Heroes ________Whom I like Most 

                                         Aurangzeb, Ruler of the Mughal Empire

Aurangzeb was a well educated person with a strict religious orthodoxy. He had an acute sense of political realism and a fierce appetite for power. In the summer of 1659, Aurangzeb held a coronation durbar in the Red Fort where he assumed the title of Alamgir (World Conqueror). After a bitter struggle with his three brothers, Aurangzeb was the victor who took the throne.

Aurangzeb's harsh treatment of his brothers, Dara Shukoh, Shah Shuja and Murad Bakhsh, as well as of his father, Shah Jahan, is hard to justify. After having imprisoned his father, Aurangzeb was compelled during the first seven years of his reign to purchase the loyalty of Shah Jahan's amirs, writes Hambly. To provide plunder, Aurangzeb undertook aggressive frontier campaigns; these forays were generally unsuccessful.

Hambly writes that Aurangzeb maintained his court in the same manner as his father and grandfather. Like them, he celebrated the Nuruz (Persian New Year) and was publicly weighed against gold coins or precious stones.

                                                                 Aurangzeb with brothers

As his predecessors had done, Aurangzeb appointed the Rajput chieftains to many of the highest offices of state where they worked side by side with Muslims, writes Hambly. But, continues Hambly, Aurangzeb eventually ended this practice. Bothered by Hindu and other Indian influences encroaching upon the Muslim state, Aurangzeb sought to bring Muslim orthodoxy to the empire.

Aurangzeb's policies totally alienated the Rajput element of the empire. Aurangzeb's inflammatory and discriminatory practices reached their zenith in 1679 when he re-imposed the jizya, a poll-tax on non-Muslims that had been abolished by Akbar.

                Aurangzeb: How to tax, oppress, and humiliate

A history lesson comes to us from the Bikaner Museum’s exhibit on Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb, as he was according to Mughal Records

On 2nd April 1679, Aurangzeb re-imposed Jizayah upon the Hindus which had been abolished by Emperor Akbar in 1564. The author of Maasir-i-Alamgiri writes: ‘As all the aims of the religious Emperor (Aurangzeb) were directed to the spreading of the law of Islam and the overthrow of the practices of the infidelity, he issued orders ….. that from Wednesday, the 2nd April 1679/1st Rabi I, in obedience to the Qur’anic injunction, “till they pay Jizyah with the hand of humility”, and in agreement with the canonical traditions, Jizyah should be collected from the infidels (zimmis) of the capital and the provinces’.
The economic burden of Jizyah was felt most by the poor who formed the vast majority of the Hindus; for the middle classes and the rich, it was not so much the economic burden which mattered but the humiliation involved in the prescribed mode of payment, which the Jizyah collector could always insist upon, as of right i.e. by insisting that he would accept it only when paid personally. The Qur’anic injunction that war must be made upon all those who do not profess Islam “till they pay Jizyah out of their hand and they are humiliated”, was interpreted to mean that the Hindus must be made conscious of their inferior position when paying this tax.
In the painting, a number of Hindus, both rich and poor are lining up to pay Jizyah while the arrogant Jizyah collector is picking up the coins from the palm of a Hindu Jizyah payer. Some people have come from the neighbouring areas in their bullock-carts; their bullocks are resting under the shade of the trees.

                                               

Female musicians at the wedding of Aurangzeb (sixth Mughal emperor and son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal). ca.1636.

                                                 Equestrian Portrait of Aurangzeb.

  Portrait of a Mughal officer, mid to late 17th century

[from the Small Clive Album Source: Victoria & Albert Museum. This miniature painting is part of the Small Clive Album of Indian miniatures which is thought to have been given by Shuja ud-Daula, the Nawab of Avadh, to Lord Clive during his last visit to India in 1765-67. ]

                                                     The Emperor Aurangzeb Carried on a Palanquin

Aurangzeb was, by temperament, an ascetic who avoided all forms of luxury and ostentation; he even refused to wear silk against his body. Aurangzeb limited his reading to works of theology and poetry of a devotional or didactic character, writes Hambly. And the emperor found both music and the representational arts to be distasteful.

Exhibit No. 17: "Burial of Music". The musicians, wailing and lamenting carry the 'bier' of music in Aurangzeb's presence. "Bury it so deep that no sound or echo of it may rise again", Aurangzeb, (Muntakhab-al Lubab, p.213)

Exhibit No. 17: "Burial of Music". The musicians, wailing and lamenting carry the 'bier' of music in Aurangzeb's presence. "Bury it so deep that no sound or echo of it may rise again", Aurangzeb, (Muntakhab-al Lubab, p.213)

                              Aurangzeb Hand Written Quran

                                                               Aurangzeb sewing caps & writing Quran

Exhibit No. 32: Restriction on atishbazi. Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i- Mu‘alla Julus 10, Shawwal 24 / April 9th 1667.

“The Emperor ordered Jumdat-ul-Mulk to write to the Mutsaddis of all the subahs (provinces) of the empire that display of fire-works (atishbazi) is being forbidden. Also, Faulad Khan was ordered to arrange for announcement in the city by the beat of a drum that no one is to indulge in atishbazi”.

Aurangzeb was, by temperament, an ascetic who avoided all forms of luxury and ostentation; he even refused to wear silk against his body. Aurangzeb limited his reading to works of theology and poetry of a devotional or didactic character, writes Hambly. And the emperor found both music and the representational arts to be distasteful.

                                                                   Pearl mosque ,Red Fort,Agra

                                                                     Nagina Mosque,Red Fort,Delhi

                                                              NAGINA MOSQUE,

Aurangzeb had none of his father's passion for the arts and architecture. Only a few monuments in Delhi are associated with Aurangzeb's name. These constructions, note Hambly, include the two massive outer defenses or barbicans protecting the gateway of the Red Fort and the exquisite Moti (Pearl) Mosque at Delhi. This mosque was built inside the palace to provide the emperor with a place for private prayers.

                                                      Aurangzeb Mosque,Aurangabad

The decoration of this mosque, note Blair and Bloom, is made noteworthy by its exuberant floral carvings. The vases with stems of flowers fill the spandrels and spreading tendrils echo the cusps of the arches which culminate in a fleur-de-lys. In this exquisite mosque, continue Blair and Bloom, the realistic floral motifs that had been typical of the Shah Jahan period became increasingly abstract.

The most impressive building of Aurangzeb's reign, write Blair and Bloom, is the Badshahi (Imperial) Mosque which was constructed in 1674 under the supervision of Fida'i Koka. This mosque is adjacent to the fort at Lahore. The Badshahi is the last in the series of great congregational mosques in red sandstone and is closely modeled on the one Shah Jahan built at Shahjahanabad, note Blair and Bloom.

                      Interior of Badshahi Mosque taken by Samuel Bourne in 1863,British Library

                                                                     Badshahi Mosque in 1880s

 [ The courtyard of the Badshahi Mosque is the largest mosque courtyard in the world. Construction of the Badshahi Mosque was ordered in May 1671 by the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. The architecture and design of the Badshahi Mosque closely resembles that of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father and predecessor, Emperor Shah Jahan. It is believed that Aurangzeb, in a bid to outdo his estranged father, had deliberately ordered that the Badshahi Mosque be larger than Delhi's Jama Masjid.]

  The red sandstone of the walls contrasts with the white marble of the domes and the subtle intarsia decoration. The materials depart from the local tradition of tile revetment that is seen in the Mosque of Vazir Khan. According to Blair and Bloom, the cusped arches and arabesque floral patterns inlaid in white marble give the building, despite its vast proportions, a lighter appearance than its prototype.

Additional monuments from this period are associated with women from Aurangzeb's imperial family, writes Hambly. The construction of the elegant Zinat al-Masjid in Daryaganij was overseen by Aurangzeb's second daughter Zinat al-Nisa. The delicate brick and plaster mausoleum in the Roshan-Ara-Bagh in Sabzimandi was for Aurangzeb's sister Roshan-Ara who died in 1671. Unfortunately, the tomb of Roshan-Ara and the beautiful garden surrounding it were neglected for a long time and are now in an advanced state of decay.

Mini Taj Mahal for his wife-built by Aurangazeeb