Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb ruled the Mughal empire for forty-nine years, expanded it to its greatest extent, and left it exhausted. Born in 1618, the third son of Shah Jahan, he was a capable soldier and administrator who governed the Deccan and Gujarat in his father's lifetime. When Shah Jahan fell ill in 1657 the four brothers fought for the succession. Aurangzeb defeated and executed Dara Shikoh, the eldest and his father's choice, whose interest in Hindu philosophy and Sufi syncretism he treated as apostasy; he killed his other brothers and imprisoned his father in Agra fort for eight years until his death. He was personally austere in a court famous for magnificence — he copied the Quran and sewed caps to earn his own keep, banned music at court, and did not build for pleasure. His religious policy reversed Akbar's. He reimposed the jizya on non-Muslims in 1679, after it had been abolished for over a century; he destroyed a number of prominent temples, including at Mathura and Varanasi; and he executed the ninth Sikh guru, Tegh Bahadur, in 1675. The extent and motive of this remain heavily argued among historians, and he also granted lands to Hindu temples and employed more Hindus in the administration than any predecessor. He commissioned the Fatawa-i-Alamgiri, a vast compilation of Islamic law. He spent his last twenty-six years campaigning in the Deccan against the Marathas, taking Bijapur and Golconda but never subduing Shivaji's successors. The wars drained the treasury and the army. He died in 1707, and the empire fragmented within decades.
- Lived: 1618 CE – 1707 CE
- Nationality: Indian
- Roles: statesman
