I remind you that the greatest conquerors are not always the greatest kings. The nations of the world are often subjected to mere savages. Even the greatest conquests are broken up into khans in a few years. He is the true king whose chief business in life is to rule his subjects with equity.
— Letter from Aurangzeb to his recently dethroned father, the Emperor Shah Jahan
For years, stories and folk tales have tried to portray Emperor Aurangzeb as the ‘villain’ of history. It continues even today. Be it in plays or various literature, he has always been a villain. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, saw him as a reactionary and bigoted, intolerant ruler. He wrote, Aurangzeb, the last of the so-called Grand Mughals, tried to turn the clock’s hands in the opposite direction. In the process, he stopped the clock. It broke.
Pakistani playwright Shahid Nadeem also blames Aurangzeb for the partition of India. In his words, the seeds of the partition of India were sown when Aurangzeb defeated his brother Dara Shikoh.
Now we need to know, was Aurangzeb intolerant and a fanatic from the beginning! Or has history been created by mixing fantasy colors in the narrative? In this context, it is necessary to study in the light of history.
Aurangzeb is controversial and criticized as a ruler for several reasons: First, he seized power by imprisoning his father, the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and killing his brothers. Second, Aurangzeb is said to have been a fundamentalist Muslim tyrant. As a result, he introduced strict Sharia law and brought back the discriminatory Jizya tax for Hindu subjects, which they had to pay for security. He is also said to have hated music and other arts. There are also serious allegations against him of temple destruction.
Emperor Shah Jahan had four sons—Dara, Shuja Murad and Aurangzeb; all were worthy claimants to the throne. However, Dara was his father’s special favorite among them. That is why he was gradually moving towards becoming the sixth Mughal emperor. But in the struggle for succession, Aurangzeb defeated his rival brothers due to his bravery, military prowess, and strategic diplomatic knowledge. Then, on July 21, 1658, he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi. At that time, he was 39 years, eight months, and 28 days old.
Power struggle Aurangzeb executed his younger brother Murad on the pretext of a previous murder. However, he is more hated for beheading his elder brother Dara Shikoh.
The social system of that time was not as civilized as it is now. If Aurangzeb had not killed him. If he had shown compassion, then he would have died at the hands of Dara. Let us give proof of this. On the day of Dara’s execution, Aurangzeb asked him what if fate had been different. Then Dara sarcastically said that Aurangzeb’s body would have been hung in front of the four main gates of Delhi.
But Aurangzeb was not so ruthless. Instead, he buried his brother’s body next to Humayun’s tomb. Later, he married his daughter Zubeda-tun-Nisa to Dara Shikoh’s son Sifir Shikoh. And he married his son, Prince Akbar, to the daughter of Sulaiman Shikoh. Sulaiman was Dara’s eldest son. Aurangzeb killed him by giving him excessive amounts of opium-laced water to drink in 1661. Not only that, but Aurangzeb also paid off the loan that Murad had taken from Shantidas, a well-connected Gujarati Jain merchant.
It is true that Aurangzeb wanted to live a pure life as a Sunni Muslim, following his religious rules. For this reason, some historians call him a fanatic. They claim that this is why he did not like Hindus. He destroyed their temples and built mosques. He even discriminated against Shias. Although another section of historians believe that these allegations are not based on facts.
Aurangzeb wanted to run the Mughal court in accordance with Islamic traditions. That is why he stopped the events that were against Islamic rituals. He expelled the dancers and barbarians from his kingdom. He banned the immoral activities during the festival of Muharram, the practice of astrology in the royal court, and the excesses during the Holi festival. He engraved Kalima on the coins.
Despite his belief in Islamic principles, people of all religions were free to practice their religion during Aurangzeb’s reign. This is evidenced in the accounts of Alexander Hamilton, who toured India towards the end of his reign. Even Shriram Sharma, a staunch critic of Aurangzeb’s religious policies, has acknowledged this.
Those who heap unprecedented hatred on Aungazeb as a Hindu hater may not know or care to know that he consulted Hindu monks on health matters. According to Hindu custom, he would weigh gold, silver, copper, grains, oil and other items on his body. He would then donate them to the needy. He considered the Hindu-based weighing practice to be part of the Mughal tradition. In his final years, the emperor asked his grandson Didar Baksh to perform this ceremony 14 times a year.
It is alleged that Aurangzeb dismissed Hindu employees from government service during his reign and the number of Hindu employees decreased during his reign. This is actually a fabricated and misleading slander. However, some Hindu employees were dismissed due to corruption, negligence of duty and considerations of state security.
During the time of Emperor Akbar, the number of Hindu officials holding the Manasab was 64. During the time of Aurangzeb, this number increased to 180. In fact, during his time, the number of Hindu officials was 33 percent. During the time of his father, Emperor Shah Jahan, it was 24 percent.
Now let’s come to the matter of the re-introduction of the Jizya tax on non-Muslims. Even at this time, the followers of Hinduism are quite angry with Aurangzeb. It is known that he did not impose this tax out of hatred for Hindus. On the contrary, due to various reasons including palace conspiracies, mismanagement in the Mansabdari, Jagir crisis and agrarian revolt, a severe economic crisis arose during his reign. To deal with that crisis, he re-introduced the Jizya tax. Along with this, he introduced some other new taxes.
The lakhs of temples established throughout the Mughal Empire survived till the end of Aurangzeb’s reign. It is true that he destroyed a handful of temples. But it was not at all out of religious hatred. It was purely political. At that time, temples in the rebel-prone areas were secret communication places for rebels. They were also used as arsenals. The destruction of temples was in no way a part of political policy. Rather, he was trying to protect the safety of temples. Evidence of this can be found in a letter sent to Jai Singh, a Hindu Rajput of Mewar, in 1654.
He wrote, since great kings are the shadow of God, the pillars of God’s court, the attention of these high-ranking people is devoted to this task: that people of different types and religions (madhahib) may live in peace. May they live their days in prosperity. May no one interfere in the affairs of others.
There has been a lot of tension recently over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Emperor Aurangzeb ordered the construction of this mosque on the site of the Vishwanath Temple in 1669. Therefore, Hindutva activists in the country are demanding that this land be returned to Hindus. Last May, the Allahabad High Court allowed the worship of gods and goddesses on the mosque premises.
The Gyanvapi Mosque was built against the walls of the Vishwanath Temple. However, although it was built during the reign of Aurangzeb, the name of its patron is not found in Mughal records.
On the 400th birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur in April 2022, the current Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi also took a dig at Aurangzeb. According to him, Aurangzeb could not break the faith of many people even though he beheaded them.
During the reigns of Emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan, the Mughals clashed with the Sikhs. The conflict escalated during the reign of Aurangzeb. The ninth Sikh Guru, Teg Bahadur, rebelled against him, accusing him of religious intolerance. He alleged that the emperor was forcibly converting Kashmiri Brahmins. He was later sentenced to death on charges of treason. The death penalty is considered a just punishment for acts against the state. In modern times, the punishment for treason is death.
Although it was later established that Aurangzeb had made two offers to Tegh Bahadur. One was to convert to Islam; the other was to be executed. The Sikh Guru chose the second. Before his death, he had written in a note, Shir diya sar na diya. That is, I gave my head, but I did not give my faith.
Aurangzeb hated music. But in his youth, he fell in love with a singer and dancer named Hirabai. But Hirabai died less than a year after their love affair. She was buried in Aurangabad. In addition, in a letter written to his son Azam Shah before his death, he approved of his father Emperor Shah Jahan’s enjoyment of music, saying that it was a proper royal duty.
Aurangzeb breathed his last on 3 March 1707 in Ahmednagar, India. He died of natural causes. As per his wishes, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the shrine of the Subi Darvesh Zainuddin Siraji in Khuldabad. He ruled India for 49 years. The decline of the Mughal Empire began after his death.
You have to admit, history is never written about God. They are also flesh and blood people. So, everyone has their faults and virtues. However, the characters of history are judged by putting them under a microscope. Now it’s your decision whether you will condemn him as a historical villain or respect him as a good ruler.