ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>AURA&#7748GZ&#298B MUH&#298 UD-D&#298N MUHAMMAD &#256LAMG&#298R (1618-1707)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="AURADGZ*B,MUH*,D*N,MUHAMMAD,LAMG*R,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279AURA&#7748GZ&#298B, MUH&#298 UD-D&#298N MUHAMMAD '&#256LAMG&#298R (1618-1707), the last of the great Mu<u>gh</u>al emperors of India, ascended the throne of Delhi on 21 July 1658 after he had gained a decisive victory in the war of succession at S&#257m&#363ga&#7771h, near &#256gr&#257, on 29 May 1658. Aura&#7749gz&#299b's appointment in 1636 as viceroy of the Mu<u>gh</u>al provinces in the Deccan had first brought him into prominence. In 1645, he was transferred to Gujar&#257t. Between 1648 and 1652, he served as governor of Sindh and Mult&#257n. He was next entrusted with the task of recovering Qandah&#257r, taken by the Persians in 1649. In 1653 he was appointed viceroy of the Deccan for the second time and for the next five years he was engaged in constant warfare with the independent states of B&#299j&#257pur and Golco&#7751&#7693&#257.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The first half of Aura&#7749gz&#299b's long reign was devoted to consolidating his power in northern India while the second half was spent in the fruitless attempt to conquer the Deccan. A pious man in his personal life, Aura&#7749gz&#299b was an orthodox Muslim. He had waded through a river of blood to reach the throne and had imprisoned his father and killed his own brothers. By his fanatical religious policy he wished to please the Muslim orthodoxy and win reprieve for the crimes he had committed to gain the crown. For the first ten years of his reign, he did not feel strong enough to take any drastic steps, but in 1669 he issued a rescript to all provincial governors "to destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels and put an entire stop to their religious practices and teaching. " Among the many repressive edicts issued against the non-Muslims was one prohibiting all Hindus with the exception of R&#257jp&#363ts from riding <i>p&#257lk&#299s</i>, elephants or thorough-bred horses and from carrying arms. Most stringent was the imposition, in 1679, of <i>jizyah</i>, a tax the non-Muslims had to pay for permission to live in an Islamic State.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The growing Sikh order had also to bear the brunt of Aura&#7749gz&#299b's policy of intolerance and religious persecution. The seventh Sikh Gur&#363, Har R&#257i, was at Goindv&#257l when D&#257r&#257 Shukoh, heir- apparent to the Mu<u>gh</u>al throne, entered the Punjab fleeing in front of the army of his brother, Aura&#7749gz&#299b, after his defeat in the battle of S&#257m&#363ga&#7771h. At Goindv&#257l, where he arrived in the last week of June 1658, he called on Gur&#363 Har R&#257i, who, as the tradition goes, had once cured him of a serious illness with some rare herbs. Highly coloured stories about D&#257r&#257 Shukoh's meeting with Gur&#363 Har R&#257i were carried to Aura&#7749gz&#299b by his officials who reported to him that Gur&#363 Har R&#257i was a rebel and that he had helped the fugitive prince and further that the Sikh Scripture contained verses derogatory to Islam. Aura&#7749gz&#299b summoned the Gur&#363 to Delhi. As recorded in Santokh Si&#7749gh, <i>Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i>, Gur&#363 Har R&#257i wondered why he had been called to Delhi: "I rule over no territory. I owe the king no taxes, nor do I want anything from him. There is no connection of teacher and disciple between us, either. Of what avail will this meeting be ?" Gur&#363 Har R&#257i sent his elder son, R&#257m R&#257i, to meet the emperor. R&#257m R&#257i succeeded in winning the confidence of the Emperor, but overreached himself when, to please him, he deliberately misread one of the verses from the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. Aura&#7749gz&#299b decided to keep R&#257m R&#257i in Delhi in the belief that, with the future incumbent of the Gur&#363ship in his power, he would become the arbiter of the destiny of the Sikh people. For garbling the sacred text, Gur&#363 Har R&#257i anathematized R&#257m R&#257i and chose his second son, Har Krishan, as his successor. The investiture of Har Krishan did not please Aura&#7749gz&#299b who summoned the infant Gur&#363 to Delhi, with the intention of arbitrating between his claims and those of his elder brother, R&#257m R&#257i. Gur&#363 Har Krishan arrived in Delhi and was put up at the house of Mirz&#257 R&#257j&#257 Jai Si&#7749gh of Amber. According to the <i>Gur&#363 k&#299&#257n S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i>, Gur&#363 Har Krishan visited the Emperor's court on 25 March 1664, but owing to Aura&#7749gz&#299b's insistence that he show a miracle to prove his holiness he resolved never to see his face again. A few days later, Gur&#363 Har Krishan was stricken with small-pox and he died on 30 March 1664.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The responsibility of instructing the Sikh community and guiding its affairs now fell on Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur, N&#257nak IX. As recorded in <i>Bha&#7789&#7789 Vah&#299 Talau&#7693&#257</i>, a group of Kashm&#299r&#299 <i>pa&#7751&#7693its</i> waited on him at Anandpur on 25 May 1675 and complained how Ifti<u>kh</u>&#257r <u>Kh</u>&#257n, Aura&#7749gz&#299b's satrap in Kashm&#299r, had been making forcible conversions. Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur is said to have advised his visitors to go and tell the authority in Delhi that if he (Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur) was converted, they would all voluntarily accept Islam. Resolved to lay down his life to redeem freedom of belief, Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur set out for Delhi. Under the orders of the Emperor, he was taken into custody on 12 July 1675 at Malikpur Ra&#7749gh&#7771&#257&#7749, near Sirhind, and despatched to Delhi. He was put in chains and on his refusal to renounce his faith was beheaded in public in the Ch&#257n&#7693n&#299 Chowk of Delhi on 11 November 1675, after three of his devoted disciples - Bh&#257&#299 Day&#257l D&#257s, Bh&#257&#299 Mat&#299 D&#257s and Bh&#257&#299 Sat&#299 D&#257s - had been tortured to death before his eyes. His son, Gobind R&#257i (later Gobind Si&#7749gh), now succeeded to the spiritual throne of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. Aura&#7749gz&#299b was occupied with his campaigns in the South, but his feudal vassals, the hill chieftains, resented the Gur&#363's presence in their midst. They were especially averse to the way the four castes mingled in the Sikh order. They plotted in collusion with the local Mu<u>gh</u>al officers and led out armies against Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. After the battle of Nadau&#7751, fought on 20 March 1691, in which the Mu<u>gh</u>al commander, Alif<u>Kh</u>&#257n was defeated, Aura&#7749gz&#299b ordered his<i>faujd&#257rs</i>in the Punjab to restrain Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh from holding assemblies of Sikhs and to demolish his hearth and home and banish him from the country if he departed ever so little from the ways of a <i>faq&#299r</i> and did not cease to have himself addressed as Sachch&#257 P&#257dsh&#257h, the True King. On 13 July 1696, he sent his eldest son, Mu'azzam, who later succeeded to the throne of Delhi as Emperor Bah&#257dur Sh&#257h, to settle affairs in the Punjab. Anandpur had been subject to constant raid and encroachment since 1700 but the fiercest onslaught made was in 1705 when the hill chiefs, aided by Mu<u>gh</u>al troops from Lahore and Sirhind, invested Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's citadel, eventually forcing him to evacuate it on 5-6 December 1705. Reaching D&#299n&#257, a village in present-day Far&#299dko&#7789 district of the Punjab, Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh wrote to Aura&#7749gz&#299b a letter in Persian verse called <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i>, Epistle of Victory. It was a severe indictment of Aura&#7749gz&#299b, who was repeatedly upbraided for breach of faith in the attack made by his troops on the Sikhs after they had vacated Anandpur on solemn assurance of safe passage given them by him and his officers. The letter emphatically reiterated the sovereignty of morality in the affairs of State as much as in the conduct of individual human beings and regarded the means as important as the end. Absolute truthfulness was as much the duty of a sovereign as of any one of the ordinary citizens. Two of the Gur&#363's Sikhs, Day&#257 Si&#7749gh and Dharam Si&#7749gh, were sent to deliver the <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i> to Aura&#7749gz&#299b, who was then camping in Ahmadnagar. According to<i>Ahk&#257m-i-'&#256lamg&#299r&#299</i>, the Emperor immediately sent through Muhammad Beg, a<i>gurzbard&#257r</i>or mace-bearer, and Shai<u>kh</u> Y&#257r Muhammad, a<i>mansabd&#257r</i>, a<i>farm&#257n</i>to Mun'im <u>Kh</u>&#257n, deputy governor of Lahore, asking him to make peace with Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. He also invited the Gur&#363 for a personal meeting. The <i>Gur&#363 k&#299&#257&#7749 S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i> confirms the invitation sent by Aura&#7749gz&#299b and mentions two <i>gurzbard&#257rs</i> accompanying Bh&#257&#299 Day&#257 Si&#7749gh and Bh&#257&#299 Dharam Si&#7749gh back to the Punjab. But before the Gur&#363 could see the Emperor, the latter died on 20 February 1707.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Sarkar, Sir Jadunath, <i>A Short History of Aurangzib</i>. Calcutta, 1962<BR> <li class="C1"> Majumdar, R. C. , ed. , <i>The History and Culture of the Indian People</i>, vol. VIII. Bombay, 1974<BR> <li class="C1"> Jaffar, S. M. , <i>The Mughal Empire</i>. Delhi, 1974<BR> <li class="C1"> Gupta, Hari Ram, <i>History of the Sikhs</i>, vol. I, Delhi, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> Sharma, Sri Ram, <i>Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors</i>. Bombay, 1962<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Sr&#299 R&#257m Sharma<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>