The wonder that was india

Filled with shame, Dara refused his father's request to see him. The Emperor, however, ordered the governor of Delhi to place all his resources at Dara's disposal. Mules laden with gold coins from the Agra treasury were sent out to provide for Dara's expenses. Aurangzlb was now camped outside Agra and rejected all Shah-jahan's invitations to visit him. Shahjahan shut the fort gates on 16 June, fearing for his own safety. Aurangzlb found battering the fort walls too difficult so he seized another gate which opened on to the river. The supply of Jamuna water was stopped, and the fort inmates, suffering from the pangs of thirst, began to desert. Shahjahan himself, sick of drinking the bitter well water in the fort, wrote a pathetic letter complaining to Aurangzib:

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Praised be the Hindus in all cases,

As they ever offer water to their dead.

And thou, my son, art a marvellous Musalman,

As thou earnest me in life to lament for (lack of) water.46

After three days Shahjahan opened the gates, and Aurangzib's officers took possession of the fort with its treasures and jewels. Shahjahan was confined within the ladies' palace behind the Hall of Public Audience. Jahan Ara's last bid to persuade Aurangzib to agree to the partition of the kingdom, with himself as the official heir apparent, also failed. Aurangzib refused to see his father until he had killed Dara, whom he declared an infidel. Although himself imprisoned, Shahjahan continued sending assistance to Dara, thus incurring Aurangzib's further resentment.

Aurangzib's growing control over the administration and the desertion by many eminent nobles to his side alarmed Murad, but Aurangzib's bribes and flattery lulled his suspicions. On 24 June they marched together from Agra towards Delhi in pursuit of Dara. On the way Aurangzib treacherously took Murad captive and imprisoned him in the Salimgarh fort at Delhi. Some months later he was transferred to Gwalior fort. In the middle of December his continuing popularity and efforts to escape prompted Aurangzib to sentence him to death. Aurangzib then moved to Delhi, forcing Dara to flee the Panjab. Reaching Lahore on 14 July, Dara recruited an army of 20,000 men. At Delhi, Aurangzib took steps to prevent Sulayman Shukoh from joining his father. He also resolved to formally crown himself king. The chief qazi opposed this, on the ground that Shahjahan was still alive, but Aurangzib's favourite, Qazi 'Abud'l-Wahhab, issued a fatwa enabling him to crown himself king on 1 August with the title 'Alamgir (Conqueror of the Universe). The pursuit of Dara was stepped up. Aurangzib reached the river Satlaj with the main army on 25 August. Dara abandoned Lahore for lower Sind, but the real threat to his rule came from Shuja', who was heading towards Allahabad in order to seize Agra. Aurangzib left his commanders to harry Dara and returned to Agra. There he dispatched a strong force under his son, Sultan Muhammad, to stop Shuja' 's onward march. On 10 January, Sultan Muhammad stood facing Shuja' near Khajwa in Allahabad. Aurangzib also arrived, as, by forced marches, did Mir Jumla, who had been taken captive by Aurangzib and then released. Before the battle Jaswant Singh of Jodhpur, commanding the imperial right wing, who had made a treacherous pact with Shuja', fell on Sultan Muhammad's camp in the last night watch. He plundered it and then took off for Agra on his way to Jodhpur.

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Shuja' failed to take advantage of the confusion, however, while Aurangzlb calmly stuck to his positions. At dawn he reorganized his army. Although Shuja' 's battle plan was superb, he could not win the day. His army was routed, his baggage plundered, and he himself took to flight.

Leaving Thatta in lower Sind, Dara suffered great hardship in the Rann of Kacch. When he reached Ahmadabad, Shah Nawaz Khan, the newly appointed governor of Gujarat, joined him. They raised an army of 22,000 men and acquired an efficient artillery corps. At Jaswant Singh's invitation, Dara set off for Ajmir. Although Aurangzlb was furious at Jaswant's treachery, he did not wish him to join Dara. At his instigation therefore, Raja Jai Singh, who had not shown the usual Rajput enthusiasm for duty when fighting Shuja' under Sulayman Shukoh and had subsequently joined Aurangzlb, weaned Jaswant away from Dara, promising him to have his title and mansab restored. Dara was dismayed but he wisely chose to hold the pass of Deora'i in order to give battle, and Aurangzlb marched there to attack him. On 23 and 24 March 1659 the artillery from both sides caused considerable havoc; Dara's guns, installed on a high position, were the more effective. Aurangzlb abandoned conventional tactics and instead launched a heavy attack on Dara's left. He captured it, and Dara's army turned tail. Fleeing through Gujarat and Kacch, Dara reached Sind. Jai Singh pursued Dara with remarkable tenacity. Dara reached Dadar, nine miles east of the Indian end of the Bolan Pass, on the way to the Shah of Iran's court. There his wife died of exhaustion from the journey. Dara lost interest in the world. He spent three days mourning her and sent her corpse with his most loyal officers to be buried near the tomb of the celebrated sufi Miyan Mir of Lahore. On 20 June, Dara set off towards the Bolan Pass but was taken captive by his treacherous Afghan chief, Malik Jiwan, who handed him over to Jai Singh in the hope of obtaining a reward from Aurangzlb. Dara, with his son and two daughters, was brought to the outskirts of Delhi on 3 September 1659. There he and his younger son, Sipihr Shukoh, were paraded in chains under the burning sun. The outbursts of public sympathy for Dara prompted the Emperor to act quickly. The religious dignitaries gave the verdict that Dara should be sentenced to death for stating in his Majma'u'l-bahrayn that Islam and Hinduism were twin brothers.48 On 11 September both Dara and Sipihr Shukoh were executed.

The war following Shahjahan's illness was not a struggle between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, as many scholars suggest. The ambition of all four brothers to rule over the whole of India made a

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war of succession inevitable. The mansabdars changed sides, not for ideological reasons but for personal reward. Dara Shukoh, as commander of the imperial army, was served by Rajputs more than other, races. Some Rajputs, following their martial tradition, recklessly sacrificed their lives, but others, like Raja Jai Singh, refused their support to Dara because of personal grievances.

Murad and Shuja' were well known for their unorthodox views but they were loudest in condemning Dara's heterodoxy and they were more full of promises to promote orthodoxy than was Aurangzlb.

Dara's death made Aurangzlb the undisputed Emperor of Hindustan. Sulayman Shukoh marched from Allahabad to Harid-var and then took shelter with Prithvi Singh, the raja of Garhwal. Failing to persuade the Raja to surrender Sulayman, Aurangzlb suggested to the neighbouring hill rajas that they should annex Garhwal. Raja Jai Singh, however, weaned Prithvi's son away from Sulayman Shukoh, and in December 1660 he was surrendered to Jai Singh's son, Ram Singh. Aurangzlb sent him to Gwalior fort, where he died in May 1662 from a slow poison made from poppy seeds.

After his retreat from Khajwa, Shuja' was pursued by Prince Muhammad and Mir Jumla as far as Bengal. Shuja's artillery and flotilla were superior to Mir Jumla's, and he succeeded in enticing Prince Muhammad Sultan to his side by promising to marry his daughter to him and then make him king instead of his father. Mir Jumla's strategy of spreading out his forces in a semi-circle from Rajmahal to Malda and his plan to attack Shuja' from an unexpected quarter, however, unnerved the latter. Prince Muhammad Sultan deserted his uncle; nevertheless Aurangzlb imprisoned him top in Gwalior fort, where he died in 1676. Moving from Rajmahal, Shuja' offered some resistance near Malda but had to fly to Dacca. He did not receive the help he expected from the local chiefs there. On 23 May 1660 Shuja' bade farewell to Bengal, which he had ruled for twenty years, and sailed for Arakan with his family. Authentic information on their future never reached India. A Dutch report suggests that he was cut to pieces by the King of Arakan.

From his Agra prison Shahjahan somehow managed to send letters to Dara as long as he lived. He also wrote to his sympathizers outside the fort until Aurangzlb deprived him of writing materials. Shahjahan nevertheless wrote often to Aurangzlb condemning his ungratefulness and irreligious behaviour and calling him a religious hypocrite. On 2 February 1666 Shahjahan died, having been tended throughout his captivity by Jahan Ara. His

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earthly remains were buried beside his dearly loved wife's grave in the Taj Mahal.

Shahjahan's death was deeply mourned. He was remembered as a kind ruler and a benefactor to his subjects. He strictly observed Islamic rules for prayers and fasting. Although he demolished the temples in rebel areas, he was not a bigot. The magnificence and grandeur of his court made him the greatest potentate of his time.

AURANGZIB

Aurangzlb held his second 'coronation on 16 June 1659. The festivities lasted for two and a half months in the traditional extravagant manner. Initially Aurangzlb introduced -few administrative changes. The senior Hindu officers in the finance ministry were retained and even promoted, although in Banaras and some other places the brahmans were harassed, and Hindu temples were demolished by orthodox mobs. Aurangzlb stopped this desecration, but, in accordance with Islamic shari'a rules no new temples could be erected. A high-powered mansabdar was appointed as censor of morals (muhtasib) to prevent drinking and to make Muslim life conform to Qur'anic laws. The celebration of the Iranian Naw Ruz festival, which falls on the day the sun enters Aries, was banned. The kalima, or the confession of faith, was no longer stamped on coins, to prevent the holy words from being defiled by unbelievers or heretics.49 These reforms in no way undermined Hindu political and economic interests.

Aurangzlb sent rich gifts to the holy men of Mecca and Medina. The Sherif of Mecca also received presents to distribute among the pious and needy, but to Aurangzib's disappointment the funds' were misused. Subhan Quli, the Uzbek ruler of Balkh, was the first to recognize Aurangzlb as Emperor in 1658. The grand embassy sent by the Shah of Iran was warmly received in 1660 and returned loaded with gifts. By the time the Mughal envoy, Tarbiyat Khan, reached Iran, however, Aurangzib's atrocities against his brothers and father and his hostility to the Deccan sultans were known to the Shah. He sent a stern reply, taunting Aurangzlb for his presumptuous title World-Conqueror when he could not control zamindars like Shivaji.

Shahjahan had unsuccessfully tried to build up a foreign Sunni block consisting of the Ottomans arid Uzbeks to counter Shl'i Iran and had exchanged ambassadors with the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV (1623-40). In Aurangzib's reign no ambassadors were

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exchanged, although the Emperor sympathized with the Ottomans over their European defeats. After the Ottoman defeat at Vienna in 1683 Sulayman II (1687-91) sent an ambassador to Aurangzib to seek his help. The Emperor was too deeply involved in the Deccan wars to commit himself, and the disappointed Sultan excluded Aurangzib's cold reply from the Ottoman records.

The first ten years of Aurangzib's rule were militarily and politically a great success. Minor uprisings were instantly crushed, and in 1660 Rao Karan, the BIkanir chieftain, submitted. Two years later the governor of Bihar annexed rocky and barren Palamau in the southern limits of his province. The rebel Champat Bundela, relentlessly chased by the loyal Bundela chief Subh Karan, stabbed himself to death in October 1661. Chatrasal, his son, remained loyal for some years but he also, like Shivaji, later became the champion of freedom in Bundelkhand.

By the end of 1661 Mir Jumla, who was pursuing Shuja', had seized Kooch-Bihar and marched up the Brahmaputra, conquering fort after fort and establishing military outposts at strategic places. Mir Jumla entered Garhgaon (near modern Gauhati), the Ahom capital, at the end of March 1662. The Ahom army fled to the jungle but repeatedly tried to recapture it. Their continual depredations combined with pestilence and famine exacted a heavy toll on the Mughals. Finally, prostrated by illness, Mir Jumla made peace with the Ahom Raja, collecting a heavy war indemnity. On 11 April 1663 Mir Jumla died on his way to Dacca. His death deprived Aurangzib of a wise counsellor and an indefatigable general.

The Mughal gains in the region were not permanent, however, and in 1667 they lost Garhgaon. The Arakan pirates, both Mag and Portuguese, constantly came over the water and plundered Bengal. They took both Hindus and Muslims as slaves and subjected them to harsh treatment. Not until Shayasta Khan became governor of Bengal in 1664 was an effective Bengal flotilla built and the Portuguese were defeated. Chittagong was subsequently taken from the Arakanese to the great satisfaction of the Bengalis. In 1665 the Buddhist ruler of Ladakh acknowledged the Emperor's suzerainty, under pressure from the governor of Kashmir.

Aurangzib's early victories and triumphs pale into insignificance before later tales of woe and distress. The atrocities committed by 'Abdu'n-Nabi, the fawjdar of Mathura, aroused the Jats around Mathura and Agra to rise against him. Gokula, a zamindar, became the peasants' leader and killed 'Abdu'n-Nabi Two successive fawjdars failed to quell the uprising, and in December 1669 the

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Emperor himself leisurely marched to the area in order to strike terror into the rebels' hearts. He captured Gokula and 7,000 peasants. Gokula's limbs were hacked off in Agra police station in January 1670, and his son and daughter were converted to Islam. The region calmed down temporarily.

The Satanami revolt of 1672 has been given an unrealistic communal colour. The Satanamis were a sect of Hindu devotees who maintained themselves by agriculture. They lived mostly around Narnol, some seventy-five miles south-west of Delhi. The crisis was sparked off by a minor dispute between a Satanami peasant and a foot-soldier. At the same time an old prophetess appeared among them, claiming to raise invisible armies by her spells. The victorious Satanamis plundered Narnol, demolished mosques, and established an independent government. In response the Emperor ordered his camp to be pitched outside Delhi. He wrote charms and amulets with his own hand and ordered them to be fixed to the royal standard. The imperial army meanwhile crushed the rebellion.

Jahangir's treatment of their fifth Guru had turned the Sikhs into inveterate enemies of the Mughals. Before his execution the Guru had already established a Sikh treasury at Amritsar where tithes and offerings from the Sikhs between Kabul and Dacca were collected. Guru Arjan's son and successor, the sixth Guru Hargo-bind (1595-1644), had begun to train his disciples in self-defence, so Jahangir hastily imprisoned him in Gwalior fort for nonpayment of his father's fines. After his release Hargobind spent his time strengthening his military resources. During Shahjahan's reign, the Guru came into conflict with the Emperor and fought valiantly against the Mughal army. He was forced to take refuge in Kartarpur in the Jalandhar doab, where he inflicted heavy losses on the imperial army sent to kill him. From thence he retired to Kiratpur in the Kashmiri hills and joined the rebel zamindars.50 Before his death in 1644, many important Sikh centres had been established in the Panjab. As well as artisans and merchants, militant Jats joined the movement in large numbers.

The seventh Guru, Har Ray (1644-61), and Dara Shukoh were friends. When Dara fled from Delhi, the Guru met him in the Panjab. Aurangzib summoned the Guru to Delhi to explain the nature of this relationship. Har Ray sent his elder son, Rama Ray, instead, and his manner and conduct soon won him Mughal friendship. He was given land in the Siawalik hills later known as Dehradun. After Har Ray's death in 1661, Rama Ray's younger brother, Hari Krishna, who was accepted as their Guru by the Sikhs, was summoned to Delhi to settle the question of succession,

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but three years later he died. To avoid outright confrontation with Rama Ray, who enjoyed the Emperor's support, the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur left for eastern India and taught Sikhism as far east as Assam. He later returned to the Panjab, but his preachings exasperated the Mughals, who considered Rama Ray the Sikh leader. In November 1675, while the Emperor was at Hasan Abdal, Tegh Bahadur was beheaded on the orders of the Qazi of Delhi. The Sikhs were angered, and two brickbats were thrown at Aurangzib while he was returning from the Lahore Jami' mosque at the end of October 1676. The accused were handed over to the police, but no reprisal was made against the community.

Among the Afghans, the Yusufza'I, Afridi, and Khatak tribes rose against Aurangzib one after the other. The wars against the Khatak tribe, which dominated the Peshawar, Kohat, and Bannu regions, were prolonged. Their leaders, Khushhal Khan, was a mansabdar who had been imprisoned in Delhi during the early years of Aurangzlb's reign and later in Ranthambhor for organizing a freedom struggle in his tribe. In 1666 he was released and sent with the Mughal army to fight his traditional enemy, the Yusufza'Is. He soon deserted the Mughals, however, and joined the Afridis. Later he commanded his own guerrilla band. Khushhal Khan revived the spirit of independence among his tribesmen through his eloquent Pashtu poetry, some of which was written during his imprisonment and condemned Aurangzib as irreligious and anti-Islamic.51 His poetry is still loved by the Pashtu tribesmen and it is probably the finest literature in the language.

Aurangzlb's leading generals failed to crush the Afghan uprisings, so the Emperor marched to Hasan Abdal, between Rawalpindi and Peshawar. He arrived in July 1674 and stayed for a year and a half, directing military operations. Many important generals sustained severe reverses, but the Emperor's policy of setting one clan against the other, which he metaphorically defined as 'breaking two bones by knocking them together', won the day. Later Amir Khan, as governor of Kabul from 1678 till his death in 1698, kept the tribes under control. His wife, Sahibji, noted for her tact and intelligence, was also an asset to Amir Khan's administration.52

Aurangzlb's most desperate crisis, however, was precipitated at the end of December 1678 by Maharaja Jaswant Singh's death at Jamrud in the north-western tribal region. He had no heirs, but two of his pregnant queens each gave birth to a posthumous son at Lahore. One of the boys died; the other, Ajlt Singh, survived to mount the Jodhpur throne. As the paramount power, Aurangzib escheated the Maharaja's property upon his death and resumed the

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whole of Marwar into the khalisa. In February 1679 the Emperor arrived in Ajmlr, ostensibly to make a pilgrimage to Khwaja Mulnu'd-Dln's tomb but in reality to intimidate the Rajputs. After his return to Delhi in April 1679, when he reimposed jiza despite Hindu protests, Aurangzlb brought Jodhpur city under the imperial administration. Its temples were demolished, and the submissive Indra Singh Rathor, the Nagaur chieftain and a grand-nephew of Jaswant, was subsequently made Raja of Jodhpur.

The Emperor promised to consider Ajlt's claim when he came of age. The imperial office claimed that, in accordance with Mughal tradition,the watan could not be conferred upon ladies or servants, even though they acted as royal regents. Legally they were correct, but politically this strong adherence to rules plunged the Mughal government into chaos. A guard was placed on the house where Ajlt was staying in Delhi to prevent his servants carrying him off to Jodhpur, but before he could be transferred to the royal palace, Durgadas, the son of one of Jaswant's ministers, kidnapped the Rams and Ajlt, killing the Mughal guards. Ajlt was taken to Marwar and brought up in the lonely Abu hills.

The crisis in Marwar offered Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar an opportunity to realize his dreams of becoming the Maharana Sanga of his time. He joined Jaswant's chief queen, Ram Hadi, in pressing Ajlt's right to his father's throne. To Aurangzib's consternation, the Rani offered to destroy the temples in Jodhpur and erect mosques instead, in return for Ajlt's recognition. Failing this, the Rathors of Jodhpur preferred the resumption of Jodhpur to the khdlisa to the rule of Indra Singh, whom they hated bitterly.

Indra Singh failed to establish control over Marwar and two years later he was recalled to court. In September 1679 the Emperor returned to Ajmir and ordered his fourth son, Prince Akbar, to invade Marwar. The imperial troops advanced against Udaipur, destroying hundreds of temples. The Emperor himself visited Udaipur but, finding his presence no longer necessary, returned to Ajmir. Prince Akbar was unable to seize any strategic Rajput outposts, however. Shame and fear of his father's hot temper and his brother's intrigues prompted the Prince, a youth of twenty-three, to succumb to the inducements of Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar and Durgadas to declare himself Emperor, thus to save the Mughal empire from the disastrous repercussions of Aurangzib's bigoted policies. The situation was further complicated by Raj Singh's death in November 1680. Aurangzlb was appalled by the Prince's declaration of independence on 12 January 1681. Then Akbar marched upon Ajmir. The Emperor maintained his equanimity, although his chosen troops were scattered throughout

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Rajasthan. He recalled his loyal generals and managed to alienate the Rajputs from Akbar by having a counterfeit treacherous letter, addressed to Akbar, delivered to Durgadas's camp. The strategy succeeded, and the Rajputs deserted Akbar at midnight. He escaped to Marwar. Durgadas was soon convinced of Aurangzlb's trickery, but the opportunity for victory was lost.53 Durgadas took Akbar under his protection and they fled to the court of Shivaji's son, Shambhajl, arriving in June 1681. Meanwhile Raj Singh's son, Jai Singh, who was devoid of his father's vigour, made peace with the Emperor. The war against the Marwar guerrillas was left to the Ajmir governor. Aurangzib left for the Deccan on 15 September 1681, never to return to the north.

The north Indian period of Aurangzib's reign was marked by a gradual departure from Akbar's policy of coexistence. His early regulations were designed to offer relief to Muslims and reduce urban taxation. Customs duty on all imports was fixed in 1665 at 21/2 per cent of their value in the case of Muslim traders and 5 per cent for Hindus. Two years later all customs duty for Muslims was abolished. In January 1669 the wedding of Prince A'zam to Dara's daughter offered the Emperor a chance to show his orthodoxy by issuing innumerable puritanical ordinances. A general order to demolish temples and Hindu centres of learning was issued. The celebrated Vishvanatha temple of Banaras and the Keshava Rai temple of Mathura, which had been presented with a stone railing by Dara Shukoh, were reduced to ruins. This policy was implemented even in remote east Bengal, Palamau, Rajasthan, and later in the Deccan. A determined effort to break Hindu zamindar solidarity was initiated, and when disputes arose between them the Zamindar who offered to embrace Islam was favoured. Unscrupulous debtors sought to evade their debts by falsely accusing creditors of reviling the Prophet or of speaking contemptuously of Islam.

Aurangzib's narrow legalistic approach to Akbar's administrative framework, based on toleration and broad-mindedness, made success impossible for him, even in the Deccan. Although he had been viceroy there for about ten years, in his own reign Aurangzib failed to assess the situation realistically. The Mughal policy of penetration into the Deccan had convinced the Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda, and also Shivajl, that any respite offered by the Emperor's involvement in the north would be short-lived. Shivajl meanwhile carved out an independent Maratha state in the territories north and south of Konkan, adjoining his paternal jagir above the Ghats. Shivajl urged the Emperor to recognize his rule over the Bljapuri district of north Konkan, but the Emperor sent