Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb 1658-1707

Aurangzeb Alamgir sat on the peacock throne with an even longer title of ^{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}. He took his title “Alamgir”, the Persian word engraved on the sword which was given to him by his father. He was a Puritan emperor. He did nothing which was not allowed in Islam.

For Islam, he destroyed the temples and broke the idols. For Islam he waged unending wars in Deccan. He abjured the pleasures of the senses in lived like a Fakir, once he aspired to become. He never tasted wine and his drink was water. He slept on the ground with only tiger skin over him. Following the dicta of the prophet that every Muslim should adopt a trade, he used his free time in making skull caps. He learnt Quran by heart and copied it twice in his fine calligraphy and sent it to Mecca.

This Bigot Mohammedan created a lot of troubles for himself and lost both energy and resources in dealing with the rebellions of Jats, Satnamis, Bundelas, Sikhs and finally the formidable Marathas. He stopped engraving Kalma on coins. Forbade the Parsis to celebrate their festival Navaroz. Released an order to ban the music everywhere and arrest those who listen to the music. Ended the Mughal pomp of Jharokha Darshan, use of almanacs, the Mughal custom of weighing the emperor in gems -distributing the wealth to the poors, on coronation anniversaries. He reintroduced Jazia.

In summary he did all that was never done by his great grandfather, grandfather and father. This was enough to shake the foundation of the Mughal Empire which was based upon religious tolerance. Aurangzeb was the last important Mughal ruler and after him the Mughal empire rapidly decayed and was finally put to an end by the British.

This King reigned for half a century and died in 1707 leaving behind a war of succession. He now lays in peace at Khuldabad, near Aurangabad.