Mughal History: Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was considered a dictator. However, he had also constructed many excellent buildings in India. Aurangzeb attained the throne by killing his elder brother Dara Shikoh. Also, he had kept his father Shahjahan a prisoner in Agra Fort for seven and a half years in his old age. During the reign of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire expanded so much that it made almost the entire subcontinent a part of its empire. However, very few people know how educated this Mughal emperor was.
How educated was Aurangzeb?
Aurangzeb ruled over 15 crore people of India for 49 years. A BBC report quoting ‘Aurangzeb-The Man and the Myth’ states that Shahjahan’s third son Aurangzeb, apart from reading Islamic religious literature, also read Turkish literature and had mastered the art of handwriting. Aurangzeb, like other Mughal emperors, spoke Hindi fluently since childhood.
Aurangzeb considered himself the most worthy heir of the Mughal Sultanate.
Shahjahan had 4 sons. Of which Shahjahan wanted to hand over the Mughal Sultanate to his eldest son Dara Shikoh. He also considered Dara Shikoh to be the most capable. However, in the eyes of Aurangzeb, he was the real owner of the Mughal Sultanate. This was the reason that even before Dara Shikoh came to power, he took his father Shahjahan prisoner and after getting Dara Shikoh painfully murdered, he himself became the Mughal emperor.
After his death, Aurangzeb was buried in a raw grave.
It is also told in the book ‘Aurangzeb-The Man and the Myth’ that when Aurangzeb died, he was buried in a mud grave in Khuldabad, Maharashtra. On the contrary, a red stone mausoleum was built for Humayun in Delhi, while Shah Jahan was buried in the luxurious Taj Mahal.