Emperor Aurangzeb is being portrayed as an orthodox and intolerant ruler of India by many Hindu writers, which is factually incorrect. A number of non-Muslims, including Hindus, Sikhs, Marathas and Jats, were employed by him in his court. Aurangzeb did not compromise on the fundamentals of Islam, which are in fact the moving spirit of every faith. Historical facts must be interpreted in their true and objective spirit and not subjectively as expressed by the Hindu writers. Aurangzeb even sanctioned grants for the restoration of Hindu temples. Aurangzeb is the person who has not been understood and interpreted in an objective manner and we need to study the historical facts with unbiased objectivity in nature and not subjectively. Aurangzeb was one of the greatest Mughal emperors and lived a very simple life. He lived on a small quantity of food; he use to write the Quran with his own hand and sell them to earn extra wage. If he wanted, he could have lived a life of extra-ordinary luxury as the, emperors, kings, nawabs, rajas, maharajas did in those days.
He should not even be accused of being communal minded and having a discriminatory mind. In his administration, the state policy was formulated by many Hindus and two of them held the highest position in the State Treasury. Some bigoted Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to such high offices. The Emperor refuted that by stating that he had been following the dictates of the Shariah and Islamic jurisprudence, which demands appointing right persons in right positions. During Aurangzeb's long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Raja Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy, and Rasik Lal Crory, held very high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzeb's administration, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, Achalaji and Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied against him and removed him from his throne?
His father, Emperor Shah Jahan, was a blinkered Muslim and a confirmed nepotistic. He provided for the imperial princes before anyone else in the matter of administrative and judicial postings regardless of age, capability and talent and debauch Dara Shiko was his choice for the succession. Aurangzeb was without doubt the ablest of Shah Jahan's sons and a clear favourite for the throne. His credentials both in battle and administration were legendary. He was also an orthodox Muslim adhering to five pillars of Islam, which made him a favourite with the Muslim clergy. He tried during his lifetime to put down rebellions all over his empire (the Marathas, the Sikhs, the Satnamis and the Rajputs) and some of them conspired for the over throw of Mughal empire, not to mention the foreign powers that were already bribing rajas and maharajas: the British stretching their legs in Calcutta, the Portuguese in Goa and the French testing waters in the South. So, from the late-18th century the field was wide open for any new power that wanted to try to set up shop in India, thanks to the treachery of the maharajas.
Once established, he showed himself a firm and capable administrator who retained his grip of power until his death at the age of 88. True, he lacked the magnetism of his father and great-grandfather, but commanded an awe of his own. In private life he was simple and even austere, in sharp contrast to the rest of the great Mughals. He was an orthodox Sunni Muslim who thought himself a model Muslim ruler. It was because of him and his 49 years rule that the Muslims were able to hold on to their Islamic identity in India. The disease with the Hindu writers is that they suffer from leukaemia of subjective thinking; have propensity to mendacity; wear blinkers to reason objectively; present legless defence of their case but still gang together to mock in shameless fashion those who present subjectivity of their argument contradict or criticize obvious frivolities in their religious behaviour.
Most Hindus like Akbar over Aurangzeb for his multi-ethnic court where Hindus were favoured. Historian Shri Sharma states that while Emperor Akbar had fourteen Hindu Mansabdars (high officials) in his court, Aurangzeb actually had 148 Hindu high officials in his court (ref: Mughal Government). But this fact is somewhat less known and publicized for prejudiced his reputation.
Many Hindus wrongly and mendaciously accuse Aurangzeb of demolishing temples to make way for mosques but those are pure lies. If he wanted, there would not have been a single temple standing erect in India. On the contrary, Aurangzeb donated huge estates for use as Temple sites and support thereof in Benares, Kashmir and elsewhere. The official documentations for these land grants still exist. A stone inscription in the historic Balaji or Vishnu Temple, located north of Chitrakut Balaghat, still shows that it was commissioned by the Emperor himself. The proof of Aurangzeb's land grant for famous Hindu religious sites in Kasi, Varanasi can easily be verified from the deed records extant at those sites. Hinduvatas hate Aurangzeb for implementing Jizya - yet ignore the numerous other taxes he removed.
With regard to the destruction of temples that the Muslim invaders smashed as alleged by the Hindus - most of those housed licentious statues of deities copulating and displaying whole sets of Kama Sutra in public. It is beyond the realm of human decency, dignity and morality that a place of worship or otherwise display pornographic material.
He should not even be accused of being communal minded and having a discriminatory mind. In his administration, the state policy was formulated by many Hindus and two of them held the highest position in the State Treasury. Some bigoted Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to such high offices. The Emperor refuted that by stating that he had been following the dictates of the Shariah and Islamic jurisprudence, which demands appointing right persons in right positions. During Aurangzeb's long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Raja Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy, and Rasik Lal Crory, held very high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzeb's administration, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, Achalaji and Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied against him and removed him from his throne?
His father, Emperor Shah Jahan, was a blinkered Muslim and a confirmed nepotistic. He provided for the imperial princes before anyone else in the matter of administrative and judicial postings regardless of age, capability and talent and debauch Dara Shiko was his choice for the succession. Aurangzeb was without doubt the ablest of Shah Jahan's sons and a clear favourite for the throne. His credentials both in battle and administration were legendary. He was also an orthodox Muslim adhering to five pillars of Islam, which made him a favourite with the Muslim clergy. He tried during his lifetime to put down rebellions all over his empire (the Marathas, the Sikhs, the Satnamis and the Rajputs) and some of them conspired for the over throw of Mughal empire, not to mention the foreign powers that were already bribing rajas and maharajas: the British stretching their legs in Calcutta, the Portuguese in Goa and the French testing waters in the South. So, from the late-18th century the field was wide open for any new power that wanted to try to set up shop in India, thanks to the treachery of the maharajas.
Once established, he showed himself a firm and capable administrator who retained his grip of power until his death at the age of 88. True, he lacked the magnetism of his father and great-grandfather, but commanded an awe of his own. In private life he was simple and even austere, in sharp contrast to the rest of the great Mughals. He was an orthodox Sunni Muslim who thought himself a model Muslim ruler. It was because of him and his 49 years rule that the Muslims were able to hold on to their Islamic identity in India. The disease with the Hindu writers is that they suffer from leukaemia of subjective thinking; have propensity to mendacity; wear blinkers to reason objectively; present legless defence of their case but still gang together to mock in shameless fashion those who present subjectivity of their argument contradict or criticize obvious frivolities in their religious behaviour.
Most Hindus like Akbar over Aurangzeb for his multi-ethnic court where Hindus were favoured. Historian Shri Sharma states that while Emperor Akbar had fourteen Hindu Mansabdars (high officials) in his court, Aurangzeb actually had 148 Hindu high officials in his court (ref: Mughal Government). But this fact is somewhat less known and publicized for prejudiced his reputation.
Many Hindus wrongly and mendaciously accuse Aurangzeb of demolishing temples to make way for mosques but those are pure lies. If he wanted, there would not have been a single temple standing erect in India. On the contrary, Aurangzeb donated huge estates for use as Temple sites and support thereof in Benares, Kashmir and elsewhere. The official documentations for these land grants still exist. A stone inscription in the historic Balaji or Vishnu Temple, located north of Chitrakut Balaghat, still shows that it was commissioned by the Emperor himself. The proof of Aurangzeb's land grant for famous Hindu religious sites in Kasi, Varanasi can easily be verified from the deed records extant at those sites. Hinduvatas hate Aurangzeb for implementing Jizya - yet ignore the numerous other taxes he removed.
With regard to the destruction of temples that the Muslim invaders smashed as alleged by the Hindus - most of those housed licentious statues of deities copulating and displaying whole sets of Kama Sutra in public. It is beyond the realm of human decency, dignity and morality that a place of worship or otherwise display pornographic material.
