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Aurangzeb Alamgir (rahimahullah) was the sixth & the last great mughal emperor of India. He
ruled India from 1658 to 1707 AD. He was one of the greatest mughal emperors & lived a very
simple life. He lived on a small quantity of food, he used to write the quran with his own hand &
sell them to earn extra wage. If he wanted, he could have lived a life of extra-ordinary luxury as
the, emperors, kings, nawabs, rajas, maharajas did in those days.
He was a well-read man; he kept up his love of books till the end. He wrote beautiful Persian
prose. A selection of his letters (Ruqat-i-Alamgiri) has long been a standard model of simple but
elegant prose. He understood music well but he gave up this amusement in accordance with
Islamic injunctions.
Emperor Aurangzeb is considered as the greatest of all the mughal kings. The mughal state
reached its height under his leadership.
The state has 29.2% of the world population under its flag (175 million out of 600 million in
1700 AD) & was one of the richest states the world had ever seen, with a world GDP of 24.5% ($
90.8 billion out of $ 371 billion in 1700).
Of all the Muslim rulers who ruled vast territories of India for 49 years, probably no one has
received as much condemnation from western & Hindu writers as Aurangzeb. He has been
castigated as a religious Muslim who was anti-Hindu, who taxed them, who tried to convert
them, who discriminated them in awarding high administrative positions, & who interfered in
their religious matters. This view has been heavily promoted in the government approved text
books in schools & colleges across post partition India (i.e., after 1947).
These are fabrications against one of the best rulers of India who was pious, scholarly, saintly,
un-biased, liberal, magnanimous, tolerant, competent & far sighted.
Fortunately, in recent years quite a few Hindu historians have come out in the open disputing
those allegations. For e.g., historian Babu Nagendranath Banerjee rejected the accusation of
forced conversion of Hindus by Muslim rulers by stating that if that was their intention then in
India today there would not be nearly four times as many Hindus compared to Muslims, despite
the fact that Muslims had ruled for nearly a thousand years.
Banerjee challenged the Hindu hypothesis that Aurangzeb was anti-Hindu by reasoning that if
the latter was truly guilty of such bigotry, how could he appoint a Hindu as his military
commander -in chief?? Surely, he could have afforded to appoint a competent Muslim general
in that position. Banerjee further stated: No one should accuse Aurangzeb of being communal
minded. In his administration the state policy was formulated by Hindus. A number of non-
Muslims including Hindus, Sikhs, Marathas & Jats, were employed by him in his court.
He did not compromise on the fundamentals of Islam, which are infact the moving spirit of every
faith. Historical facts must be interpreted in their true & objective spirit & not subjectively as
expressed by the Hindu writers.
The late scholar & historian, Dr.Bishambhar Nath Pandes research efforts exploded myths on
Aurangzebs rule. They also offer an excellent example of what history has to teach us if only we
study it dispassionately. Mr. Pande was ranked among the very few Indians & very fewer still
Hindu historians who tried to be a little careful when dealing with such history. He knew that this
history was originally compiled by European writers whose main objective was to produce a
history that would serve their policy of divide & rule.
In his famous Khuda Bakhsh Annual Lecture (1985) Dr. Pande said: Thus under a definite
policy the Indian history text books were so falsified & distorted as to give an impression that the
medieval (i.e., Muslim) period of Indian history was full of atrocities committed by Muslim
rulers on their Hindu subjects & the Hindus had to suffer terrible indignities under Muslim rule
and there were no common factors (between Hindus & Muslims) in social, political & economic
life.
Therefore, Dr.Pande was extra careful. Whenever he came across a fact that looked odd to him,
he would try to check & verify rather than adopt it uncritically. He came across a history text
book taught in the Anglo-Bengali College, Allahabad, which claimed that three thousand
Brahmins had committed suicide as Tipu wanted to convert them forcibly into the fold of Islam.
The author was a very famous scholar, Dr.Har Prasad Shastri, head of the department of Sanskrit
at Kolkata University. (Tipu Sultan (1750-99), who ruled over the South Indian state of Mysore
(1782-99), is one of the most heroic figures in Indian history. He died on the battle field, fighting
the British.)
Was it true?? Dr. Pande wrote immediately to the author & asked him for the source on which he
had based this episode in his text-book. After several reminders, Dr. Shastri replied that he had
taken this information from the Mysore gazetteer. So Dr. Pande requested the Mysore university
vice- chancellor, Sir Brijendra Nath Seal, to verify for him Dr. Shastris statement from the
gazetteer. Sir Brijendra referred his letter to Prof. Srikantia who was then working on a new
edition of the gazetteer. Srikantia wrote to say that the gazetteer mentioned no such incident and,
as a historian himself, he was certain that nothing like this had taken place. Prof. Srikantia added
that both the prime minister & commander-in-chief of Tipu Sultan were themselves Brahmins.
He also enclosed a list of 136 Hindu temples which used to receive annual grants from the
sultans treasury.
It inspired that Shastri had lifted this story from Colonel Miles, History of Mysore, which Miles
claimed he had taken from a Persian manuscript in the personal library of Queen Victoria. When
Dr. Pande checked further, he found that no such manuscript existed in Queen Victorias library.
Lord Curzon(Governor General of India 1895-99 & Viceroy 1899-1904(d.1925) was told by the
secretary of state for India, George Francis Hamilton , that they should so plan the educational
textbooks that the differences between community & community are further strengthened.
Another Viceroy, Lord Dufferin (1884-88), was advised by the secretary of state in London that
the division of religious feelings is greatly to our advantage , & that he expected some good
as a result of your committee of inquiry on Indian education & on teaching material . We
have maintained our power in India by playing off one part against the other, the secretary of
state for India reminded yet another viceroy, Lord Elgin (1862-63), & we must continue to do
so. Do all you can, therefore to prevent all having a common feeling?
Some of the Hindu historians have accused Aurangzeb of demolishing Hindu temples. How
factual is this accusation against a man, who has been known to be a saintly man, a strict
adherent of Islam?? The Quran prohibits any Muslim to impose his will on a non-Muslim by
stating that There is no compulsion in religion.(Surah al-Baqarah 2.256). The Surah al-
Kafirun clearly states: To you is your religion & to me is mine. It would be totally
unbecoming of a learned scholar of Islam of his caliber, as Aurangzeb was known to be, to do
things that are contrary to the dictates of the Quran.
Interestingly, the 1946 edition of the history textbook Etihash Parichaya (introduction to history)
used in Bengal for the 5th & 6th graders states: If Aurangzeb had the intention of demolishing
temples to make way for mosques, there would not have been a single temple standing erect in
India. On the contrary, Aurangzeb donated huge estates for use as temple sites & support thereof
in Benaras, Kashmir & elsewhere. The official documentations for these land grants are still
extant.
A stone inscription in the historic Balaji or Vishnu temple, located north of Chitrakut Balaghat,
still shows that it was commissioned by the emperor himself. His administration made handsome
donation to temple of Pandharpur seat of deity Vitthal. Historian the late D.G Godse has
claimed that trustees of Vitthal temple were more worried about marauding Maratha armies than
the mughal one.
The proof of Aurangzebs land grant for famous Hindu religious sites in Varanasi can easily be
verified from the deed records extant at those sites. The same textbook (Etihash Parichaya)
reads: During the fifty year reign of Aurangzeb, not a single Hindu was forced to embrace
Islam. He did not interfere with any Hindu religious activities.
Alexander Hamilton, a British historian, toured India towards the end of Aurangzebs fifty years
reign & observed that everyone was free to serve & worship god in his own way.
The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb is the most reviled of all the Muslim rulers in India. He was
supposed to be a great destroyer of temples & oppressor of Hindus, & a fundamentalist too. As
chairman of the Allahabad municipality (1948-53), Dr. Bishambhar Nath Pande had to deal with
a land dispute between two temple priests. One of them had filed in evidence some firmans
(royal orders) to prove that Aurangzeb had, besides cash, gifted the land in question for the
maintenance of his temple.
Might they not be fake, Dr. Pande thought in view of Aurangzebs fanatically anti-Hindu
image?? He showed them to his friend, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, a distinguished lawyer as well a
great scholar of Arabic & Persian. He was also a Brahmin. Sapru examined the documents &
declared they were genuine firmans issued by Aurangzeb. For Dr.Pande this was a new image of
Aurangzeb, so he wrote to the chief priests of the various important temples, all over the
country, requesting photocopies of any firman issued by aurangzeb that they may have in their
possession. The response was overwhelming; he received copies of firmans of Aurangzeb from
the great temples of Mahakaleshwara, Ujjain, Balaji temple, Chitrakut, Umanand temple
Gauhati, & the Jain temple of Shatrunjai & other temples & gurudwaras scattered over northern
India. These firmans were issued from 1659 to 1685AD. Though these are only few instances of
Aurangzeb generous attitude towards Hindus & their temples, they are enough to show that what
the historians have written about him was biased & is only one side of the picture. India is a vast
land with thousands of temples scattered all over. If proper research is made, I am confident;
many more instances would come to light which will show Aurangzebs benevolent treatment of
non-Muslims.
The image of Aurangzeb as an idol breaker may not with stand scrutiny, since there is evidence
to show that, like his predecessors, he continued to confer land grants or jagirs (large parcel of
agricultural lands) upon Hindu temples, such as the Someshwar Nath Mahadev temple
Allahabad, Jangum Badi Shiva temple in Varanasi, Umanand temple in Gauhati & numerous
others. He did not harm to the famous Alura temples (a huge complex of Ancient temples) in his
conquest of Deccan.
What would an Anti-Hindu, Cruel and Whimsical ruler do to his Hindu enemy who runs out
of provisions in the battlefield ?
Of course no King would let this golden opportunity go from his hands. Without a doubt he
would either kill his foe or take him as a POW and loot all his remaining possession, right ??
Now lets look at what an Anti-Hindu & Cruel, according to majority of the Indian mates,
ruler did to his Hindu enemy, Shivaji.
Sultan Alamgir was engaged in battle against Shivaji, when he ran out of provisions. Shivaji
went to his mother to get counsel.
(Surprisingly) his mother advised him to consult with Sultan Alamgir. He objected, saying Sultan
Alamgir is the enemy! His mother said that indeed he is the enemy, but he is steadfast in his
religion. It is part of their religion to give correct counsel. Therefore, Shivaji consulted with
Sultan Alamgir and the Sultan said lets call a truce so you can go and make preparations. Shivaji
asked him how long the truce would last.
Sultan Alamgir said it would last ten years. Then, the Sultan asked his forces to retreat.
His ministers asked him why he called a truce. The Sultan said that it is mentioned in the Quran
that Compromise is better (as-sulhu khayrun). The ministers then asked him why he
extended the truce to ten years(such a long time span). The Sultan said that Prophet Muhammad
(sallallaahu alaihi wasallam) made peace with the Quraysh for ten years at the treaty of
Hudaibiyah, and success lies only in emulating the example of Rasoolullah (sallallaahu alaihi
wasallam) (Adab Ikhtilaf, pg 65-66)
Dr. Pandes research showed that Aurangzeb was as solicitous of the rights & welfare of his non-
Muslim subjects as he was of his Muslim subjects. Hindu plaintiffs received full justice against
their Muslims respondents &, if guilty, Muslims were given punishment as necessary.
One of the greatest charges against Aurangzeb is of the demolition of Vishwanath temple in
Varanasi. That was a fact, but Dr. Pande unraveled the reason for it. While Aurangzeb was
passing near Varanasi on his way to Bengal, the Hindu Rajas in his retinue requested that if the
halt was made for a day, their Ranis may go to Varanasi, have a dip in the Ganges & pay their
homage to Lord Vishwanath. Aurangzeb readily agreed. Army pickets were posted on the five
mile route to Varanasi. The Ranis made journey to the palkis. They took their dip in the Ganges
& went to the Vishwanath temple to pay their homage. After offering puja (worship) all the Ranis
returned except one, the Maharani of Kutch. A thorough search was made of the temple precincts
but the Rani was to be found nowhere.
When Aurangzeb came to know about this, he was very much enraged. He sent his senior
officers to search for the Rani. Ultimately they found that statue of Ganesh (the elephant
headed god) which was fixed in the wall was a moveable one. When the statue was moved, they
saw a flight of stairs that led to the basement. To their horror they found the missing Rani
dishonored & crying deprived of all her ornaments. The basement was just beneath Lord
Vishwanaths seat. The Raja demanded salutary action, & Aurangzeb ordered that as the
sacred precincts have been despoiled, Lord Vishwanath may be moved to some other place, the
temple be razed to the ground & the Mahant (head priest) be arrested & punished.
Though this was primarily due to a general increase in the number of officers, it shows that there
was no ban on the employment of Hindus.
In his administration the state policy was formulated by Hindus. Two Hindus held the highest
position in the state treasury.
Some prejudiced Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to
such high offices. The emperor refuted them by stating that he had been following the dictates of
the Shariah (Islamic law) which demands appointing right persons in right positions. During
Aurangzebs long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Jay Singh, Raja
Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy & Rasik Lal Crory, held very
high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzebs administration,
Jaswant Singh & Jay Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a
garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, &
Achalaji & Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all
these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied
against him & removed him from his throne??
Most Hindus like Akbar over Aurangzeb for his multi-ethnic court where Hindus were favored.
Historian Shri Sharma states that while Emperor Akbar had 14 Hindu Mansabdars (high
officials) in his court, Aurangzeb actually had 148 Hindu high officials in his court (Ref : Mughal
Govn.). But this fact is somewhat less known.
If Aurangzeb was so ferocious a communalist, why is it, some historians have asked, that the
number of Hindu employed in positions of eminence under Aurangzebs reign rose from 24.5%
in the time of his father Shah Jahan to 33% in the fourth decade of his own rule??
Now let us deal with Aurangzebs imposition of the Jizya tax which had drawn severe criticism
from many Hindu historians. It is true that Jizya was lifted during the reign of Akbar & Jahangir
& that Aurangzeb later reinstated this.
Before I delve into the subject of Aurangzebs Jizya tax, or taxing the non-Muslims, it is
worthwhile to point out that Jizya is nothing more than a war tax which was collected only from
able-bodied young non-Muslim male citizens living in a Muslim country who did not want to
volunteer for the defence of the country. That is, no such tax was collected from non-Muslims
who volunteered to defend the country. This tax was not collected from women & neither from
immature males nor from disabled or old male citizens. For payment of such taxes, it became
incumbent upon the Muslim Government to protect the life, property & wealth of its non-Muslim
citizens. If for any reason the Government failed to protect its citizens, especially during a war,
the taxable amount was returned.
It should be pointed out here that zakat (2.5% of savings) & ushr (10% of agricultural products)
were collected from all Muslims, who owned some wealth (beyond a certain minimum, called
nisab.
They also paid sadaqah, fitrah & khums. None of these were collected from any non-Muslim. As
a matter of fact, the per capita collection from Muslims was several fold that of non-Muslims.
Further to Aurangzebs credit is his abolition of a lot of taxes, although this fact is not usually
mentioned by anti-Islam historians because they are like swines enroaching only on filth even if
there was no filth, they create the filth.
In his book Mughal administration, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, foremost historian on the Mughal
dynasty, mentions that during Aurangzebs reign in power, nearly 65 types of taxes were
abolished, which resulted in a yearly revenue loss of 50 million rupees from the state treasury.
Other historians stated that when Aurangzeb abolished 80 types of taxes, no one thanked him for
his generosity. But when he imposed only one (jizya), & not heavy at all, people began to show
their displeasure.
While some Hindu historians are retracting the lies, the textbooks & historic accounts in western
countries have yet to admit their error & set the record straight.
Just think a man such, character, caliber that cares and concern for public can be unjust, cruel.
Just imagine a king such cruel & unjust to the majority could rule a huge country, for about 50
years, where high majority members serving highest position & comprising 80% in the military.
He was so pious best character person noble & just. You cannot find a single one in the present
leaders.
His personal piety however is undeniable. He led an exemplary simple pious life. He cares for
the royal treasury as public treasury & for public. The present leaders considers public treasury
to personal treasury.
Unlike his predecessors, Aurangzeb did consider the royal treasury as a trust of the citizens of his
empire & did not use it for personal expenses.
He was Subedar in Deccan & Gujarat. He didnt destroy any temple. His period was peaceful &
prosperous, called golden period.
Despite more than two decades he campaigned as subedar in Deccan & Gujarat there is no record
of temple destruction in the region.
He continued to confer Jagirs to Hindu temples. His period was golden period & relatively
peaceful, prosperous in his tenure.
He was maligned that he was against art & music. He was the accomplished musician playing
veena. The largest numbers of books on classical Indian music in Persian were written during
Aurangzebs reign. He banned all vulgar dances.
Aurangzeb cruelty as mere rumors or at best lies invented by Hindu bigotry & British historians
who wanted to weaken India by their divide & rule policy. Bankim Chatterjee, who served his
whole life to British government, was a tool of this conspiracy and dividing.
He was so concern about duties; he did not miss prayer during the ongoing war.
He spread his prayer rug & prayed in the midst of battle ground, brought him much fame.
He stopped all bad things, which today everybody want. Why sattabazi is illegal??
Today Indian citizens pay more than 66% of their income as taxes, (count by yourselves:
Property Tax, Income Tax, Sales Tax, Service Tax, Professional Tax, Vehicle Tax, Inter-State
Permit Tax, Value Added Tax, Taxes on Jewels and Ornaments, Tax on Petrol and Diesel etc etc)
while Aurangzeb (rahimahullah) took only 2.5% tax as Jizya, Its upto the Indians to think: The
present democratic government is far far worse than Aurangzebs.isnt it??
He forbade sati, drinking, gambling, prostitution, devadasies, dancing in brothels, ashrams &
mutts. He put jizya to Dhimmis (non-believers) which around 2.5% like Muslim pay their Zakat,
2.5% eligible person should pay. The old, women, children were exempted. Only the young man
who didnt want to serve in the army should pay the jiziya. Indian parliament recently passed the
bill of Lok Pal, whereas Aurangzeb was the only ruler who appointed Lok Pal to control
corruption in Judiciary, Finance & other departments.
He appointed Muhattasib (lok pal) censors to control injustice & atrocities. The Brahmans &
higher caste Hindus now found themselves facing Islamic law courts for the atrocities on lower
castes Hindus.
He was best knowledgeable & brilliant administrator. He never tolerates injustice. He was a
brave soldier & best commander in the field. He was the only who control Deccan & Bijapur
dynasty. Under his leadership, in particular, he led Mughal forces in the conquest of the Deccan,
seizing first the Golkunda & Bijapur Sultanates, & then attacking the Maratha chieftains. He
annexed all the Maratha territories. He left Shivaji because he was no threat to his kingdom.
These are the few evidence of his greatness. The Brahmans & higher caste were subject to
Aurangzeb justice. They maligned & created, invented, fabricated these & all other baseless
stories.
CONCLUSION
This is all about emperor Aurangzeb. I am confident that when you will go through all these facts
& figures your perception towards this Mughal emperor will change. Our medieval history
consists of various false stories.
Our nation had never seen an emperor like Aurangzeb (rahimahullah). But what happens to Anti-
Islamic elements is that they just cannot digest anything about a religious king and spew venom
at a religious king with lies and myths while they praise a king like Akbar who wasnt a
practicing Muslim, this exposes their undeserving hatred for Islam.
Parents should make an attempt to clarify to them about the lies their children learn in History
books. Id like to end this article with a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte:
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