Who was the greatest Mogul king after Akbar?
Contrary to the media hype, Aurangzeb was the best among the
Mughal rulers due to the following facts:
Unified India under one rule: No kingdom before him has such bigger boundaries. He ruled India for half a century.
Rich state: During his period India contributed nearly 25% of global GDP
Simple Life: Inspite of being a powerful king he led a pious
and simple life which was not a practice by most of the rulers
Tolerance towards other communities: He gave grants to
temples and other religious places.
Social reforms: He brought many social reforms as limiting practices
as drinking, gambling, narcotics, Sati, lavish court expenses and prostitution
etc.
he abolished the inland transport duty, which amounted to
ten percent of the value of goods, and the octroi on all articles of food and
drink brought into the cities for sale.
The following are good read for the people to have a glimpse
of his rule. Some of his actions can be questioned as a ruler.
Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib (Calcutta, 1916), III,
246.
R. C. Majumdar and
Jadunath Sarkar, History of Bengal (Dacca, 1943–1948), II, 378.
S. R. Sharma, The
Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors (Bombay, 1962), p. 153;
Z. Faruki, Aurangzeb and His Times (Bombay, 1935), p. 117.
William Foster, ed., The English Factories in India
1660–1664 (Oxford, 1923), p. 401.
R. C. Majumdar et al., An Advanced History of India (London,
1958), p. 509.
Quoted in Abdullah Chughtai, Fanun-i-Latif
Ba-ahd-i-Aurangzeb (Lahore, 1957), p. 42.
Inayat-Ullah Khan, Akham-i-Alamgiri, trans. by Jadunath
Sarkar as Anecdotes of Aurangzib (Calcutta, 1912), p. 91.
H. M. Elliot and John Dowson, The History of India as Told
by Its Own Historians (London, 1867–1877), VII, 386–87
Comments
Post a Comment