Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb was a great Mughal emperor who ascended the throne after a stiff struggle with his brothers. He was the 3rd son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaj. His empire covered 21 provinces and stretched from Afghanistan to Bengal and from Kashmir to Carnatic.
FACTS ABOUT HIS LIFE
• There was no clear heir to throne after Shah Jahan.
• The Timurids followed no clear laws of succession.
• This led to a cruel war of succession between Aurangzeb, Shah jahan and his brothers.
• He imprisoned his father and killed all his brothers to get to the throne.
• The war for the throne between the brothers continued for 2 years.
• Aurangzeb ruled for about 50 years from 1658 to 1707 A.D.
• In 1659, he was proclaimed king in Delhi. The first ten years of his reign are documented in Muhammad Kazim's Alamgir Nama.
• He employed many Hindus in his court, but he also went against his ancestors' policy of religious tolerance.
• Many of Akbar's policies toward non-Muslims were reversed by him. He reestablished the Jizya, or non-Muslim tax. Many Hindu temples are alleged to have been demolished by him.
• He was also known for assassinating Guru Tegh Bahadur, a Sikh leader who refused to convert to Islam.
• He also harboured animosity toward the Sikhs because they had taken in his competitor Dara Shikoh.
• The Mughal Empire grew during his rule. He commanded a vast army, and the empire reached its pinnacle in terms of territory under his reign.
• He conquered significant swaths of the Deccan and expanded the empire's northern boundaries.
• Alcohol, gambling, and music were also prohibited under Aurangzeb's kingdom. Under his leadership, the textile industry boomed.
• At 1667, king gave the French permission to build a factory in Surat.
• Many rebellions occurred during his reign, including those by the Jats surrounding Mathura, the Marathas under Shivaji and Sambhaji, many Rajputs, Sikhs, and Pashtuns.
• Though the Mughal Empire achieved its territorial apex under Aurangzeb's reign, it was also, in many ways, the beginning of the end.
• Many new republics were founded out of former Mughal vassals after Aurangzeb's successors were unable to maintain the huge empire's territorial integrity.
• At the age of 88, Aurangzeb died in Ahmednagar from old age and disease in February 1707. At the time, he was in the midst of a Deccan campaign.
• He'd been king for 49 years. After that, his son Azam Shah ascended the throne, but was quickly deposed by his half-brother Shah Alam.
• The Mughal monarchy was eventually inherited by Shah Alam, who was given the title Bahadur Shah I.
LITERATURE IN AURANGZEB’S REIGN
He was a renowned Islamic theology and jurisprudence scholar. He commissioned a board of Ulema to compile authoritative passages from the Hanafi Fiqh standard (Fatawa-ul- Alamgiri) for the direction of the qazis, which was completed in AD 1672.
Important historical works include Khafi Khan's Mutakhab-ul-Lubab, Mirza Muhammad Kazim's Alamgir Namah, Muhammad Saqi's Masir-i-Alamgiri, and Iswar Das' Fatuhat-i-Alamgiri.
CONQUESTS AND WARS
• Under the leadership of a local zamindar, Gokla, the Jats of Mathura erupted in rebellion in 1669.
• The uprising spread quickly among the area's peasants, prompting Aurangzeb to march in person from Delhi to put an end to it.
• The movement, however, was not fully destroyed, and dissatisfaction continued to boil.
• Meanwhile, in 1672, at Narnaul, not far from Mathura, another armed confrontation erupted between peasants and the Mughal Empire.
• Peasants, artisans, and low-caste individuals made up the majority of the Satnamis.
• To put down the insurrection, Aurangzeb approached Raja Bishan Singh, the Kachhwaha monarch.
• In 1667, Bhagu, the Yusufazai tribe's head, proclaimed Muhammad Shah, a man who claimed heritage from an ancient royal lineage, as king and himself as his wazir.
• The Raushanai, a religious revivalist movement that emphasised a rigid ethical living and allegiance to a selected pir, provided the movement with an intellectual and moral foundation.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur, however, was captured in Punjab with five of his followers in 1675, taken to Delhi, and executed.
• The Sikhs were obliged to return to the Punjab hill after Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded. It also resulted in the Sikh movement evolving into a military brotherhood over time.
• Guru Govind Singh established his headquarters in the Punjabi foothills of Makhowal or Anandpur.
• Jahangir carried on Akbar's policy of favouring the Rajput rajas and entering into marriage links with them.
• The Rajputs remained in Shah Jahan's coalition.
• When Aurangzeb realised he couldn't convince Bijapur and Golconda to cooperate against the Marathas, he decided that the only way to defeat the Marathas was to seize Bijapur and Golconda first.
• Aurangzeb faced two challenges in the Deccan when he ascended to the throne: the threat posed by Shivaji's expanding authority, and the challenge of persuading Bijapur to relinquish the areas committed to it by the Treaty of 1636. In 1657, Kalyani and Bidar were secured.
• During this time, Jai Singh was the only Mughal politician in the Deccan who favoured an all-out advance policy.
• Jai Singh believed that the Maratha problem could not be overcome without a forward policy in the Deccan, a conclusion reached 20 years later by Aurangzeb.
• A final desperate attempt by Diler Khan, the Mughal Viceroy, to seize Bijapur in 1679'80 also failed, owing to the fact that the Mughal viceroy lacked the resources to compete with the combined troops of the Deccani republics.
• Even though, the siege of Bijapur took 18 months, with Aurangzeb personally present during the latter phases (1686).
• Despite fierce fighting, the Mughals conquered Golconda in 1685.
• The emperor decided to pardon Qutb Shah in exchange for a large subsidy, the ceding of some territories, and the removal of Madanna and Akhanna.
• Madanna and Akhanna were hauled out into the streets and murdered when the Qutb Shah approved (1686).
• Aurangzeb was free to focus all of his forces on the Marathas after the collapse of Bijapur and Golconda.
• Rajaram, Sambhaji's younger brother, was anointed king, but he was unable to flee when the Mughals assaulted his city.
• Rajaram sought refuge in Jinji on the east coast, where he continued his fight against the Mughals. As a result, Maratha resistance extended from west to east.
• Aurangzeb, undeterred, set out to reclaim all of the Maratha forts. From 1700 until 1705, Aurangzeb dragged his exhausted and ailing body from one fort siege to the next.
• The Mughal army was decimated by floods, sickness, and Maratha wandering bands. The nobles and the army got increasingly tired and dissatisfied.
• Aurangzeb began discussions with the Marathas in 1703.
• He was willing to free Shahu, Sambhaji's son, who had been kidnapped together with his mother at Satara. Shahu had received excellent care.
• He was given the title of raja as well as a mansab of 7000/7000.
• By 1706, Aurangzeb had realised that capturing all of the Maratha forts would be futile. He slowly made his way back to Aurangabad.
AURANGZEB’S RELIGIOUS POLICY
• He was a staunch orthodox Muslim.
• He did not go with the idea of religious tolerance like that of Akbar.
• However he lived a very simple life. Because of his simplicity he was given the title of Zinda Pir.
• Aurangzeb discontinued the custom of weighing the emperor with gold.
• In the wake of the economic reasons he closed the history department as well.
• Throne room was not decorated in gold and jewels. He liked it simple and decorated with cheap items.
• He also stopped Kalma that is the inscription of Islamic oath on the coins.
• In his rule there were restrictions put on celebration of Nauroz. It is the festival of Iran, celebrated by the Safavid rulers and people.
• Singing and drinking in the court was banned.
• He appointed Muhtasibs to check that people are not drinking in public places.
• They also regulated ill repute houses, gambling dens etc.
• In simple words their job was to oversee that the rules laid by the emperor is being followed and no one is breaking the law in open.
• Aurangzeb introduced Ziyah tax in 1679.
• Ziyah tax was imposed on non-Muslim subjects. But old people, children, women and helpless people were exempted. It was not forcibly imposed on people who were financially weak.
• He appointed god-fearing and honest Muslims to collect the Ziyah taxes.