The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.118

v4.c20.118

Such a king cannot be called a political genius. He had indeed honesty and plodding industry, but he was not a statesman who could initiate a new policy or legislate for moulding the life and thought of unborn generations. Such a genius, though unlettered and often hot blooded, was Akbar alone among the Timurids of India. Obsessed by his narrow ideal of duty, Aurangzīb practised saintly austerities and self-abasement almost with Pharisaical ostentation. He thus became an ideal character to the Muslim portion of his subjects; they called him *‘Ālamgīr*, *zinda pīr* or a saint who wrought miracles! But the causes of the failure of his reign lay deeper than his personal character. Though it is not true that he alone caused the fall of the Moghul empire, yet he did nothing to avert it, but rather quickened the destructive forces already in operation in the land. He never realised that there cannot be a great empire without a great people.