A study of the document of 1665/1666 by the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute has thrown up interesting facts.
Mughal emperor Shah Jahan fell ill and his sons fought among themselves over succession. Aurangzeb won the war of succession and ascended the throne on July 21, 1658. He ruled till 1707 AD.
In recognition of Raja Jai Singh’s contribution to his Army and his services in the Deccan, Aurangzeb promoted him to the rank of 7,000 zat and 7,000 sawar.
As per The Mughal Nobility of Aurangzeb by Athar Ali, Jai Singh was also given the title of Umdat-ul-Mulk, Mirza and Raja. This was one of the highest military ranks in the Mughal empire normally enjoyed by royalty like princes and close relatives of the emperor.
Zat indicated the number of troops which a mansabdar (a high ranking official in Mughal era) would maintain, while sawar means the number of cavalry under his command.
“Prior to Raja Jai Singh, Prince Muazzam and Shaista Khan (father-in-law of Aurangzeb) were the viceroys of the Deccan. Raja Jai Singh was ordered to go to Deccan to take charge of as viceroy and Sarfraz Khan and other mansabdars were asked to accompany him,” Zareena Parveen, who heads the Archives Institute, and did the research, told this newspaper.
She added, “Sarfraz Khan did not comply with the imperial orders. Raja Jai Singh complained to Emperor Aurangzeb about the behaviour of Sarfraz Khan and recommended punishment.”
“Documents pertaining to Aurangzeb’s rule clearly show that in administrative matters, Aurangzeb was just, strict and reasonable. He wanted to maintain discipline at any cost. He did not take decisions based on religion or any other consideration, but solely on the grounds of good governance,” she added.
According to the Archives director, Jai Singh took over the viceroyalty (subedari) of the Deccan on March 1, 1665. Though the post of Mirza Raja Jai Singh has not been indicated in the document, but on the basis of the information from contemporary Mughal period books, it can be safely said that Jai Singh held the post of subedar at that time.
Aurangzeb: Why is a Mughal emperor who died
300 years ago being debated on social media?
21 May 2022
Geeta Pandey
BBC News,
Delhi
A Mughal
emperor who died more than 300 years ago has become a hot topic of debate in
India in recent months.
Aurangzeb,
often described as the "last effective Mughal emperor" ruled India
for nearly 50 years from 1658 to 1707 - but he was never a favourite in the
eyes of historians.
For a start
- he came to the throne after imprisoning his father and having his older
brother killed.
And in
comparison with other Mughal rulers, he fared badly - his great-grandfather
Akbar was described as the benign secular ruler, grandfather Jahangir was known
for his love for art and architecture and father Shah Jahan was the great
romantic who built the Taj Mahal.
But
Aurangzeb, the sixth emperor and a devout Muslim, was often described as a
ruthless tyrant who was an expansionist, imposed tough Sharia laws and brought
back the discriminatory jizya tax that Hindu residents had to pay in return for
protection.
He was also
described as someone who hated music and other fine arts, and ordered the
destruction of several temples.
All that
happened hundreds of years ago - but the hate he's been getting recently has
been unprecedented.
It started
when the dispute over the Gyanvapi
mosque began bubbling in the holy city of Varanasi - the mosque
is built on the ruins of the Vishwanath temple, a grand 16th Century Hindu
shrine destroyed in 1669 on Aurangzeb's orders. Now, his name is trending on
social media with thousands of disparaging references, can be found in court
files and has been invoked by India's present-day Hindu nationalist rulers.
In December,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about "Aurangzeb's atrocities, his
terror" at an event in Varanasi. "He tried to change civilisation by
the sword. He tried to crush culture with fanaticism," Mr Modi said.
He mentioned the Mughal ruler's
name again last month - speaking on the occasion of the 400th
birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur who was beheaded for refusing to
convert to Islam.
"Even
though Aurangzeb severed many heads, he could not shake our faith", Mr
Modi said.
His comments
seemed to baffle a Canadian-American journalist who asked on Twitter why the
Indian Prime Minister was "giving a long speech attacking a Mughal emperor
who died 300+ years ago"?
In a series
of tweets, historian Audrey Truschke responded that Hindu nationalists believed
that "Muslims oppressed Hindus for hundreds of years so they deserve to be
oppressed today, as retribution for the past".
She said
Aurangzeb's name was being used as "a dog whistle to signal that it is
acceptable to hate and use violence against present-day Muslims".
In the days
since this Twitter discussion, much more hate has been heaped on Aurangzeb.
Describing
him as a "butcher", the mayor of the city of Agra said all traces of
him should be removed from public places. On Twitter, the Mughal emperor was
called "an invader" who wanted to wipe out Hindus and one user
suggested that all monuments and buildings by Mughals built over Hindu places
of worship should be bulldozed.
On Thursday,
his tomb in the western state of Maharashtra was shut to visitors after a
regional politician questioned "the need for its existence" and
called for its destruction.
Historian
Nadeem Rezavi, author and professor of medieval history at Aligarh Muslim
University, says Aurangzeb is "a very convenient name" to bring up to
demonise India's Muslim minorities who, in recent years, have been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu
mobs.
Prof Rezavi
says the Mughal emperor did demolish a number of Hindu temples and imposed the
discriminatory tax on Hindus, but he was a complicated figure, and not
completely evil.
"He
gave the highest number of grants for maintaining Hindu temples, he himself was
two-thirds Hindu by blood because Akbar, his great-grandfather, had married a
Rajput [a warrior Hindu caste], and there were more Rajputs in higher echelons
during his rule than that of any other Mughal."
Despite
popular perception, Prof Rezavi says Aurangzeb was not a fundamentalist in his
personal life and that he "enjoyed wine, played the veena - an instrument
favoured by Hindu goddesses - and more music books were written under him than
any other Mughal".
But, he adds
that Aurangzeb "invoked religion to cover up for his political failures
and strengthen his authority - much like India's present-day leaders.
"But
the question to ask is that even if Aurangzeb was all dark and evil, a
sectarian and fundamentalist, who destroyed temples, should we be emulating him
today?" Prof Rezavi asks.
"He was
a tyrant and an emperor who lived 300 years ago. At the time there was no
modern democracy, there was no constitution to guide him. But today we are
guided by the Indian constitution and laws of parliament, so how can you
duplicate the deeds that were done in the 16th and 17th Century?
"So if
someone is indulging in the politics of 17th Century, they are committing a far
greater crime than Aurangzeb did in the 17th Century," he adds.
How Aurangzeb has been a controversial figure in India's
political sphere
Aurangzeb has been a deeply polarising figure in Maharashtra. On Monday, clashes broke out in Nagpur amid a row over the removal of the Mughal emperor's tomb.
India Today News Desk
Mumbai,UPDATED: Mar 18, 2025 14:14 IST
Written By: Abhishek De
Aurangzeb has been a deeply polarising figure in Maharashtra
and controversies surrounding the Mughal ruler keep cropping up in the state's
political discourse frequently. On Monday, Nagpur was the centre of violent clashes between two communities after
right-wing outfits held a protest demanding the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb.
Controversies surrounding Aurangzeb, who ordered the
execution of Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji's son Sambhaji, are not new.
Earlier this month, Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi was suspended from the
Maharashtra Assembly after he stirred a row by claiming that certain aspects of
the movie 'Chhaava' were wrongly depicted and Aurangzeb was a "good
administrator".
CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING AURANGZEB
March 17, 2025: Nagpur witnessed violent clashes
between two communities, leaving more than 30 people injured, hours after Hindu
outfits held a protest demanding the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb in Sambhaji
Nagar. The BJP claimed that the violence was planned. Nearly 60 to 65 rioters
have been taken into custody, and 25 to 30 police personnel have been injured.
About 25 bikes and three cars were set on fire during the violence.
March 3, 2025: Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi
stoked a controversy by saying that some elements depicted in the Vicky
Kaushal-starrer film Chhaava, which depicts Chhatrapati Sambhaji's battle with
Aurangzeb, were wrong. He said that Aurangzeb was not a "cruel
ruler".
"I don’t consider Aurangzeb a cruel ruler... A wrong
history is being shown (in the movie Chhava). Aurangzeb built several
temples," Azmi said.
June 4, 2023: The police in Maharashtra's
Ahmednagar arrested two people after posters of Aurangzeb were raised during a
procession. Four people were arrested after a video went viral showing a man
holding a poster of Aurangzeb.
May 12, 2022: AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi
faced backlash from pro-Maratha outfits after he paid his respects at the tomb
of Aurangzeb at Khuldabad near Aurangabad. Both the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena (MNS) cried foul over his visit to the tomb.
On May 19, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
shut Aurangzeb's tomb in Aurangabad district for five days. An MNS
spokesperson, Gajanan Kale, also questioned the need for the monument's
existence in the state and said it should be destroyed.
May 2022: The BJP demanded that Aurangzeb Lane,
just like Aurangzeb Road, be named after former President of India Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam.
2015: In 2015, then East Delhi MP Maheish Giri
wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal to rename Aurangzeb Road after Kalam. Within a few months, the NDMC
approved the proposal to rename the road.
September 2015: The stretch of nearly 3-km from
Delhi's Kalindi Kunj to Jamia Nagar, locally called as 'Pushta Road', was
"named" as 'Aurangzeb Road' by former Congress Okhla MLA Asif
Mohammed Khan. Khan said he did this in "protest against the renaming of
the historic road by the NDMC".
2015: A Shiv Sena MP abused an officer on duty
by calling him "Aurangzeb ki aulad" (a descendant of
Aurangzeb) after he razed some temples during a demolition drive sanctioned by
the district collector in Aurangabad, based on High Court orders.
Published By:
Abhishek De
Published On:
Mar 18, 2025
Courtesy: India Today
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