Medieval India · Topic 11 of 15
1658-1757: Aurangzeb's long reign, the empire's overextension, and its collapse into weak successor rule
The Basics
Aurangzeb became Mughal emperor in 1658 after winning the war of succession against Dara Shikoh, Shuja and Murad. He confined his father Shah Jahan to Agra fort for the rest of his life. He ruled for almost fifty years, from 1658 to 1707.
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At the start of his reign Aurangzeb issued orders meant to bring court and public life closer to the sharia, the body of Islamic law. He stopped the kalma, the Muslim profession of faith, being inscribed on coins so that it would not be defiled underfoot. He discontinued Nauroz, the Persian new year festival associated with the Safavid rulers of Iran. He appointed muhtasibs, censors of public morals, in the provinces to check drinking, gambling and the use of bhang, though they were told not to pry into private life.
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Aurangzeb inherited two unfinished Deccan problems: the rising power of Shivaji, and getting Bijapur to hand over the Ahmadnagar territories promised in the 1636 treaty, a treaty Shah Jahan himself had already broken by demanding indemnities in 1657–58.
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By 1687, Aurangzeb had destroyed the Deccan sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda. He hoped this would leave the Marathas isolated and at his mercy. But removing these buffer states also removed the shield that had once absorbed Maratha raids. The Mughals now faced the Marathas directly, with no intermediary left.
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The Marwar succession dispute of 1678 strained Mughal-Rajput relations built up since Akbar's time.
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By the later 1660s, Jat peasants lived on both banks of the Yamuna, between Agra and Delhi. They had long resented Mughal revenue demands. Clashes had already occurred under Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The region mattered because the imperial road to the Deccan and western ports passed through it. The Mughal state could not ignore trouble there.
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Francois Bernier was a French physician and philosopher who travelled to Mughal India and stayed from about 1656 to 1668. He served for some years as physician to Dara Shukoh, Shah Jahan's eldest son. He later attached himself to nobles at Aurangzeb's court. This gave him close access to the Mughal elite during Aurangzeb's reign.
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Shah Jahan's reign is famous for the Peacock Throne, the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. It also drew a stream of European visitors who recorded what they saw.
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Aurangzeb died in 1707 as ruler of the largest Mughal territory ever. He had just annexed Bijapur and Golconda after decades of fighting the Marathas. But within a few decades, the empire fell apart. Independent provincial kingdoms emerged, Maratha raids reached the Gangetic plains, and foreign invaders looted Delhi. Historians have long debated how much of this was Aurangzeb's personal responsibility and how much was due to forces already at work before and during his reign.
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Aurangzeb died in 1707, leaving an exhausted treasury and overstretched nobility. A war of succession broke out at once among his three sons. Muazzam, governor of Kabul, defeated Muhammad Azam Shah at the Battle of Jajau in 1707. He took the throne as Bahadur Shah I. He granted jagirs freely to rival nobles to buy peace. He acknowledged the independence of Mewar and Marwar. He released the Maratha claimant Shahu, though without recognising him as king. He conciliated the Bundela chief Chhatrasal and the Jat chief Churaman. These moves eased some conflicts but worsened state finances. They did not win lasting loyalty. The Marathas kept fighting both the Mughals and each other. The Sikh leader Banda Bahadur continued his revolt, still unsubdued when Bahadur Shah died in 1712 during the campaign against him.
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Nadir Shah invaded India during Muhammad Shah Rangeela's reign, c. 1739.
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