Aurangabad

“ Aurangzib soon set to strengthening his forces in the Deccan. On 26th January 1670 an order was sent to Dilir to leave Deogarh in the Gond country and hasten to Aurangabad. Daud Khan was ordered to arrange for the defence of his province of Khandesh and then go to Prince Muazzam's assistance. Many other officers were transferred from North India to the Deccan. (Akhbarat, year 12.)
Shivaji opened his offensive with great vigour and immediate success.* [2] His roving bands looted Mughal territory, and he attacked several of the forts which he had ceded to Aurangzib by the Treaty of Purandar. ”

“ The Government school affords instruction to 72 boys. At the bi-weekly bazar, besides the commodities usually sold at such places, good sugar may be bought; and cotton rope is also manufactured and sold here. The annual value of the bazar sales is put down at Rs. 5,000. MAIKALGANJ-Pargana AURANGABAD-Tahsil MUHAMDI— District KHERI.--A large village in pargana Aurangabad, district of Kheri, is situated on the right side of the road from Sitapur to Sháhjahánpur, having a large tank to the east and a good encamping ground to the west. There is a mud-walled sarae and fifteen masonry wells. ”

“ Muazzam promptly obeyed his father's order and returned to Aurangabad at the end of September, 1670.* [5] These internal troubles paralysed the Mughal arms, and Shivaji made the most of this goldenopportunity. We have seen how he had recovered several of his forts early in the year. His cavalry bands roamed over the country, plundering far and wide. In March the English factors at Surat wrote, "Shivaji marches now not [as] before as a thief, but in gross with an army of 30,000 men, conquering as he goes, and is not disturbed though the Prince lies near him." ”

“ His favourite general, Maharajan Jaswant Singh, was posted at Puna. From this place he marched out and besieged Kondana. The Rajputs are proverbially inefficient in sieges, and Jaswant, after wasting some months before the fort, delivered a rash and fruitless assault, in which he lost many hundreds of his soldiers, chiefly owing to a gunpowder explosion. Then he quarrelled with his brother-in-law Bhao Singh Hada, evidently on the question of responsibility for the failure, and the two officers with their armies retired to Aurangabad (in June) to pass the rainy season. ”

“ Aūd (U.P. India) , see Oude, Oudh. Aūlābā-tū (Ghazni) , Bābur at 323. Aūlīā-ātā (E. Turkīstān) , 2 n. 1. Aūlūgh-nūr (Kābul) , located 209; a route past 209; on the “nur” of the name App. F, xxiii; Bābur at 421-5. Aūnjū- or Ūnjū-tūpa (Farghāna) , Bābur at 110. Aurangābād (Ḥaidarābād, Dakhin, India) , a grape of 77 n. 2. Aūrā-tīpā (between Khujand and the Zarafshān, Samarkand) , its names Aūrūsh and Aūrūshna 77; an alp of 25; Dikh-kat a village of 149, 154; locates Khwās 17; escapes to 124, 141, 156; transfers of, to ‘Umar ‘Shaikh 17, to Aḥmad 27, 30, 35, to Muḥ. ”

“ Further on to the outside of the town on the south-east are two other dargábs raised to Makhdúm Shah, Muhammad Kázim, and Makhdúm Shah Turáb, Kandharia faqirs, in whose memory the annual urs festivals are celebrated, and a great fair held, at which great numbers from Lucknow and the neighbouring villages attend. On the west is the mosque of Azinat-ulla, built in the reign of Shah Jahan, to whose daughter Azmat-ulla was tutor, and who, his descendants say, also gave instruction to Aurangzeb himself. ”

“ Garrisoned by a very small force it soon fell, and Aurungzebe was carried in a portable throne through the breach into the deserted city. It remains now much as it was then--a city, not of ruins, but of desertion. The walls, still entire, are surmounted by the cupolas and minarets of the public buildings within, so that from outside Bijapur shows bravely; but within all is desolation. The wide Mosque, the splendid palace, the great domed tomb of the kings, are alike deserted, the home only of bats and hyenas. ”

“ I have spoken to Clerk about it, and he is strongly in favour of Aurungabad, where he says [199] there are heaps of old buildings, and he introduced me to Mir Abdu es Salaam (Ferdunji, the Parsi Talukdar is the next most important man at Aurungabad) , chief Subar there, who happens to be at Hyderabad, and who invited us to stay with him at Aurungabad. Dined with Seyd Huseyn. He showed me, before dinner, a long telegram dictated by Cordery, which has been sent to the ‘Times of India,’ and of which Seyd Huseyn has obtained this secret copy. ”

“ Should his plans fail, should Aurangzeb prove obstinate and impracticable, it was intended to form an alliance with the Raja of Arakan, on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, and promise to help him in his wars against the Great Mogul, provided he ceded the required territory at Chittagong. In short, Sir Josiah Child proposed to overawe the Mogul and establish British trade with India on a lasting basis for the future by means of three great fortresses—one at Madras, a second at Bombay, and a third in Bengal or at Chittagong. ”

“ When he was murdering and persecuting his brothers and their families, he was building a magnificent mosque at Delhi, as an offering to God for his assistance to him in the civil wars. He acted as high priest at the consecration of this temple; and made a practice of attending divine service there, in the humble dress of a Fakeer. But when he lifted one hand to the Divinity, he, with the other, signed warrants for the assassination of his relations."—"History of Hindostan,". vol. iii. p.335. See also the curious letter of Aurungzebe, given in the Oriental Collections, vol. i. ”

“ By 1757 a. d., the Sikhs in the Punjab and the Mahrattas in the Deccan had succeeded in undermining the foundations of the Mogul rule, which was now steadily disintegrating. The Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Nawab of Mysore had asserted Aurangzeb, their independence and were disputing the mastery of the Deccan with the Mahrattas. Similarly the Nabobs of Bengal and Oudh owed only nominal allegiance to the King of Delhi. The greater part of the peninsula, Central India, was under the Mahrattas. ”

“ The entry into Aurengabad was more splendid and magnificent, than that which had been made at Gol-condah: and the city merited this preference, being, next to Delhi, the most populous and wealthy in the Mogul's dominions: its inhabitants, when the Soubah is there, are computed at a million and a half of souls. The French had a convenient quarter assigned them, to which Mr. Bussy strictly obliged the troops to confine themselves, lest the disparity of manners should create broils and tumults which might end fatally. ”

“ At the time of Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 the nawab or governor of Bengal was Murshid Kuli Khan, known also as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, and brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative Black Hole of Calcutta. ability of a Hindu to the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the capital of Bengal had been at Dacca on the eastern frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Mughs could be most easily checked. ”

“ During the civil wars between the sons of Shah Jahan, the king of Assam renewed his predatory incursions into Bengal; upon the termination of the contest, Aurangzeb determined to avenge these repeated insults, and despatched a considerable force for the regular invasion of the Assamese territory (1660-1662) . His general, Mir Jumla, defeated the rajah, who fled to the mountains, and most of the chiefs made their submission to the conqueror. But the rains set in with unusual violence, and Mir Jumla’s army was almost annihilated by famine and sickness. ”

“ But even during his lifetime two new Hindu nationalities were being formed in the Mahrattas and the Sikhs; while immediately after his death the nawabs of the Deccan, of Oudh, and of Bengal raised themselves to practical independence. Aurangzeb had indeed enlarged the empire, but he had not strengthened its foundations. During the reign of his father Shah Jahan he had been viceroy of the Deccan or rather of the northern portion only, which had been annexed to the Mogul empire since the reign of Akbar. ”

“ Aurangzeb directed his troops to surround the palace on all four sides. He came to meet his father, bringing with him some fetters of gold, and he said to his father: "Put these fetters on your feet respectfully, or I will have you killed." Shah-Jehan took the fetters and put them on his feet, and Aurangzeb kept him as a prisoner. He had the royal kettle-drums beaten, and made a proclamation that Shah-Jehan was a prisoner, and Aurangzeb was king of the land. So Aurangzeb became king, and all the royal army and possessions came into his hands. ”

“ As the siege progressed Shayista Khan, the governor of Malwa, and other chiefs joined Aurangzib's army. Golconda was reduced to serious straits when a message suddenly arrived from the old emperor at Delhi commanding Aurangzib to desist, and conveying an assurance of forgiveness to Abdullah Qutb Shah. Shah Jahan was at this time under the influence of his eldest son, Dara Shikuh, who was jealous of Aurangzib's success, and probably had no difficulty in persuading his father that the conqueror of the wealthy city of Golconda would lose no time in becoming the emperor of Delhi. ”

“ The fort was held by a little garrison of Europeans and loyal Sikhs, until it was relieved by General Neill on June 11th of that year.
The modern buildings of Allahabad include Government House, the High Court, the Mayo memorial and town hall, the Muir central college, the Thornhill and Mayne memorial library and museum, the Naini central jail, and the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals. The Jumna is crossed by a railway bridge and there are two bridges of boats over the Ganges. ”

“ Arungabad is the first station which we had visited in the dominions of the Nizam. We were now approaching the confines of civilization, and it became necessary to part with our palkees and the bearers, who had accompanied us from Agra. A separation from the latter was easily borne, and they, on their part, were no doubt glad to get rid of the burdens they had been carrying for the last month. But to bid adieu for ever to one’s palkee is a severe trial; and no wonder, for to a man not in a hurry it is the most luxurious and independent means of travelling conceivable. ”

“ Wherever I look I see nothing but the Divinity. I am going! Whatever good or evil I have done it was done for you."
He was a great letter-writer. Three huge volumes of his epistles are still extant; but even in these last solemn ones the absolute truth was not in them; for under his pillow when he died a paper was found--a sort of will, in which he appoints his eldest son Emperor, bids his second be content with Agra and Bengal, while to the one "nearest his heart," the doubtful kingship of Bijapur and Golconda was gifted. Aurungzebe was diplomatic to the last.
Map: India to A.D. 1707 ”

“ During the early part of his life and reign, Aurangzēb was employed in conquering and destroying the two independent kingdoms of Golconda and Bījāpur in the Deccan, which he formed into two provinces governed by viceroys. Each had had an army of above a hundred thousand men while independent. The officers and soldiers of these armies had nothing but their courage and their swords to depend upon for their subsistence. ”

“ After Shah Jahan came his crafty son, Aurungzebe, who succeeded in keeping his empire together until 1707, and with him the grandeur of the Grand Moguls waned and after him ceased to be, although not until the Mutiny was their rule extinguished. As I have just said, in India the sense of chronology vanishes, or goes astray, and it is with a start that one is confronted, in the Museum in Delhi Fort, by a photograph of the last Mogul! ”

“ Murad Bakhsh: his character, 318—his wazir Ali Naqi, 320—is murdered on suspicion, 321—Murad sends an army against Surat, 323—siege of Surat, 324—booty at Surat, 325—Murad corresponds with Aurangzib for an alliance, 327—Murad proclaims himself Emperor, 329—chooses a stronghold to shelter his family in, 331—Murad's impatient ambition and Aurangzib's cautiousness, 332—intrigue with Persia, 333—partition of empire between Murad and Aurangzib, 335—sworn to by Aurangzib, 337—Murad starts, 338—and joins Aurangzib near Dipalpur, 339. ”

“ The Princess, having taken leave of her kind father, who at parting hung a cornelian of Yemen round her neck, on which was inscribed a verse from the Koran, and having sent a considerable present to the Fakirs, who kept up the Perpetual Lamp in her sister's tomb, meekly ascended the palankeen prepared for her; and while Aurungzebe stood to take a last look from his balcony, the procession moved slowly on the road to Lahore.
Seldom had the Eastern world seen a cavalcade so superb. From the gardens in the suburbs to the Imperial palace, it was one unbroken line of splendor. ”

“ The bazars of Lahore do not exhibit much appearance of wealth; but the commercial influence of the Punjab is to be found at Umritsir, the modern capital. There are some public buildings within the city that deserve mention. The King’s mosque is a capacious building of red sandstone, which had been brought by Aurungzebe from near Delhi. Its four lofty minarets still stand, but the temple itself has been converted into a powder magazine. There are two other mosques, with minarets, to proclaim the falling greatness of the Mahommedan empire ”

“ Shah Jehan appointed him governor of Berar in 1638 and governor of Gujarat in 1652. During Shah Jehan's reign he took part in the Deccan War with Aurungzebe who gave him the title of Khan Jehan in 1656. In 1658 his nephew conferred on him the title of Amir-ul-Umara when he came to his side by deserting Shah Jehan and Dara. (Cf. Introd.) . He was appointed governor of Agra in the same year. At the time of the victory gained over Shuja at Cujwá he was governor of Akbarabad (Agra) acting for Aurungzebe. Afterwards Aurungzebe made him viceroy of the Deccan (1659) and ordered him to punish Shivaji. ”