"Aurangzeb cared nothing for art, destroyed its "heathen" monuments with coarse bigotry, and fought, through a reign of half a century, to eradicate from India almost all religions but his own. He issued orders to the provincial governors, and to his other subordinates, to raze to the ground all the temples of either Hindus or Christians, to smash every idol, and to close every Hindu school. In one year ( 1679-80) sixty-six temples were broken to pieces in Amber alone, sixty-three at Chitor, one hundred and twenty-three at Udaipur; and over the site of a Benares temple especially sacred to the Hindus he built, in deliberate insult, a Mohammedan mosque. He forbade all public worship of the Hindu faiths, and laid upon every unconverted Hindu a heavy capitation tax. As a result of his fanaticism, thousands of the temples which had represented or housed the art of India through a millennium were laid in ruins. We can never know, from looking at India today, what grandeur and beauty she once possessed. Aurangzeb converted a handful of timid Hindus to Islam, but he wrecked his dynasty- and his country. A few Moslems worshiped him as a saint, but the mute and terrorized millions of India looked upon him as a monster, fled from his tax-gatherers, and prayed for his death. During his reign the Mogul empire in India reached its height, extending into the Deccan; but it was a power that. had no foundation in the affection of the people, and was doomed to fall at the first hostile and vigorous touch. The Emperor himself, in his last years, began to realize that by the very narrowness of his piety he had destroyed the heritage of his fathers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, ch. XVI
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aurangzeb
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Aurangzeb
Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (4 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), more commonly known as Aurangzeb ("Jewel in the crown") or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir ("Conquerer of the World"), was the sixth Mughal Emperor, whose Islamic reign across most of the Indian subcontinent lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.
90 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Aurangzeb →
Related Quotes
"I brought nothing into this world, and, except the infirmities of man, carry nothing out. I have a dread for my salva…"
"Take heart, my friends! There is a God! There is a God!"
"Answer me, sycophant, ought you not to have instructed me on one point at least, so essential to be known by a king; …"
"I wish you to recollect that the greatest conquerors are not always the greatest kings. The nations of the earth have…"
"An emperor ought to stand midway between gentleness and severity."
"In the region of Hindustan, this scrap of bread [i.e., the Mughal Empire] is a generous gift from Their Majesties, Ti…"
"Health to thee! My heart is near thee. Old age is arrived: weakness subdues me, and strength has forsaken all my memb…"
"The Emperor, summoning Muhammad Khalil and Khidmat Rai, the darogha of hatchet-men... ordered them to demolish the te…"
"Wherefore should I not offer my congratulations? But the very fact of them being Sayyids, those fountains of felicity…"
"Although the king of the time [Aurangzeb] is not a prophet, yet there is no doubt in his being a friend of God. He bu…"