Aurangazeb (1658-1707)
Within a year of his accession, Aurangazeb took steps to repair the ravage done by the prolonged war of succession which had also thrown the administration out of gear and caused misery throughout northern India. First of all, he established law and order by bringing the governors and other important officers under proper control. Next, he gave much needed relief to the people by abolishing many illegal taxes, and even the abwabs or miscellaneous taxes levied over and above the regular land revenue and customs duty.
As the champion of Sunni orthodoxy, Aurangazeb issued a number of ordinances to make the Muslims conform to the orthodox rules of conduct as taught by the Quran. He gave up the practice of inscribing the Kalima on the coins. Next, he discontinued the observance of Nauroz, as it was un-Islamic, and forbade the cultivation of bhang throughout the empire. He appointed censors of public morals (muhtasibs) in all important cities to enforce the Quranic law and to put down drinking, gambling and prostitution. The muhtasibs were also required to see that Muslims prayed five times every day and kept the fast of Ramzan. In 1669, a general order to demolish temples and Hindu centres of learning was issued. The celebrated Visvanatha temple of Benaras and the Kesava Rai temple of Mathura were demolished. In April 1679, he reimposed jeziya despite Hindu protests.
The first ten years of Aurangazeb’s rule were militarily and politically a great success. By 1661, Mir · Jumla seized Cooch-Behar and marched up the Brahmaputra, Next year he entered Garhgaon (near Gauhati), the Ahom capital. The Ahom army fled but their continued attacks, combined with pestilence and famine forced Mir Jumla to make peace with the Ahom Raja but died on his way to Dacca. Aurangazeb’s early success is overshadowed by his later setbacks. The excesses committed by the faujdar of Mathura, aroused the Jats around Mathura and Agra to rise in revolt under Gokla, who killed the faujdar.
The emperor himself marched to the area, captured and executed Gokla (1661). But the Jats found their leader in Churaman, who strengthened the Jat fort near Bharatpur and fearlessly sacked regions around Agra and Delhi. The next formidable rebellion was that of the Satnamis in the districts of Narnaul and Mewar. The Satnamis were a peaceful religious brotherhood who believed in the unity of God and were employed in agriculture. The rebellion was due to a private quarrel between a Satnami peasant and a Mughal foot soldier. The movement spread quickly and the Satnamis scored a number of victories over the imperial troops under local officers. Aurangazeb was compelled to send a large army under Radandaz Khan, who brutally defeated them and terrorised them into submission.
The ninth guru of the Sikhs, Tej Bahadur, offended Aurangzeb by his preachings and in 1675, he was beheaded on the orders of the qazi of Delhi. Guru Gobind, the tenth guru, reinterpreted the Sikh ideologies to justify military action. The Sikhs who accepted the rite of baptism which he devised were known as the Khalsa (pure) and were given the title of Singh (Lion).
A Mughal reinforcement besieged the Sikh stronghold of Anandpur and though the guru evacuated the fort, his two sons were savagely executed by Wazir Khan, the Sirhind faujdar. The Sikhs and the Mughals clashed repeatedly till Aurangazeb’s death. A serious challenge to Aurangazeb, however, came in 1678 when Maharaja Jaswant Singh died in the north-western tribal region. He had no heirs, but one of his pregnant queens gave birth to a posthumous son, Ajit Singh.
As the paramount power, Aurangazeb’ annexed the whole of Marwar. Indra Singh Rathor, a grand-nephew of Jaswant, was subsequently made Raja of Jodhpur. Though Ajit Singh was put under house arrest in Delhi, the Rathors under Durgadas rescued and took him to Marwar. Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar joined Jaswant’s chief queen, Rani Hadi, in pressing Ajit’s right to his father’s throne.
In 1679, the emperor ordered his fourth son, Akbar, to invade Marwar. But the prince instead declared himself emperor in 1681 with the support of the Rajputs. Aurangazeb, soon marched against him and managed to alienate the Rajputs from Akbar by using deceitful means. The Rajputs deserted Akbar and so Akbar fled to the court of Sivaji’s son Sambhaji. Aurangazeb left for the Deccan in September 1681 (this marks the second part of his reign, which was a disaster), never to return to the north. In the Deccan, Shivaji carved out an independent Maratha state in the territories north and south of Konkan. To contain the Marathas, Aurangazeb decided to invade Bijapur. It was annexed in 1686 and the Adil Shah dynasty came to an end. Bijapur was made the seat of the Mughal provincial governor.
Next, Aurangazeb turned his attention towards the kingdom of Golkonda where Abul Hasan, the last Qutb Shahi ruler, had placed the administration in the hands of two Brahman ministers Akkanna and Madanna and spent most of his time in pleasure-seeking. The Hindu influence at Golkonda and the latter’s alliance with the Marathas were particularly offensive to Aurangazeb.
In July 1687, Aurangazeb sent Shah Alam to capture Hyderabad; but the prince failed. But in October, the commander-in-chief of the Golkonda army was bribed by the Mughals and he deserted his master to join Aurangazeb. The sultan fled and Hyderabad was occupied by Shah Alam. The Muslim nobles and the two dowager queens of Golkonda had Madanna and Akkanna murdered. This was followed by a general attack on the Hindu population of Golkonda.