he preferred to use Persian. He had mastered the Quran and the hadith.

On 28 May 1633, a war elephant stampeded through the Mughal imperial encampment. Aurangzeb rode against the elephant and threw his spear at its head. He was unhorsed but escaped death. For his courage, Aurangzeb's father conferred on him the title of Bahadur (brave) and presented him with gifts. When chided for his recklessness, Aurangzeb replied:

If the fight had ended fatally for me it would not have been a matter of shame. Death drops the curtain even on emperors; it is no dishonor. The shame lay in what my brothers did!

Historians have interpreted this as an unjust taunt with cowardice against his brothers. Shuja had also faced the elephant and wounded it with his spear. Dara had been too far away to come to their assistance.

Three days later Aurangzeb turned fifteen. Shah Jahan weighed him and presented him 5,000 mohars, the elephant named Sudhakar, along with other presents worth 200,000 rupees. His bravery against the elephant was documented in Persian and Urdu verses.

Career as prince

In December 1634, he was assigned to his first post with the rank of ten thousand horse and four thousand troopers, also was allowed to use the royal prerogative of red tent. Aurangzeb was nominally in charge of the force sent to Bundelkhand with the intent of subduing the rebellious ruler of Orchha, Jhujhar Singh, who had attacked another territory in defiance of Shah Jahan's policy and had refused to atone for his actions. By arrangement, Aurangzeb stayed in the rear, away from the fighting, and took the advice of his generals as the Mughal Army gathered and commenced the siege of Orchha in 1635. The campaign was successful and Singh was removed from power.

First Deccan governorate (1636–1644)

Aurangzeb was appointed viceroy of the Deccan in 1636. After Shah Jahan's vassals had been devastated by the alarming expansion of Ahmednagar during the reign of the Nizam Shahi boy-prince Murtaza Shah III, the emperor dispatched Aurangzeb, who in 1636 brought the Nizam Shahi dynasty to an end. The Mughal provinces of Deccan at that time were Khandesh, Berar, Telangana and Daulatabad. The entire region with 64 forts, were in charge of Aurangzeb, while ten more forts had yet to be conquered by the Mughals. In 1637, Aurangzeb married the Safavid princess Dilras Banu, posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani. She was his first wife and chief consort as well as his favourite. He also had an infatuation with a slave girl, Hira Bai, whose death at a young age greatly affected him. In his old age, he was under the charms of his concubine, Udaipuri Mahal. The latter had formerly been a companion to Dara Shukoh.

In the same year, 1637, Aurangzeb was placed in charge of annexing the small Rajput kingdom of Baglana, which he did with ease. In 1638, Aurangzeb married Nawab Bai, later known as Rahmat an-Nisa. That same year, Aurangzeb dispatched an army to subdue the Portuguese coastal fortress of Daman, however his forces met stubborn resistance and were eventually repulsed at the end of a long siege. At some point, Aurangzeb married Aurangabadi Mahal, who was a Circassian or Georgian.

Aurangzeb arrived in Agra on 2 May 1644 to see his sister Jahanara who was severely burnt in an accident two months prior. Shah Jahan was outraged to see Aurangzeb enter the interior palace compound in military attire and immediately dismissed him from his position of viceroy of the Deccan; Aurangzeb was also no longer allowed to use red tents or to associate himself with the official military standard of the Mughal emperor. Other sources state that Aurangzeb was dismissed from his position because Aurangzeb left the life of luxury and became a faqir.

Aurangzeb's first viceroyalty of the Deccan lasted eight years from 14 July 1636 to 28 May 1644 before his dismissal.

Governor of Gujarat (1645–1647)

In 1644–45, he was barred from the court for seven months. It is reported that he mentioned his grief about this to fellow Mughal commanders. Thereafter, Shah Jahan appointed him governor of Gujarat. His tenure in Gujarat was marked with religious disputes but he was rewarded for bringing stability. In September 1646, Shah Jahan called Aurangzeb off from Gujarat, assigning the charge to Shaista Khan. On 20 January 1647, he met the emperor at Lahore, where he was promoted as the chief commander of Balkh and Badakhshan.

Governor of Balkh (1647–1648)

In 1647, Shah Jahan transferred Aurangzeb from Gujarat to Balkh, replacing a younger son, Murad Baksh, who had proved ineffective there. The area was under attack from Uzbek and Turkmen tribes. The Mughal artillery and muskets were offset by the skirmishing skills of their opponents which led to a stalemate. Aurangzeb discovered that his army could not live off the land, which was devastated by war. It is recorded that during the battle against the Uzbeks during this campaign, Aurangzeb dismounted from his elephant ride to recite prayer to the surprise of the opposing force commander.

With the onset of winter, he and his father had to make an unsatisfactory deal with the Uzbeks. Mughals had to give away territory in exchange for nominal recognition of Mughal sovereignty. The Mughal force suffered still further with attacks by Uzbeks and other tribesmen as it retreated during the snowfall to Kabul. By the end of this two-year campaign, into which Aurangzeb had been plunged at a late stage, a vast sum of money had been expended for little gain.

Governor of Multan and Sindh (1648–1652)

Further unsuccessful military involvements followed, as Aurangzeb was appointed governor of Multan and Sindh. His efforts in 1649 and 1652 to dislodge the Safavids at Kandahar which they had recently retaken after a decade of Mughal control ended in failure as winter approached. The logistical problems of supplying an army at the extremity of the empire, combined with the poor quality of armaments and the intransigence of the opposition have been cited by John Richards as the reasons for failure. A third attempt in 1653, led by Dara Shikoh, met with the same outcome.

Second Deccan governorate (1653–1658)

On 17 July 1652, Aurangzeb became viceroy of the Deccan again after he was replaced by Dara Shikoh in the attempt to recapture Kandahar. Aurangzeb's two jagirs (land grants) were moved there as a consequence of his return. Deccan was a relatively impoverished area, which caused him to lose out financially. The area required grants were required from Malwa and Gujarat in order to maintain the administration. The situation caused ill-feeling between him and his father Shah Jahan who insisted that things could be improved if Aurangzeb made efforts to develop cultivation.

Aurangzeb appointed Murshid Quli Khan to extend the zabt revenue system used in northern India to the Deccan. Murshid Quli Khan organised a survey of agricultural land and a tax assessment on what it produced. To increase revenue, Murshid Quli Khan granted loans for seed, livestock, and irrigation infrastructure. This led the Deccan region to return to prosperity.

Aurangzeb proposed to resolve financial difficulties by attacking the dynastic occupants of Golconda (the Qutb Shahis) and Bijapur (the Adil Shahis). This proposal would also extend Mughal influence by accruing more lands. Aurangzeb advanced against the Sultan of Bijapur and besieged Bidar. The Kiladar (governor or captain) of the fortified city, Sidi Marjan, was mortally wounded when a gunpowder magazine exploded. After twenty-seven days of fighting, Bidar was captured by the Mughals, and Aurangzeb continued his advance. Aurangzeb would go on to successfully capture the fort of Kalyani two months after the capitulation of Bidar, but his invasion of Bijapur would be cut short by a peace treaty negotiated by Shah Jahan with Bijapur which ceded Bidar, Parenda, and Kalyani. Aurangzeb suspected Dara had exerted influence on his father. He believed that he was on the verge of victory in both instances, and was frustrated that Shah Jahan chose then to settle for negotiations with the opposing forces rather than pushing for complete victory.

War of succession

The four sons of Shah Jahan all held governorships during their father's reign. The emperor favoured the eldest, Dara Shikoh. This had caused resentment among the younger three, who sought at various times to strengthen alliances between themselves and against Dara. There was no Mughal tradition of primogeniture, the systematic passing of rule, upon an emperor's death, to his eldest son. Instead it was customary for sons to overthrow their father and for brothers to war to the death among themselves.

Historian Satish Chandra says that "In the ultimate resort, connections among the powerful military leaders, and military strength and capacity [were] the real arbiters". The contest for power was primarily between Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb because, although all four sons had demonstrated competence in their official roles, it was around these two that the supporting cast of officials and other influential people mostly circulated. There were ideological differences – Dara was an intellectual and a religious liberal in the mould of Akbar, while Aurangzeb was much more conservative – but, as historians Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf say, "To focus on divergent philosophies neglects the fact that Dara was a poor general and leader. It also ignores the fact that factional lines in the succession dispute were not, by and large, shaped by ideology."

Marc Gaborieau, professor of Indian studies at l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, explains that "The loyalties of [officials and their armed contingents] seem to have been motivated more by their own interests, the closeness of the family relation and above all the charisma of the pretenders than by ideological divides." Muslims and Hindus did not divide along religious lines in their support for one pretender or the other, nor, according to Chandra, is there much evidence to support the belief that Jahanara and other members of the royal family were split in their support. Jahanara, certainly, interceded at various times on behalf of all of the princes and was well-regarded by Aurangzeb even though she shared the religious outlook of Dara.

In 1656, a general under Qutb Shahi dynasty named Musa Khan led an army of 12,000 musketeers to attack Aurangzeb, who was besieging Golconda Fort. Later in the same campaign, Aurangzeb, in turn, rode against an army consisting of 8,000 horsemen and 20,000 Karnataki musketeers.

Reign

Full title

The epithet Aurangzeb means 'Ornament of the Throne'. His chosen title Alamgir translates to Conqueror of the World.

Aurangzeb's full imperial title was:

Al-Sultan al-Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram Hazrat Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Bahadur Alamgir I,

Badshah Ghazi,

Shahanshah-e-Sultanat-ul-Hindiya Wal Mughaliya.

Aurangzeb had also been attributed various other titles including Caliph of The Merciful, Monarch of Islam, and Living Custodian of God.

Bureaucracy

Aurangzeb's imperial bureaucracy employed significantly more Hindus than that of his predecessors.

Between 1679 and 1707, the number of Hindu officials in the Mughal administration rose by half to 31.6% due to an increased recruitment of Marathas for the purpose of Deccan campaign. In the second half of his rule, the Marathas outnumbered Rajputs in his administration. Nevertheless, he tried to decrease the number of non-Muslim nobles in his court and encouraged high ranking Hindu officials to convert to Islam.

Economy

Under his reign, the Mughal Empire contributed to the world's GDP by nearly 25%, surpassing Qing China. This made it the world's largest economy and biggest manufacturing power. At the time, it was more than the entirety of Western Europe, and signalled proto-industrialisation.

Religious policy

Aurangzeb was an orthodox Muslim ruler. Subsequent to the policies of his three predecessors, he endeavoured to make Islam a dominant force in his reign. However, several groups were opposed to these policies. Aurangzeb was a follower of the Mujaddidi Order and a disciple of the son of the Punjabi saint, Ahmad Sirhindi. He sought to establish Islamic rule as instructed and inspired by him.

Sheikh Muhammad Ikram states that after returning from Kashmir, Aurangzeb issued order in 1663, to ban the practice of Sati, a Hindu practice to burn a widow whenever her husband died. Ikram recorded that Aurangzeb issued the decree:

in all lands under Mughal control, never again should the officials allow a woman to be burnt.

Although Aurangzeb's orders could be evaded with payment of bribes to officials, adds Ikram, later European travellers record that sati was not much practised in Mughal empire, and that sati was "very rare, except it be some Rajah's wives, that the Indian women burn at all" by the end of Aurangzeb's reign.

Historian Katherine Brown has noted that "The very name of Aurangzeb seems to act in the popular imagination as a signifier of politico-religious bigotry and repression, regardless of historical accuracy." The subject has also resonated in modern times with popularly accepted claims that he intended to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas. As a political and religious conservative, Aurangzeb chose not to follow the secular-religious viewpoints of his predecessors after his ascension. He made no mention of the Persian concept of kinship, the Farr-i-Aizadi, and based his rule on the Quranic concept of kingship.

Shah Jahan had already moved away from the liberalism of Akbar, although in a token manner rather than with the intent of suppressing Hinduism, and Aurangzeb took the change still further. Though the approach to faith of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan was more syncretic than Babur, the founder of the empire, Aurangzeb's position is not so obvious.

His emphasis on sharia competed, or was directly in conflict, with his insistence that zawabit or secular decrees could supersede sharia. The chief qazi refusing to crown him in 1659, Aurangzeb had a political need to present himself as a "defender of the sharia" due to popular opposition to his actions against his father and brothers. Despite claims of sweeping edicts and policies, contradictory accounts exist. Historian Katherine Brown has argued that Aurangzeb never imposed a complete ban on music. He sought to codify Hanafi law by the work of several hundred jurists, called Fatawa 'Alamgiri. It is possible the War of Succession and continued incursions combined with Shah Jahan's spending made cultural expenditure impossible.

Taxation policy

Shortly after coming to power, Aurangzeb remitted more than 80 long-standing taxes affecting all of his subjects.

In 1679, Aurangzeb chose to reimpose jizya, a military tax on non-Muslim subjects in lieu of military service, after an abatement for a span of a hundred years, in what was critiqued by many Hindu rulers, family members of Aurangzeb, and Mughal court officials. The specific amount varied with the socioeconomic status of a subject and tax-collection was often waived for regions hit by calamities. Rajput and Maratha state officials, Brahmins, women, children, elders, the handicapped, the unemployed, the ill, and the insane were all perpetually exempted.

The collectors were mandated to be Muslims. A majority of modern scholars reject that religious bigotry influenced the imposition; rather, realpolitik — economic constraints as a result of multiple ongoing battles and establishment of credence with the orthodox ulemas — are held to be primary agents.

Aurangzeb enforced a higher tax burden on Hindu merchants at the rate of 5%, as against 2.5% on Muslim merchants, which led to considerable dislike of Aurangzeb's economic policies, a sharp turn from Akbar's uniform tax code. According to Marc Jason Gilbert, Aurangzeb ordered the jizya fees to be paid in person, in front of a tax collector, where the non Muslims were to recite a verse in the Quran that referred to their inferior status as non-Muslims. This decision led to protests and lamentations among the masses as well as Hindu court officials. In order to meet state expenditures, Aurangzeb had ordered increases in land taxes, the burden of which fell heavily upon the Hindu Jats. The reimposition of the jizya encouraged Hindus to flee to areas under East India Company jurisdiction, under which policies of religious sufferance and pretermissions of religious taxes prevailed.

Aurangzeb issued land grants and provided funds for the maintenance of shrines of worship but also often ordered their destruction. Modern historians reject the thought-school of colonial and nationalist historians about these destructions being guided by religious zealotry. Rather, the association of temples with sovereignty, power and authority is emphasised upon.

While constructing mosques was considered an act of royal duty to subjects, there are also several firmans in Aurangzeb's name supporting temples, maths, Chishti shrines, and gurudwaras, including the Mahakaleshwar temple of Ujjain, a gurudwara at Dehradun, Balaji temple of Chitrakoot, Umananda Temple of Guwahati and the Shatrunjaya Jain temples, among others.

Administrative reforms

Aurangzeb received tribute from all over the Indian subcontinent, using this wealth to establish bases and fortifications in India, particularly in the Carnatic, Deccan, Bengal and Lahore.

Aurangzeb's exchequer raised £100 million in annual revenue through various sources like taxes, customs and land revenue, et al. from 24 provinces. He had an annual yearly revenue of 450 million rupees, more than ten times that of his contemporary Louis XIV of France.

Aurangzeb felt that verses from the Qur'an should not be stamped on coins, as done in former times, because they were constantly touched by the hands and feet of people. His coins had the name of the mint city and the year of issue on one face, and, the following couplet on other:

King Aurangzib 'Ālamgir Stamped coins, in the world, like the bright full moon.

Law

Sambhaji, the Maratha king, was captured in 1688. He was brought to where Aurangzeb was encamped by the Bhima River. There a panel of Islamic jurists sentenced him to death for having slain and captured good Muslims. He was hacked to death with his corpse fed to dogs.

In 1675, the Sikh leader Guru Tegh Bahadur was arrested on orders by Aurangzeb, found guilty of blasphemy by a Qadi's court and executed.

The 32nd Da'i al-Mutlaq (Absolute Missionary) of the Dawoodi Bohra sect of Musta'lī Islam, Syedna Qutubkhan Qutubuddin, was executed by Aurangzeb, then the governor of Gujarat, for heresy, on 27 Jumadil Akhir 1056 AH (1648 CE), at Ahmedabad.

Military

It is reported that Aurangzeb inspected his cavalry contingents every day, during these inspections he used to test the cutlasses on sheep carcass, brought before him without the entrails and neatly bound up.

In 1663, during his visit to Ladakh, Aurangzeb established direct control over that part of the empire and loyal subjects such as Deldan Namgyal agreed to pledge tribute and loyalty. Deldan Namgyal is also known to have constructed a Grand Mosque in Leh, which he dedicated to Mughal rule.

In 1664, Aurangzeb appointed Shaista Khan the subedar (governor) of Bengal. Shaista Khan eliminated Portuguese and Arakanese pirates from the region, and in 1666 recaptured the port of Chittagong from the Arakanese king, Sanda Thudhamma. Chittagong remained a key port throughout Mughal rule.

In 1685, Aurangzeb dispatched his son, Muhammad Azam Shah, with a force of nearly 50,000 men to capture Bijapur Fort and defeat Sikandar Adil Shah (the ruler of Bijapur) who refused to be a vassal. The Mughals could not make any advancements upon Bijapur Fort, mainly because of the superior usage of cannon batteries on both sides. Outraged by the stalemate Aurangzeb himself arrived on 4 September 1686 and commanded the siege of Bijapur; after eight days of fighting, the Mughals were victorious.

Only Abul Hasan Qutb Shah (the Qutbshahi ruler of Golconda) refused to surrender. He and his servicemen fortified themselves at Golconda and fiercely protected the Kollur Mine, which was then probably the world's most productive diamond mine, and an important economic asset. In 1687, Aurangzeb led his grand Mughal army against the Deccan Qutbshahi fortress during the siege of Golconda. The Qutbshahis had constructed massive fortifications throughout successive generations on a granite hill over 400 ft high with an enormous eight-mile long wall enclosing the city. The main gates of Golconda had the ability to repulse any war elephant attack.

Although the Qutbshahis maintained the impregnability of their walls, at night Aurangzeb and his infantry erected complex scaffolding that allowed them to scale the high walls. During the eight-month siege the Mughals faced many hardships including the death of their experienced commander Kilich Khan Bahadur. Eventually, Aurangzeb and his forces managed to penetrate the walls by capturing a gate, and their entry into the fort led Abul Hasan Qutb Shah to surrender. He died after twelve years of Mughal imprisonment.

Art and culture

Aurangzeb was noted for his religious piety; he memorised the entire Quran, studied hadiths and stringently observed the rituals of Islam, and "transcribe[d] copies of the Quran."

Aurangzeb had a more austere nature than his predecessors, and greatly reduced imperial patronage of the figurative Mughal miniature.

The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb is known to have patronised works of Islamic calligraphy; the demand for Quran manuscripts in the naskh style peaked during his reign. Having been instructed by calligrapher Syed Ali Tabrizi, Aurangzeb was himself a talented calligrapher in naskh, evidenced by Quran manuscripts that he created.

Aurangzeb was not as involved in architecture as his father. Under Aurangzeb's rule, the position of the Mughal Emperor as chief architectural patron began to diminish. However, Aurangzeb did endow some significant structures. Catherine Asher terms his architectural period as an "Islamisation" of Mughal architecture. One of the earliest constructions after his accession was a small marble mosque known as the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque), built for his personal use in the Red Fort complex of Delhi. He later ordered the construction of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, which is today one of the largest mosques in the Indian subcontinent. The mosque he constructed in Srinagar is still the largest in Kashmir. Aurangzeb had a palace constructed for himself in Aurangabad, which was extant till a few years ago.

Most of Aurangzeb's building activity revolved around mosques, but secular structures were not neglected. The Mubarak Manzil in Agra served as his riverside residence after his victory at Samugarh. The Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, the mausoleum of Rabia-ud-Daurani, was constructed by his eldest son Azam Shah upon Aurangzeb's decree. Its architecture displays clear inspiration from the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb also provided and repaired urban structures like fortifications (for example a wall around Aurangabad, many of whose gates still survive), bridges, caravanserais, and gardens.

Aurangzeb was more heavily involved in the repair and maintenance of previously existing structures. The most important of these were mosques, both Mughal and pre-Mughal, which he repaired more of than any of his predecessors. He patronised the dargahs of Sufi saints such as Bakhtiyar Kaki, and strived to maintain royal tombs.

Foreign relations

Aurangzeb sent diplomatic missions to Mecca in 1659 and 1662, with money and gifts for the Sharif. He also sent alms in 1666 and 1672 to be distributed in Mecca and Medina. Historian Naimur Rahman Farooqi writes that, "By 1694, Aurangzeb's ardour for the Sharifs of Mecca had begun to wane; their greed and rapacity had thoroughly disillusioned the Emperor ... Aurangzeb expressed his disgust at the unethical behavior of the Sharif who appropriated all the money sent to the Hijaz for his own use, thus depriving the needy and the poor." According to English traveller named John Fryar, Aurangzeb considered that despite his enormous power on land, it was cheaper to establish a reciprocal relation with the naval forces of the Portuguese empire, to secure the sea interest of ships in Mughal territory, so he did not built large naval forces.

For decades, the Malabari Mappila Muslims which representing the Mughal empire are already patronised Aceh Sultanate. Aurangzeb, and his brother, Dara Shikoh, participated with Aceh trade and Aurangzeb himself also exchanging presents with the Sultan of Aceh in 1641. In that year, it is recorded the daughter of Iskandar Muda, Sultanah Safiatuddin, has presented Aurangzeb with eight elephants.

When the VOC, or Dutch East India Company trying to disrupt the trade in Aceh to make their own Malaka trade lucrative, Aurangzeb threatened the Dutch with retaliation against any losses in Gujarat due to Dutch intervention. This effort were caused due to VOC realisation that Muslim tradings were damaging to the VOC. The Firman issued by Aurangzeb caused the VOC to back down and allowed Indian sailors to pass into Aceh, Perak, and Kedah, without any restrictions.

Subhan Quli Khan, Balkh's Uzbek ruler was the first to recognise him in 1658 and requested for a general alliance, he worked alongside the new Mughal Emperor since 1647, when Aurangzeb was the Subedar of Balkh.

Safavid Iran and the Mughal Empire had long clashed over Kandahar, an outpost on the distant frontier of their two empires. Control of the city swung back and forth. Aurangzeb led two unsuccessful campaigns to recapture it 1649 and 1652. Mughal attempts died down after 1653 amidst internal rivalries.

Upon ascending the throne, Aurangzeb was eager to obtain diplomatic recognition from the Safavids to bolster the legitimacy of his rule. Abbas II of Persia sent an embassy in 1661. Aurangzeb received the ambassador warmly and they exchanged gifts. A return embassy sent by Aurangzeb to Persia in 1664 was poorly treated. Tensions over Kandahar rose again. There were cross border raids, but hostilities subsided after Abbas II's death in 1666.

Rebellions

Traditional and newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, Rajputs, Hindu Jats, Pashtuns, and Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or opposition, gave them both recognition and military experience.

In 1669, the Hindu Jat peasants of Bharatpur around Mathura rebelled but were defeated.

In 1659, Maratha leader Shivaji launched a surprise attack on the Mughal Viceroy Shaista Khan and, while waging war against Aurangzeb, Shivaji and his forces attacked the Deccan, Janjira and Surat and tried to gain control of vast territories. In 1689, Aurangzeb's armies captured Shivaji's son Sambhaji and executed him. But the Marathas continued to fight.

In 1679, the Rathore clan under the command of Durgadas Rathore of Marwar rebelled when Aurangzeb did not give permitted the young Rathore prince to become the king, and took control of Jodhpur. This incident caused great unrest among the Hindu Rajput rulers under Aurangzeb and led to several rebellions in Rajputana, resulting in the loss of Mughal power in the region and religious bitterness over the destruction of temples.

In 1672, the Satnami, a sect concentrated in an area near Delhi, under the leadership of Bhirbhan, took over the administration of Narnaul, but were eventually crushed upon Aurangzeb's personal intervention with very few escaping alive.

In 1671, the battle of Saraighat was fought in the easternmost regions of the Mughal Empire against the Ahom Kingdom. The Mughals led by Mir Jumla II and Shaista Khan were defeated by the Ahoms.

Maharaja Chhatrasal of the Bundela Rajput clan also fought against the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and established his own kingdom in Bundelkhand, becoming maharaja of Panna.

Jat rebellion

In 1669, Hindu Jats began to organise a rebellion that is believed to have been caused by the re-imposition of jizya and destruction of Hindu temples in Mathura. The Jats were led by Gokula, a rebel landholder from Tilpat. By the year 1670 20,000 Jat rebels were quelled and the Mughal Army took control of Tilpat, Gokula's personal fortune amounted to 93,000 gold coins and hundreds of thousands of silver coins.

Gokula was caught and executed. But the Jats once again attempted rebellion. Raja Ram Jat, in order to avenge his father Gokula's death, plundered Akbar's tomb of its gold, silver and fine carpets, opened Akbar's grave and dragged his bones and burned them in retaliation. Jats also shot off the tops of the minarets on the gateway to Akbar's Tomb and melted down two silver doors from the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb appointed Mohammad Bidar Bakht as commander to crush the Jat rebellion. On 4 July 1688, Raja Ram Jat was captured and beheaded. His head was sent to Aurangzeb as a proof of his death.

Due to the Jat rebellion, the temples of Pushtimarg, Gaudiya, and Radha vallabh Vaishnavs in Braj were abandoned and their icons were taken to different regions or into hiding.

Mughal–Maratha Wars

In 1657, while Aurangzeb invaded Golconda and Bijapur in the Deccan, the Hindu Maratha warrior, Shivaji, used guerrilla tactics to take control of three Adil Shahi forts formerly under his father's command. With these victories, Shivaji assumed defacto leadership of many independent Maratha clans. The Marathas harried the flanks of the warring Adil Shahis, gaining weapons, forts, and territory. Shivaji's small and ill-equipped army survived an all out Adil Shahi attack, and Shivaji personally killed the Adil Shahi general, Afzal Khan. With this event, the Marathas transformed into a powerful military force, capturing more and more Adil Shahi territories. Shivaji went on to neutralise Mughal power in the region.

In 1659, Aurangzeb sent his trusted general and maternal uncle Shaista Khan, the wali in Golconda to recover forts lost to the Maratha rebels. Shaista Khan drove into Maratha territory and took up residence in Pune. But in a raid on the governor's palace in Pune during a midnight wedding celebration, led by Shivaji himself, the Marathas killed Shaista Khan's son and Shivaji maimed Shaista Khan by cutting off three fingers of his hand. Shaista Khan, however, survived and was re-appointed the administrator of Bengal, going on to become a key commander in the war against the Ahoms.

Aurangzeb next sent general Raja Jai Singh to vanquish the Marathas. Jai Singh besieged the fort of Purandar and fought off all attempts to relieve it. Foreseeing defeat, Shivaji agreed to terms. Jai Singh persuaded Shivaji to visit Aurangzeb at Agra, giving him a personal guarantee of safety. During their meeting, Shivaji was not satisfied with how he was received, and refused imperial service. For his refusal, Shivaji was detained but eventually escaped his capture.

After Shivaji's escape, hostilities with the Mughals ebbed. In April 1667, Shivaji wrote a letter offering his submission again, along with the induction of his son into imperial service.

Aurangzeb ignored this letter, forcing Shivaji to enlist the help of Jaswant Singh of Marwar to communicate with the emperor. After Muazzam and Jaswant Singh recommended Shivaji to Aurangzeb, his submission was accepted and he was conferred the title of “Raja". However Aurangzeb did not restore his right over the forts.

Ahom campaign

In 1660 Mir Jumla II, the viceroy of Bengal, was ordered to recover the lost territories.

The Mughals set out in November 1661. Within weeks they occupied and annexed the capital of Kuch Behar. Leaving a detachment to garrison it, the Mughal army began to retake their territories in Assam. Mir Jumla II advanced on Garhgaon, the capital of the Ahom kingdom, and reached it on 17 March 1662. The ruler, Raja Sutamla, had fled before his approach. The Mughals captured 82 elephants, 300,000 rupees in cash, 1000 ships, and 173 stores of rice.

On his way back to Dacca, in March 1663, Mir Jumla II died of natural causes.

The battle of Saraighat was the last battle in the last major attempt by the Mughals to extend their empire into Assam. Though the Mughals managed to regain Guwahati briefly after a later Borphukan deserted it, the Ahoms wrested control in the battle of Itakhuli in 1682 and maintained it till the end of their rule.

Satnami opposition

In May 1672, the Satnami sect, obeying the commands of an old toothless woman (according to Mughal accounts), organised a revolt in the agricultural heartlands of the Mughal Empire. The Satnamis were known to have shaved off their heads and even eyebrows and had temples in many regions of northern India. They began a large-scale rebellion 75 miles southwest of Delhi.

The Satnamis believed they were invulnerable to Mughal bullets and believed they could multiply in any region they entered. The Satnamis initiated their march upon Delhi and overran small-scale Mughal infantry units.

Aurangzeb responded by organising a Mughal army of 10,000 troops, artillery, and a detachment of his imperial guards. Aurangzeb wrote Islamic prayers and drew designs that were sewn into the army's flags. His army crushed the Satnami rebellion.

Sikh opposition

According to Sikh accounts, the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, like his predecessors was opposed to forced conversion of the local population. Approached by Kashmiri Pandits to help them retain their faith and avoid forced religious conversions, Guru Tegh Bahadur sent a message to the emperor that if he could convince Teg Bagadur to convert to Islam, every Hindu would become a Muslim. In response, Aurangzeb ordered arrest of the Guru. He was then brought to Delhi and tortured in an attempt to convert him. On his refusal to convert, he was beheaded in 1675. In 1789, Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib was built in Delhi at the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded.

In response, Guru Tegh Bahadur's son and successor, Guru Gobind Singh, further militarised his followers, starting with the establishment of Khalsa in 1699, eight years before Aurangzeb's death. In 1705, Guru Gobind Singh sent a letter entitled Zafarnamah, which accused Aurangzeb of cruelty and betraying Islam. Guru Gobind Singh's formation of Khalsa in 1699 led to the establishment of the Sikh Confederacy and later Sikh Empire.

Pashtun opposition

The Pashtun revolt in 1672 under the leadership of the warrior poet Khushal Khan Khattak of Kabul, was triggered when soldiers under the orders of the Mughal Governor Amir Khan allegedly molested a Parachi woman affiliated with the Safi tribe in modern-day Kunar Province of Afghanistan. The Safi tribe retaliated against the soldiers. This attack provoked a reprisal, which triggered a general revolt of most of tribes. Attempting to reassert his authority, Amir Khan led a large Mughal Army to the Khyber Pass, where the army was surrounded by tribesmen and routed, with only four men, including the governor, managing to escape.Aurangzeb's incursions into the Pashtun areas were described by Khushal Khan Khattak as "Black is the Mughal's heart towards all of us Pathans". Aurangzeb employed the scorched earth policy, sending armies who massacred, looted and burnt many villages. Aurangzeb also proceeded to use bribery to turn the Pashtun tribes against each other, with the aim that they would distract a unified Pashtun challenge to Mughal authority, and the impact of this was to leave a lasting legacy of mistrust among the tribes.

After that the revolt spread, the Mughals suffered a near total collapse of their authority in the Pashtun areas. The closure of the important Attock-Kabul trade route along the Grand Trunk road was particularly disastrous. By 1674, the situation had deteriorated to a point where Aurangzeb camped at Attock to personally take charge. Switching to diplomacy and bribery along with force of arms, the Mughals eventually split the rebels and partially suppressed the revolt, although they never managed to wield effective authority outside the main trade route.

Rathore rebellion

Described as the Rathore rebellion (1679–1707), the conflict between Rajputs of Marwar and the Mughals started after the death of Jaswant Singh, due to Aurangzeb's attempt to interfere in the succession of Marwar.

On 23 July 1679, Aurangzeb made attempts to divide Marwar into two Rathore principalities, one held by Inder Singh Rathore and other by Ajit Singh. Aurangzeb also proposed that Ajit Singh should be raised as a Muslim and offered Jodhpur in return. The resistance to Mughal interference was started by the Rajput nobles under Durgadas Rathore and erupted into an all-out war between the Mughal empire and Rajputs of Marwar supported by Mewar Rajputs. It lasted for almost thirty years. The rebellion reached a climax after the death of Aurangzeb on 3 March 1707 and the capture of Jodhpur by the Rathores on 12 March 1707.

Death

By 1689, the conquest of Golconda and Mughal victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to 4 million square kilometres, with a population estimated to be over 158 million. However, this supremacy was short-lived. Historian Jos Gommans says that "... the highpoint of imperial centralisation under emperor Aurangzeb coincided with the start of the imperial downfall."

Aurangzeb constructed a small marble mosque known as the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) in the Red Fort complex in Delhi. However, his constant warfare, especially with the Marathas, drove his empire to the brink of bankruptcy just as much as the wasteful personal spending and opulence of his predecessors.

The Indologist Stanley Wolpert says that:

The conquest of the Deccan, to which Aurangzeb devoted the last twenty-six years of his life, was in many ways a Pyrrhic victory, costing an estimated hundred thousand lives a year during its last decade of fruitless, chess-game warfare ... The expense in gold and rupees can hardly be imagined or accurately estimated. Alamgir's moving capital alone-a city of tents thirty miles in circumference, two hundred and fifty bazaars, with half a million camp followers, fifty thousand camels, and thirty thousand elephants, all of whom had to be fed, stripped peninsular India of any and all of its surplus grain and wealth ... Not only famine, but bubonic plague arose ... Even Alamgir had ceased to understand the purpose for it all by ... 1705. The emperor was nearing ninety by then ... "I came alone and I go as a stranger. I do not know who I am, nor what I have been doing," the dying old man confessed to his son in February 1707.

Even when ill and dying, Aurangzeb made sure that the populace knew he was still alive, for if they had thought otherwise then the turmoil of another war of succession was likely. He died at his military camp in Bhingar near Ahmednagar on 3 March 1707 at the age of 88 at approximately 8:00 a.m., shortly after performing his morning prayer. He outlived many of his children and had only 300 rupees with him which were later given to charity as per his instructions. Prior to his death, he requested not to spend extravagantly on his funeral but to keep it simple. His modest open-air grave in Khuldabad, Aurangabad, Maharashtra expresses his deep devotion to his Islamic beliefs. It is sited in the courtyard of the shrine of the Sufi saint Shaikh Burhan-u'd-din Gharib, who was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi.

Assessments and legacy

Aurangzeb [was] uncomparably his father’s superior: a wiser man, a juster king, a more intelligent and benevolent ruler.

Aurangzeb's rule has been the subject of both praise and controversy. During his lifetime, victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to 4 million square kilometres, and he ruled over a population estimated to be over 158 million subjects.

Aurangzeb is often remembered in India as a "vile oppressor of Hindus". His critics argue that his ruthlessness and religious bigotry made him unsuitable to rule the mixed population of his empire. Some critics assert that the persecution of Shias, Sufis and non-Muslims to impose practices of orthodox Islamic state, such as imposition of sharia and jizya religious tax on non-Muslims, doubling of custom duties on Hindus while abolishing it for Muslims, executions of Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and destruction of temples eventually led to numerous rebellions. G. N. Moin Shakir and Sarma Festschrift argue that he often used political opposition as pretext for religious persecution, and that, as a result, groups of Jats, Marathas, Sikhs, Satnamis and Pashtuns rose against him.

Multiple interpretations of Aurangzeb's life and reign over the years by critics have led to a very complicated legacy. Some argue that his policies abandoned his predecessors' legacy of pluralism and religious tolerance, citing his introduction of the jizya tax and other policies based on Islamic ethics; his demolition of Hindu temples; the executions of his elder brother Dara Shikoh, Sambhaji of Maratha and Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur and the prohibition and supervision of behaviour and activities that are forbidden in Islam such as gambling, fornication, and consumption of alcohol and narcotics. At the same time, some historians question the historical authenticity of the claims of his critics, arguing that his destruction of temples has been exaggerated, he paid for temple maintenance, and in the latter half of his reign employed significantly more Hindus, especially Marathas, in his imperial bureaucracy than his predecessors and opposed bigotry against Hindus and Shia Muslims in imperial service.

Muhammad Al-Munajjid has argued that the opinions from Islamic scholarly community towards Aurangzeb were positive because of the emperor's general attitude and actions, such as abolishing Bid'ah celebrations, musics, and the customs of bowing and kissing the ground which were done by his predecessors, practically adhering to the practice of Salafi while still held to Hanafite creed. Apparently this view of Aurangzeb were influenced by Muhammad Saleh Kamboh, who acted as his teacher.

Literature

Aurangzeb has prominently featured in the following books

1675 – Aureng-zebe, play by John Dryden, written and performed on the London stage during the Emperor's lifetime.

1688 – Alamgirnama by Mirza Mohammed Qasim official biographer at Aurangzeb's court

1909 – Aurangzeb Alamgir par ek nazar

19?? – Hindi fiction novel by Acharya Chatursen Shastri

1970 – Shahenshah (Marathi: शहेनशहा), the Marathi fictional biography by N S Inamdar; translated into English in 2017 by Vikrant Pande as Shahenshah – The Life of Aurangzeb

2017 – 1636: Mission to the Mughals, by Eric Flint and Griffin Barber

2018 – Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth, by Audrey Truschke