Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal Empire through southern conquest, annexing Bijapur in 1686 and Golconda in 1687. These victories brought the empire to its greatest territorial extent, but his prolonged Deccan campaigns strained its finances and failed to end Maratha resistance.
How could the empire reach its widest boundaries while soldiers waited years for pay? Aurangzeb’s reign, from 1658 to 1707, connects territorial growth with the mounting cost of maintaining it. You can follow that connection through his succession struggle, southern campaigns, legal documents and contested legacy.
How did Aurangzeb win the succession struggle against his brothers?
Aurangzeb was born in 1618 at Dahod, in present-day Gujarat. The son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, he became the sixth Mughal emperor. His route to power ran through a family conflict in which seniority offered no automatic right to the throne.
When Shah Jahan became ill in 1657, four sons entered an armed succession struggle: Dara Shukoh, Shah Shuja, Murad Bakhsh and Aurangzeb. Mughal succession did not automatically favour the eldest son. The contest therefore depended on alliances and military victories.
Aurangzeb joined forces with Murad Bakhsh. Together, they defeated an imperial army at Dharmat in April 1658. In May, they defeated Dara Shukoh’s army at Samugarh. These victories opened Aurangzeb’s path to the throne.
After Samugarh, Aurangzeb took Agra and imprisoned Shah Jahan in Agra Fort. His father’s confinement accompanied his own accession in 1658. Winning a battle against Dara had become control over the imperial centre.
The other contenders were then removed. Shah Shuja fled to Arakan after defeat by Aurangzeb’s forces. Dara raised another army but lost again, was captured and was executed in 1659. Aurangzeb also had his former ally Murad arrested and imprisoned at Gwalior. Murad was executed on 4 December 1661.
How did the Deccan campaigns affect imperial territory and finances?
Aurangzeb already knew the Deccan before becoming emperor. He governed the Mughal territories there in 1636–1644 and again in 1653–1658. His later southern campaigns therefore followed two periods of direct administrative experience in the region.
Expansion was not confined to the south. In mid-1660, he appointed Mir Jumla governor of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to restore Mughal control in the northeast. Historian John F. Richards also connects Aurangzeb’s growing southern ambitions with costly, unproductive campaigns beyond the northern mountain belt during the 1660s and 1670s.
The great Deccan campaign began in 1681 and continued for 26 years, until Aurangzeb’s death. One initial objective was to capture his rebellious son Akbar, who had taken refuge with the Marathas. A struggle involving the imperial family thus formed part of the campaign’s opening purpose.
Further territorial gains followed against two sultanates. Aurangzeb annexed Bijapur in the western Deccan in 1686. Golconda, in the eastern Deccan, followed in 1687. These annexations extended Mughal territory southward and brought the empire to its greatest geographical extent.
Yet conquest did not end resistance. Mughal forces captured and killed the Maratha ruler Sambhaji in 1689. Rajaram continued the struggle, followed by Tarabai. Maratha resistance lasted until Aurangzeb died in 1707.
The financial burden became severe. According to INFLIBNET’s history lesson, some soldiers and officials faced salary arrears of three years during the later Deccan wars. Accumulated treasures from Agra and Delhi were sent south to support the army.
If you have ever planned everyday spending around payday, those arrears make the fiscal strain easier to grasp. A salary delayed for three years represents a concrete failure to meet obligations. The transfer of stored treasure southward also shows how the campaigns drew on resources held elsewhere in the empire.
Government moved with the emperor. Richards describes an administrative centre based at Shahjahanabad-Delhi during the first twenty years of the reign. During the Rajasthan and Deccan campaigns, that centre became Aurangzeb’s travelling military camp. Territorial expansion changed where imperial government operated.
Timeline
- 1618: Aurangzeb was born at Dahod.
- 1626: He and Dara Shukoh were sent as hostages to Jahangir’s court at Lahore.
- 1636–1644 and 1653–1658: He served two terms as governor in the Deccan.
- 1657: Shah Jahan’s illness triggered the succession struggle.
- April–May 1658: Victories at Dharmat and Samugarh opened his route to power.
- 1658: Shah Jahan was imprisoned, and Aurangzeb became emperor.
- 1659 and 1661: Dara Shukoh and Murad Bakhsh were executed respectively.
- 1672: The Fatawa-i Alamgiri legal compilation was prepared.
- 1679: Aurangzeb restored the jizya tax.
- 1681: His final great Deccan campaign began.
- 1686–1687: Bijapur and Golconda were annexed.
- 1689: Sambhaji was captured and killed.
- 3 March 1707: Aurangzeb died; Bahadur Shah I succeeded him.
- 1724: Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah established his own effective dynastic rule in the Deccan.
Which documents illuminate his taxation, religious and temple policies?
Aurangzeb restored jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, in 1679. The jizya fatwa presented by UCLA in Anver Emon’s translation lists exemptions for women, children, sick people, blind people, the very old and the unemployed poor. You should read the restoration and its stated exemptions together when examining the tax.
The Fatawa-i Alamgiri offers another view of government. Prepared in 1672 by jurists commissioned by Aurangzeb, it was intended as a comprehensive legal reference for governors and judges. Its purpose connects imperial religious authority with administrative practice.
Temple policy requires attention to different kinds of evidence. The index to Jadunath Sarkar’s translation of Saqi Mustaid Khan’s Maasir-i-Alamgiri directs readers to page 55 for the destruction of the Vishvanath Temple at Kashi. It points to page 60 for the destruction of the Keshav Rai Temple at Mathura.
The interpretations also differ. UCLA treats the restrictions of 1668–1669 and the restoration of jizya in 1679 as evidence of religious repression. Ohio State University’s assessment asks readers to include examples of temple protection and permission for repairs. Destruction, protection and taxation all belong in the discussion.
Administrative records widen the evidence. The National Archives of India’s Oriental Records section holds approximately 150,000 documents, including farmans, orders and parwanas relevant to studying Aurangzeb’s period. Its Inayat Jang collection contains more than 137,000 Persian documents covering 1685–1774, useful for investigating Deccan provincial administration and agrarian history.
Details you won’t find in guidebooks
Aurangzeb and Dara Shukoh shared an early experience as hostages. In 1626, following their father’s failed rebellion, they were sent to their grandfather Jahangir’s court at Lahore. The brothers who later fought for succession had once faced this displacement together.
In 1681, Aurangzeb ordered walls around Aurangabad. The city was an important Deccan administrative and supply centre. This building order places the campaign alongside the practical work of securing a centre that supported imperial operations.
A surviving farman gives imperial administration a physical form. The National Museum in New Delhi holds Aurangzeb’s Persian decree concerning Abdul Karim’s madad-i maash allocation. Dated 1672, it measures 72 × 47.5 centimetres and carries inventory number 86.152.
Ohio State’s assessment also reports that Hindus formed slightly more than 30 percent of Mughal nobles under Aurangzeb. That proportion exceeded the levels under earlier rulers. It adds an essential administrative fact to a reign often discussed through jizya and temple destruction.
Can the empire’s later fragmentation be explained solely by his decisions?
The cited historical interpretations reject a single-cause explanation. UCLA emphasises fiscal pressure on peasants, weakening political alliances and the difficulty of governing extensive territories. These factors connect the problem of imperial authority to taxation, cooperation and administrative reach.
Ohio State University’s 2023 assessment likewise places economic, social, political, military and environmental factors alongside Aurangzeb’s decisions when considering eighteenth-century Mughal decline. His policies remain part of the explanation, but that interpretation does not make them the whole explanation.
Aurangzeb died on 3 March 1707, and his son Bahadur Shah I succeeded him. In 1724, his former general Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah established his own effective dynasty in the Deccan. This offers a concrete example of central Mughal power separating into regional authority after the emperor’s death.
FAQ
When did Aurangzeb rule the Mughal Empire?
Aurangzeb ruled from 1658 to 1707 as the sixth Mughal emperor. He was the son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.
Which conquests brought the empire to its greatest extent?
Aurangzeb annexed Bijapur in 1686 and Golconda in 1687. These southern conquests brought the Mughal Empire to its greatest territorial extent.
Did Aurangzeb defeat Maratha resistance?
Mughal forces captured and killed Sambhaji in 1689, but resistance continued under Rajaram and then Tarabai until Aurangzeb’s death in 1707.
Who succeeded Aurangzeb?
His son Bahadur Shah I succeeded him after his death on 3 March 1707.
Sources
- Vikipedi — Evrengzib tr.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia — Aurangzeb en.wikipedia.org
- UCLA MANAS — Aurangzeb: A Political History southasia.ucla.edu
- John F. Richards / Cambridge University Press — Imperial Expansion under Aurangzeb 1658–1689 cambridge.org
- Ohio State University Origins — Aurangzeb: Mughal Emperor origins.osu.edu
- INFLIBNET — Aurangzeb: Life, Politics and Achievements ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in
- UCLA MANAS — Aurangzeb: Religious Policies southasia.ucla.edu
- UCLA MANAS — Aurangzeb’s Fatwa on Jizya southasia.ucla.edu
- University of California eScholarship — Mughals, Ottomans, and the Question of Codes in Islamic Legal History escholarship.org
- National Archives of India — Oriental Records nationalarchives.nic.in
- National Archives of India — Collection of Private Papers nationalarchives.nic.in
- Museums of India / National Museum, New Delhi — Farman museumsofindia.gov.in
- Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics — Maasir-i-Alamgiri, Contents and Index dspace.gipe.ac.in
Image: Aurangzeb on a Boat.jpg — unknown (Indian), Public domain
