Aurangzeb, also known by his imperial title Alamgir I the conqueror of Universe.
He was the sixth mughal emperor
whose reign lasted from 1658 till 1707. Upto 48 years he ruled
most of the Indian Subcontinent especially those in southern parts of India. He encouraged all his people to follow the doctrine of Islam. he never love the work of Art. Art never perished during his reign.
Aurangzeb was the third son of the fifth emperor Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb had a sister named Jahanara Begum who was accidentally burned in Agra.
Shah Jahan fell ill in 1657, and was declared dead. With this news, the struggle for the succession began for Aurangazeb with his brothers. He fought many war to his success.
Aurangzeb abandoned many of the more liberal viewpoints of his predecessors, as illustrated by Akbar who eventually left Islam to form his own religion influenced by Hindusim.
Aurangzeb took personal interest in the compilation of the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, a digest of Muslim law, and attempted to create civil law in accordance with its principles. He was a
religious bigot and eventually his policies against the majority Hindu population led to the emergence of Maratha rule and the decline of the Mughal empire.Some Hindu historians allege that Aurangzeb initiated laws which interfered with non-Muslim worship.That included the destruction of several Hindu temples.
Indian Hindu and Sikh scholars today have castigated him as a religious Muslim who was anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh, who taxed them, who tried to convert them, who discriminated against them in awarding high administrative positions, and who interfered in their religious matters.
From the start of his reign up until his death, Aurangzeb engaged in almost constant warfare. He built up a massive army, and began a program of military expansion along all the boundaries of his empire. Military expansion and religious intolerance had deeper consequences. Aurangzeb waged continuous war in the Deccan for more than two decades with no resolution. Aurangzeb lost about a fifth of his army fighting rebellions led by the Marathas in Deccan India.
Aurangzeb's influence continues through the centuries. He was the first ruler to attempt to impose Sharia law on a non-Muslim country.
Stanley Wolpert writes in his New History of India "..Yet the conquest of the Deccan, to which
devoted the last 26 years of his life, was in many ways a Pyrrhic victory, costing an estimated hundred thousand lives a year during its last decade of futile chess game warfare...The expense in gold and rupees can hardly be accurately estimated. 's moving capital alone- a city of tents 30 miles in circumference, some 250 bazaars, with a ½ million camp followers, 50,000 camels and 30,000 elephants, all of whom had to be fed, stripped peninsular India of any and all of its surplus gain and wealth... Not only famine but bubonic plague arose...Even had ceased to understand the purpose of it all by the time he..was nearing 90... "I came alone and I go as a stranger. I do not know who I am, nor what I have been doing," the dying old man confessed to his son in February 1707. "I have sinned terribly, and I do not know what punishment awaits me."
After Aurangzeb's death, his son Bahadur Shah I took the throne.
He didn't seem to care about his own comfort. His reign was an era of happiness and peace through the empire. He never committed the slightest injustice during his reign. He was overall the best Mughal emperor in its history.
We often get interested in reading lot more about heros of evry country n types, and it is rare that few show interest for the villians or enemies playing a part in it...we read about our heroes well, their lifestyle in any Era amazes us alot with great interest, and forget to look at the opposite side, who have contributed to history..may be not in heroic manner...