HistoriCity: Hindu representation in govt rose during Aurangzeb Alamgir’s reign
The grave in question belongs to Aurangzeb Alamgir, the sixth and last great Mughal emperor, and possibly the least favourite. He ruled from 1658 until 1707.
Riots have broken out in Khuldabad, also known as a valley of saints, in Maharashtra over a grave. The grave in question belongs to Aurangzeb Alamgir, the sixth Mughal emperor, and considered by many as the least favourite among the Mughal kings.
Aurangzeb, who ruled for nearly half a century from 1658 until 1707, is studied for his austerity and administrative achievements, and vilified for the alleged persecution of non-Muslims. This despite the historically well-established fact that the representation of various Hindu castes such as Brahmins, Vaishyas, Rajputs and Marathas in government, increased during his regime.
As historian Meena Bhargava writes in, Understanding Mughal India: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, “the biased ideological portrayal of the emperor, regardless of historical accuracy, makes it difficult to explain the increase in the number of Rajput mansabdars in Aurangzeb’s administration as compared to Akbar’s period, and their rise from 24 per cent under Shahjahan to 33 per cent in 1689. Nor can Raghunath Ray Kayastha’s dominance as diwan-i kul be understood rationally. Raghunath Ray not only supported Aurangzeb but also participated in several expeditions of the period. Aurangzeb honoured him with the title of Raja and when Raghunath Ray died in 1664, the emperor, in his obituary written in Ruqa’at-i Alamgiri, remembered him as the greatest administrator he had ever known”.
The latest campaign against Aurangzeb is taking place in the holy month of Ramzan after a recently released Hindi film depicted him as being cruel towards Hindus.
A Much-Maligned Mughal
The afterlife of Aurangzeb has been the most difficult for any emperor in Indian history. As historian Jadunath Sarkar pointed out in A Short History of Aurangzeb, “the history of Aurangzeb is practically the history of India”. It was under him that the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent and became the largest state known in the sub-continent, “from the dawn of history to the rise of British power”.
Unlike his Mughal predecessors, Shah Jahan, Jahangir and Akbar, he immersed himself in religious devotion and military expansion. Instead of the extreme opulence and self-indulgence of a Shah Jahan, for instance, he swung towards patronage of religious orders such as the Chishtis, and severe austerity. The only exception to this was displaying Mughal grandeur at his own ascension ceremony in 1658.
Better known by his regnal name Alamgir, Aurangzeb spent almost 30 years of his life in the hard terrain of the Deccan. His birth name was Muhi al-Din Muhammad and from an early age he came under the influence of reformist preachers who obliquely but constantly criticised what they considered the un-Islamic regime of his father, emperor Shah Jahan. While his biggest rival and sibling Dara Shikoh strengthened his position in the Mughal court in Agra and later Delhi, Aurangzeb remained itinerant from one battlefield to another, and also from shrine to mosques.
After a bloody succession battle which left his brothers dead and father imprisoned and dying, Aurangzeb moved his capital to Aurangabad which revived not just the imperial city but also the fortunes of the entire region and particularly Rauza or Khuldabad, the valley of saints.
A Sufi and Royal necropolis: Khuldabad
The town of Khuldabad, where his grave lies, is a Sufi necropolis predating Aurangzeb’s ascension to the throne of Hindustan by at least four centuries. Tradition has it that 1400 Sufi saints of various orders are buried in Khuldabad, which was earlier called Rauza or Roza (garden of paradise). It was renamed after Aurangzeb was buried there in 1707 as one of his posthumous titles was Khuld-Makan or sheltered in eternity.
However, from at least the time of Akbar, the Mughals had been patronising Khuldabad, Burhanpur and the general region of Khandesh. This is an instance where political and sacred geography overlapped and successfully flourished.
“Akbar’s interest in patronising the shrines of Khuldabad can be partly explained by his initial conquests of the northern Deccan region of Khandesh in 1601 and his establishment of a palace and military outpost in its chief city of Burhanpur, circumstances which prompted an interest in the rest of the Deccan. Burhanpur’s Faruqi rulers (1370-1601) had long maintained links of patronage with Khuldabad, a patronage that Akbar was careful to maintain. Subsequently, in 1605 he issued a farman granting the Khuldabad shrines the income of three villages in the newly conquered region of Khandesh”, wrote Nile Green in ‘Auspicious Foundations: The Patronage of Sufi Institutions in the Late Mughal and Early Asaf Jah Deccan’.
This well of Islam in the Deccan began with the arrival of Sufi saint Burhan-uddin in the 13th-14th centuries followed by Shaikh Zainuddin who was a close confidant of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. Other saints too have acquired enduring glory, such as Zar Zari Zar Baksh or Shah Muntajab ud din who, according to legend converted a Hindu princess at Aurangabad. All the rulers preceding and succeeding Mughals patronised the Sufi shrine centre. Among the pre-Mughal kingdoms, Malik Ambar (1548-1636), the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty at Aurangabad, is buried next to Zar Baksh’s grave at Khuldabad.
Shivaji’s grandson visits Aurangzeb’s Grave
Within a week of Aurangzeb’s death, his son Azam Shah, who had declared himself emperor was betrayed, ambushed and killed while he was returning to Agra. His rival and sibling Mirza Muhammad Mu’azzam or commonly known as Bahadur Shah or Shah Alam became the next Mughal emperor. Azam Shah was buried next to his father’s grave in the premises of the tomb of Shaikh Zainuddin, whom Aurangzeb revered deeply.
What is perhaps most ironic in the calls for the razing of Aurangzeb’s tomb is the stark contrast with which the Marathas themselves treated Mughal structures, though incidents of plunder and desecration were also noted. Beyond this, historical accounts also indicate that Chhatrapati Shahu I, who was the fifth monarch of the Maratha Empire and grandson of Shivaji, who had been taken captive by Aurangzeb in 1689 and spent nearly two decades in Mughal courts, made a visit to Emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb to show his respect.
Aurangzeb exercised untrammeled power and did undeniably order harsh and often brutal punishments, including razing of places of worship that became associated with rebels and dissidents. This is however not something that is characteristic only of him; history is replete with similar examples of kings, belonging to different religions, pillaging and ransacking temples as well. It would bode well to examine these patterns from the standards of that time, rather than the lens of intolerance we seem to be wearing today.
HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal
