Aurangzeb’s policy of temple destruction has always been a topic of fierce debate. While critics consider Aurangzeb’s iconoclasm as a manifestation of his religious bigotry, his apologists claim he has been unjustly vilified by the Hindu right-wing. This article seeks to examine the apologist arguments regarding Aurangzeb’s temple destructions.

Recently, in the wake of the ‘Aurangzeb Road’ controversy, some incredible claims were made in defense of the Mughal monarch such as ‘Aurangzeb built more temples than he destroyed’ and that during his reign, ‘temples are rarely destroyed and, if they are, the reason is political’.¹ But do historical records support these claims? Let us explore in detail.

Aurangzeb’s policy towards temples was guided, to a large extent, by his desire to strictly enforce the sharia. Shortly after his accession to power, the Mughal ruler issued a farman on 28 February 1659, in connection with a dispute about the right of ‘holding charge’ of the ancient temples of Benares.² The farman, granted through the mediation of Prince Sultan Muhammad, stated that ‘long standing temples should not be demolished but no new temples be allowed to be built’^.3

However, this did not cover military operations. In 1661, Aurangzeb ordered Daud Khan, the Governor of Bihar, to conquer the remote chiefdom of Palamau, situated south of Bihar. The Alamgir Nama records, “In 1661 Aurangzeb in his zeal to uphold the law of Islam sent orders to his Viceroy of Bihar, Daud Khan, to conquer Palamau. In the military operations that followed many temples were destroyed”.⁴ The same text further states, “Towards the end of the same year when Mir Jumla made war on the Raja of Kuch Bihar, the Mughals destroyed many temples during the course of their operations. Idols were broken and some of the temples were converted into mosques.”⁵

Soon Aurangzeb began to act even without the provocation of military necessity. The famous temple of Somnath was destroyed early in his reign. This was probably one of the results of the order sent in 1665 to his officers in Gujarat. The order, dated 20 November, read, “In Ahmedabad and other parganas of Gujarat in the days before my accession [many] temples were destroyed by my order. They have been repaired and idol worship has been resumed. Carry out the former order”.⁶

The Mirat-i-Ahmadi records that in 1645, while he was Governor of Gujarat, Prince Aurangzeb had converted the Jain temple of Chintamani Parshvanath in Ahmedabad into a mosque and named it ‘Quwat-ul-Islam’.⁷ ‘Quwat-ul-Islam’ in Arabic means ‘the might of Islam’, a name which aptly encapsulated Aurangzeb’s frame of mind. The contemporary French traveler Jean de Thevenot records that Aurangzeb also ordered a cow to be slaughtered in the temple. He writes, “When he performed that ceremony, he caused a cow to be killed in the place, knowing very well that, after such an action, the gentiles, according to their law, could no longer worship therein.”⁸ The building was restored to the Hindus by the order of Shah Jahan in 1648. However, since the temple was desecrated, the Jain community never reoccupied it or restarted worship.

Aurangzeb appointed Khan-i-Dauran as the Governor of Orissa in 1660. During Khan’s governorship, the temple of Baladeva at Kendrapara was destroyed and a mosque built in its place^.9 But the temple of Jagannath at Puri was spared because of the large amount of pilgrim tax it yielded.¹⁰

Aurangzeb’s attention next turned towards the famous temple of Keshav Rai at Mathura. Under Shah Jahan, Dara Shukoh had built a stone railing for the temple. The news-letter dated 14 October 1666 reports, “The Emperor learning that in the temple of Keshav Rai at Mathura there was a stone railing presented by Dara Shukoh, remarked, ‘In the Muslim faith it is a sin even to look at a temple, and this Dara had restored a railing in a temple! This fact is not creditable to the Muhammadans. Remove the railing.’ By his order Abdun Nabi Khan (the Faujdar of Mathura) removed it.”¹¹

In pargana Thanesar of Sirhind sarkar, Hindus used to gather and perform ablutions in a holy tank. In June 1667, Aurangzeb ordered the Faujdar of Thanesar that ‘the waters of the tank be released from all the four quarters so that after this the Hindus may not gather there’.¹² The tank lay in the jagir of Hoshdar Khan, Governor of Agra, whose vakil (agent) had earlier written to the Court that destruction of the tank would affect the agricultural operations.¹³ Eventually, the Mughal ruler allowed the tank to be restored to its former condition as it was indispensable for cultivation, but he ordered the suppression of the aforesaid ‘irreligious acts’ of Hindus.¹⁴

On 2nd September, 1667, Qazi Abdul Muqaram reported that a large number of Hindus used to gather at the Kalka temple near Barapula, Delhi.¹⁵ Aurangzeb ordered Sayyid Faulad Khan, Faujdar, to send beldars (hatchet-men) to demolish the Kalka temple and all other temples in the faujdari.¹⁶ The Faujdar reported to the court about the demolition of the temple on 12^th September.¹⁷

Most probably during the period 1667-69, an order was sent to the Governor of Orissa to demolish the new temples in the province. This order was provoked by the report of a new temple being built at the village of Tilkutti in Medinipur. The Governor thereupon asked his local officers in every town and village of Orissa, from Cuttack to Medinipur, to demolish all temples built during the last ten or twelve years and to allow no temples to be repaired.¹⁸ The Governor’s order read as “Every idol-house built during the last 10 or 12 years, whether with brick or clay, should be demolished without delay. Also, do not allow the cursed Hindus and despicable infidels to repair their old temples. Report of the destruction of temples should be sent to the Court under the seal of the qazis and attested by pious Shaikhs”.¹⁹

However, in April 1669, Aurangzeb went a step further and issued a general order for the destruction of all the schools and temples of the Hindus. The Ma'asir-i Alamgiri records:

On the 17th Zi-l kada 1079, it reached the ear of His majesty, the Protector of the Faith, that in the provinces of Thatta, Multan and Benaras, but specially in the latter, foolish Brahmins were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools, and the students and learners, Musulmans as well as Hindus, went there, even from long distances, led by desire to become acquainted with the wicked sciences they taught. The Director of the faith consequently issued orders to all the governors of provinces to destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels; and they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practicing of idolatrous forms of worship.²⁰

The Dutch traveler, Nicholas De Graff, who was at Hooghly in 1670, heard about these orders and reported, "In the month of January [1670], all the governors and native officers received an order from the Great Mughal prohibiting the practice of Pagan religion throughout the country and closing down all the temples and sanctuaries of idol worshippers…in the hope that some Pagans would embrace the Muslim religion.”²¹

It must be noted here that the complaints came from only some places, not from all over the empire. Secondly, if someone was guilty of violating any Mughal law, at worst they were the Brahman teachers involved in those ‘reprehensible practices’.²² The decision to destroy all the places of religious worship of the Hindus for the ‘fault’ of some Brahmans was just outrageous.²³

Soon after the order was issued, reports of the destruction of temples from all over the country began to arrive. In May 1669, Salih Bahadur, mace-bearer (gurzbardar), was sent to demolish the temple of Malarna.²⁴ Malarna was then in the Ranthambore sarkar of Ajmer subah (imperial province). In August 1669, the temple of Vishwanath at Benares was demolished.²⁵ It is believed that the presiding priest of the temple had managed to remove the idol in time and throw it into a nearby well, the Gyan Vapi (‘well of knowledge’). It became a sacred site for Hindus thereafter. The ruined temple was then used as the qibla wall of the large mosque built in its place, now known as the Gyan Vapi mosque.²⁶

Next was the turn of the temple of Keshav Rai at Mathura, whose stone railing had been removed earlier. It was built at a cost of Rs.33 lakhs by Rao Bir Singh Bundela during the reign of Jehangir.²⁷ Around January 1670, the temple was demolished and a mosque was ordered to be built in its place to mark the acquisition of religious merit by the Emperor. The Ma’asir-i-Alamgiri records with fanatical fervour:

Glory be to God, who has given us the faith of Islam, that, in this reign of the destroyer of false gods, an undertaking so difficult of accomplishment has been brought to a successful termination! This vigorous support given to the true faith was a severe blow to the arrogance of the Rajas, and, like idols, they turned their faces awe-struck to the wall. The richly jewelled idols taken from the pagan-temples were transferred to Agra, and there placed beneath the steps leading to the Nawab Begam Sahib’s mosque, in order that they might ever be pressed under foot by the true believers. Mattra changed its name into Islamabad.²⁸

Fearing such destruction, the priests of the temple at Govardhan in Vrindavan, founded by Vallabhacharya, removed the idol and sought safety in flight.²⁹ However, none of the imperial territories dared to offer asylum either to the god or his votaries. Finally, Maharaja Raj Singh of Mewar extended his welcome to those priests. A small village called Sihar was chosen to house the idol and with due religious ceremony, the installation took place on 10 March, 1672.³⁰

At Kankroli in the same state, another idol of Lord Krishna similarly brought from Vrindavan had been housed a little earlier.³¹ Mewar thus became a new Vrindavan to the devotees of Lord Krishna, thanks to Aurangzeb’s religious zeal.

In Gujarat, the Hindus of Surat adopted an ingenious method to save some of their temples. As per the English factors’ correspondence, they agreed to make payments to the Mughal officers.³² However, this ‘led to greater demands from the Qazis and the censors till at last the banias began to groan under their extortion’.³³

In March 1670, it was reported that a Mughal officer, Gada Beg, who had been sent to demolish the Hindu temples in and around Ujjain was killed along with many of his men by a local Rajput chief.³⁴ The officer had, however, succeeded in demolishing some of the temples before getting killed.

In far off Bengal, imperial agents were sent to all parganas in the first half of 1672 with orders to carry out the Emperor’s instructions. A letter regarding this has been preserved in the Yasho Madhav temple of Dhamrai in the Dacca district.³⁵ The letter, dated 27 June, 1672, reads, ”In every pargana, officers have come from the thanas with orders from the Presence for the destruction of idols”. ³⁶

The records of the reign are silent thereafter for a few years. However, the lull ended in 1679 when Aurangzeb embarked on a militant policy against the Rajputs. Maharaja Jaswant Singh had died while on duty as a military commander at Jamrud, near Peshawar, on 10 December 1678. When the news reached Aurangzeb at Agra, he issued orders that the state of Marwar including Jodhpur should be taken into Khalisa (crown-land) and the property of the late Maharaja be escheated. Khan-i-Jahan, along with high officers, was sent on 7 February, 1679 to occupy Marwar.³⁷ He destroyed many temples in the environs of Jodhpur and as an evidence of his ‘meritorious conduct’ he brought back ‘cartloads of idols’ to Delhi on 25 May, 1679. The Ma’asir-i-Alamgiri records, “Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur returned from Jodhpur after demolishing its temples, and bringing with himself several cartloads of idols. The Emperor ordered that the idols, which were mostly of gold, silver, brass and copper, or stone, and adorned with jewels should be cast in the quadrangle of the court and under the steps of the Jama mosque for being trodden upon.”³⁸ It is to be noted that Aurangzeb was not yet at war with Marwar. The destruction of its temples was therefore not an act of warfare. It was ‘an announcement that the state was no longer being governed by a Hindu Raja but had now passed into imperial hands’.³⁹

About this time, Dorab Khan was sent to punish the Rajputs of Khandela and demolish the temples there. Khandela was a small estate (thikana) in the north-west of Amber, ruled by a line of Raisalot Shekhawats, the direct descendants of Raja Raisal Darbari. The immediate provocation was the revolt of Bahadur Singh, the Raja of Khandela, who refused to pay tribute to the Mughal court.^40a Dorab attacked the place on 8 March 1679, slew more than three hundred men who had offered fierce resistance and pulled down the temples of Khandela and Sanula and all other temples in the neighbourhood.^40b

On 7^th November, 1679, Sayyid Razi-ud-din, diwan of the army, was sent with 500 men to demolish a temple in Jodhpur and build a mosque in its place.⁴¹

In November 1679, Mohammad Mirak, mace-bearer, was ordered to destroy all the temples from Ajmer to Mandal.⁴² On 15^th December, 1679, Sayyid Ibrahim, Thanedar (head of military outpost) of Nagar, was appointed along with eighty beldars for razing the Hindu temples to the ground.⁴³ Twenty more beldars were ordered to be sent for the demolition of all the temples on the way.

Aurangzeb’s hostility towards the Rathors of Jodhpur eventually led to the Rajput War. The Maharana Raj Singh of Udaipur came forward to help Jodhpur. However, the Mewar ruler was forced to flee and Udaipur soon passed into the hands of the Mughals. The grand temple in front of the royal palace was destroyed and its image broken.⁴⁴ When Aurangzeb went to view the lake Udai Sagar on 24 January 1680, he ordered that the three temples on its bank be demolished. On 29 January, Hasan Ali Khan reported that the total number of temples destroyed in and around Udaipur, including the four already mentioned, was 172.⁴⁵ On 22 February 1680, Aurangzeb visited Chittor and by his order, 63 temples were destroyed.⁴⁶ Thus in the state of Mewar alone 235 temples were reported to have been destroyed. 

References:

1. Shoaib Daniyal, “Was Aurangzeb the most evil ruler India has ever had?”, Scroll, September 02, 2015, http://scroll.in/article/752358/was-aurangzeb-the-most-evil-ruler-india-has-ever-had (accessed November 21, 2015).

2. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, Northern India - 1658-1681, 3^rd Ed. (Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar & Sons, 1928), pp 281.

3. Ibid.

4. Sri Ram Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, 3^rd Ed. (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1972), pp 168.

5. Ibid.

6. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 280.

7. M. S. Commissariat, A History of Gujarat, Vol.2, The Mughal Period: 1573 to 1758 (Bombay: Orient Longmans, 1957), pp 125.

8. Ibid, pp 141-142.

9. Prabhat Mukherjee, History of the Jagannatha Temple in the 19^th Century (Calcutta:Firma KLM Pvt.Ltd., 1960), pp 13.

10. Ibid.

11. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 280.

12. H. A. Phadke, Haryana: Ancient and Medieval (New Delhi: Harman Publishing House, 1990), pp 157

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid, pp 158

15. K. S. Bedi and S. S. Bal, eds., Essays on History, Literature, Art and Culture (New Delhi: Atma Ram & Sons, 1970), pp 69

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Sri Ram Sharma, Mughal Empire in India, 3^rd Ed. (Agra: Lakshmi Narayan Agarwal, 1966), pp 386-387.

19. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 283-284.

20. Sharma, Mughal Empire in India, pp 387.

21. Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, pp 171.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid, pp 172.

25. Ibid

26. Catherine Asher, Architecture of Mughal India (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp 278.

27. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 282.

28. Sharma, Mughal Empire in India, pp 388.

29. Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, pp 172.

30. Ibid., pp 173.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 284.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid., pp 375.

38. Ibid., pp 284.

39. Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, pp 174.

40a. B. L. Meharda, Territory, Polity, and Status: A Study of Shekhawats (Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2006), pp 91.

40b. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 284.

41. Bedi and Bal, eds., Essays on History, Literature, Art and Culture, pp 69.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid.

44. Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vol .3, pp 284.

45. Ibid.

46. Ibid.

47. Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, pp 175.