Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb Biography

Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb, shortly called Aurangzeb and by his imperial title Alamgir was one of the powerful, yet cruel emperors of the vast Mughal empire. He was the son of famous emperor Shah Jahan, who built Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved life. He became the emperor in 1658 after killing his three brothers and imprisoning his father. He defeated his brother, Prince Dara Shukoh's armies to ascend the throne.  He also made his old father Emperor Shah Jahan a prisoner in the Agra Fort, where he spent his last days. He banned singing, dancing and playing musical instrument in his empire. He was narrow-minded and spent his entire time in the expansion of his empire. He couldn’t even tolerate other religions in his empire and destroyed many temples. Yet after his death, Mughal Empire started declining.

Aurangazeb was born as the sixth child of Shah Jahan on 24th October 1618 at Dohad in Madhya Pradesh. He was the third son of the emperor. His father was a governor of Gujarat when he was born. On 26 February 1628, Shah Jahan was officially declared the Mughal Emperor and the family stayed at Agra fort. Since childhood he was interested in Islam and learnt Quran with great interest. Once he defeated a wild elephant that attacked him and seeing his courage, Shah Jahan gave him the title – Bahadur. He was made the viceroy of Deccan very soon, but was dismissed from the post as he reached late following his sister’s death. However the post was given back later.

When Shah jahan favoured Dara Shikoh the elder brother of Aurangzeb as the emperor, he didn’t like it and it resulted in the killing of all his three brothers and old Shah Jahan was imprisoned too. He conquered Punjab, Bijapur and many other states and had to face oppositions from rebels inside the kingdom. He was a contemporary of Shivaji who established the Maratha Empire.

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Updated: July 19, 2018