The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.104

v4.c18.104

In 1633 Shāh Jahān ordered the demolition of Hindu temples which had been begun in the previous reign, especially at Benares, and many were demolished. These orders were followed by a prohibition of the erection of new shrines or the repair of older buildings. Intermarriage between Hindus and Muslims, which had been common in the Punjab and Kashmīr, was forbidden in 1634. Hindus were directed to keep to their own style of dress,¹ and to discontinue practices which were offensive to the tenets of Islām, such as cremation or the burning of widows near a Muslim cemetery, or the sale of intoxicating liquor. Mass conversions of Hindus to Islām were also encouraged, and in some cases were forcibly effected. All these acts, however, were dictated rather by the desire to maintain the strict tenets of Islām than to pursue the course of iconoclasm which was adopted by Aurangzīb. Thus the demolition of new temples was not followed by the erection of mosques on their sites. In his later years Shāh Jahān appears to have left Dārā unchecked in his studies of Hinduism, which led him to seek for common truths underlying two faiths differing so much in their external practices.²