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Aurangzeb Quotes
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Muhi-ud-Din Muhammad , commonly known by the sobriquet Aurangzeb ,

or by his regnal title Alamgir ,

, was the sixth Mughal emperor. Widely considered the last effective Mughal emperor, his reign lasted for 49 years from 1658 until his death in 1707.Aurangzeb was a notable expansionist during his reign, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent, ruling over nearly all of the Indian subcontinent. During his lifetime, victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to 4 million square kilometres, and he ruled over a population estimated to be over 158 million subjects, with an annual yearly revenue of $450 million , or £38,624,680 in 1690. Under his reign, the Mughal Empire surpassed China to become the world's largest economy, worth over $90 billion, nearly a quarter of world GDP in 1700.Aurangzeb has been subject to controversy and criticism for his policies that abandoned his predecessors' legacy of pluralism and religious tolerance, citing his introduction of the Jizya tax, destruction of Hindu temples, execution or forced conversion of his non-Muslim subjects to Islam, and the executions of Maratha Kingdom ruler Sambhaji and the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur. Various historians question the historicity of the claims of his critics, arguing that his destruction of temples has been exaggerated, and noting that he also built temples, paid for the maintenance of temples, employed significantly more Hindus in his imperial bureaucracy than his predecessors did, and opposed bigotry against Hindus and Shia Muslims.The downfall of the Mughal Empire began near the end of his reign due to his political and religious intolerance.

✵ 3. November 1618 – 3. March 1707
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Aurangzeb: 65   quotes 2   likes

Aurangzeb Quotes

“Answer me, sycophant, ought you not to have instructed me on one point at least, so essential to be known by a king; namely on the reciprocal duties between the sovereign and his subjects? Ought you not also to have foreseen that I might, at some future period, be compelled to contend with my brothers, sword in hand, for the crown, and for my very existence. Such, as you must well know, has been the fate of the children of almost every king of Hindustan. Did you ever instruct me in the art of war, how to besiege a town, or draw up an army in battle array? Happy for me that I consulted wiser heads than thine on these subjects! Go, withdraw to the village. Henceforth let no person know either who thou art, or what is become of thee.”

Aurangzeb

François Bernier quoting https://books.google.com/books?id=1SNVqzrDJmIC&pg=PA179 Aurangzeb's statement to his tutor. Also in The Moghul Saint of Insanity https://books.google.com/books?id=_o_WCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 by Farzana Moon, p. 15 Also in European travel accounts during the reigns of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb by Meera Nanda, p.132 Also in History of Education in India by Suresh Chandra Ghosh, p. 200. Also inEncyclopaedia Indica: Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor by Shyam Singh Shashi, p. 75
Quotes from late medieval histories

Fate , War , Children , Art

“In a small village in the sarkar of Sirhind, a Sikh temple was demolished and converted into a mosque. An imam was appointed who was subsequently killed.”

Aurangzeb

Quotes from late medieval histories
Source: Sirhind (Punjab) Kalimat-i-Tayyibat, cited in : Sharma, Sri Ram, Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, Bombay, 1962. p. 138

“As his blessed nature dictated, he was characterized by perfect devotion to the rites of the Faith; he followed the teaching of the great Imam. Abu Hanifa (God be pleased with him!), and established and enforced to the best of his power the five foundations of Islam'Through the auspices of his hearty endeavour, the Hanafi creed (i. e., the Orthodox Sunni faith) has gained such strength and currency in the great country of Hindustan as was never seen in the times of any of the preceding sovereigns. By one stroke of the pen, the Hindu clerks (writers) were dismissed from the public employment. Large numbers of the places of worship of the infidels and great temples of these wicked people have been thrown down and desolated. Men who can see only the outside of things are filled with wonder at the successful accomplishment of such a seemingly difficult task. And on the sites of the temples lofty mosques have been built.”

Aurangzeb

Maasir-i-alamgiri, translated into English by Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 312-15
Quotes from late medieval histories

Men , God , People , Faith

“In obedience to the commandment of the Almighty God, the Lord of both the worlds; and in love of… the exalted Prophet: During the reign of Shãhjahãn, the king of the seven climes, the viceregent of God (lit. Truth), the master of the necks of people… the benevolent and generous Prince Aurangzeb, whose existence is a blessing of the Merciful God on people: He built a house for worship with (all) the qualities of heaven: after the site has been previously occupied by the temple of infidels…”

Aurangzeb

Inscription on Mosque at Bodhan, Andhra Pradesh, Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica, 1919-1920 quoted from Shourie, A., & Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II.
Quotes from late medieval histories

God , Housing , People , Truth

“In every parganah officers have come from the thanahs with orders from the Presence for the destruction of idols.”

Aurangzeb

Quotes from late medieval histories, 1670s
Source: A letter preserved in the Yasho-Madhav temple of Dhamrai in the Dacca district, dated 27 June, 1672, and printed in J. M. Ray’s Bengali History of Dacca, i. 389. quoted in Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib: Volume III. App. V.

“The temple of Chintaman, situated close to Sarash-pur, and built by Sitadas jeweller, was converted into a mosque named Quu)at~ul-islam by order of the Prince Aurangzib, in 1645.”

Aurangzeb

(Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 232.) The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I. pt, I. p. 280, adds that he slaughtered a cow in the temple, but Shah Jahan ordered the building to be restored to the Hindus.
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1660s
Source: Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib: Volume III. App. V.