Number of words: 357

Aurangzeb’s big push was into the southern peninsula. He shifted to the Deccan in 1682 and would never see Delhi again. He lived in a constant state of campaigning for the next twenty-six years. Aurangzeb extended the empire but he also destroyed it. The never-ending wars were disastrous—for the Land and the exchequer. Bernier commented that though the Mughal emperor had revenues that exceeded the combined ones of the Shah of Persia and the Ottoman Sultan, he was not wealthy because all of it was eaten by the expenses.

Aurangzeb was also a religious bigot, a man who could not tolerate people of other faiths. He destroyed Hindu temples and reimposed the hated jiziya tax on non-Muslims. When this tax was first announced, the Hindus of Delhi gathered in large numbers in front of the Red Fort to protest against it. The emperor set his elephants against them and many were trampled to death. There were many other atrocities that Aurangzeb committed in the name of religion.

Because of all this, the relationship between the Hindus and the Mughals became sour. There were revolts in many places across the empire. One of the most successful of these was led by Shivaji, the Maratha rebel. The exploits of Shivaji and his men are so daring that it would have been hard to believe them if not for the people who wrote about those events in those times. Using the volcanic outcrops of the deccan Traps (which you read about earlier), the Marathas repeatedly outwitted the larger Mughal armies.

Despite the defeats and rebellions the Mughal Empire survived many things— religious intolerance, leaky public finances, Maratha guerrillas, Bundela chieftains and the Assamese navy. The foundations built by Akbar and those after him were still strong but Aurangzeb committed the ultimate sin—he stayed on the throne too long. He was ninety by the time he died in 1707! Just as it happened with Ashoka and Feroze Shah Tughlaq, those who came after him were weak rulers. This led to a foreign invasion.

Excerpted from Page 172-174 of ‘The Incredible History of the Geography of India by Saneev Sanyal