History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c46: Appendix V. Temple Destruction by Aurangzib

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c46

Language: English

Appendix V. Temple Destruction by Aurangzib

"The temple of Chintaman, situated close to Sarashpur, and built by Sitadas jeweller, was converted into a mosque named *Quwat-ul-islam* by order of the Prince Aurangzib, in 1645." (*Mirat-i-Ahmadi*, 232.) The *Bombay Gazetteer*, vol. 1. pt. 1. p. 280, adds that he slaughtered a cow in the temple, but Shah Jahan ordered the building to be restored to the Hindus.

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"In Ahmadabad and other *parganas* of Gujrat in the days before my accession [many] temples were destroyed by my order. They have been repaired and idol worship has been resumed. Carry out the former order." *Farman* dated 20 Nov., 1665. (*Mirat*, 275.)

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"The village of Satara near Aurangabad was my hunting-ground. Here on the top of a hill stood a temple with an image of Khande Rai. By God's grace I demolished it, and forbade the temple dancers (*murlis*) to ply their shameful trade."—Aurangzib to Bidar Bakht in *Kalimat-i-Tayyibat*, 7b.

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*Holi* and Muharram celebrations were not really stopped, as is asserted by *Storia*, ii. 154 and K.K. ii. 214. Aurangzib's order to the subahdar of Gujrat, 20 Nov. 1665, is clear:—"In the city and *parganas* of Ahmadabad (i.e., Gujrat), the Hindus following their superstitious customs light lamps in the night of *diwali*, and during the days of *holi* open their mouths in obscene speech and kindle the *holi* bonfire in *chaklas* and bazars, throwing into the fire the faggot of all people that they can seize by force or theft. It is ordered that in bazars there should be no illumination at *diwali*, nobody's faggot should be taken by force or theft and flung into the *holi* bonfire, and no obscene language used." (*Mirat*, 276.) It was really a police regulation as regards *holi*, and an act of bigotry only in connection with *diwali*.

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*After accession.*

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"It has been decided according to our Canon Law that long standing temples should not be demolished, but no new temple allowed to be built......Information has reached our...Court that certain persons have harassed the Hindus resident in Benares and its environs and certain Brahmans who have the right of holding charge of the ancient temples there, and that they further desire to remove these Brahmans from their ancient office. Therefore, our royal command is that you should direct that in future no person shall in unlawful ways interfere with or disturb the Brahmans and other Hindus resident in those places."—Aurangzib's "Benares *farman*" addressed to Abul Hasan, dated 28th Feb., 1659, granted through the mediation of Prince Muhammad Sultan. *J.A.S.B.* 1911, p. 689, with many mistakes, notably about the date, which I have corrected from a photograph of the *farman*.

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"The temple of Somnath was demolished early in my reign and idol worship (there) put down. It is not known what the state of things there is at present. If the idolators have again taken to the worship of images at the place, then destroy the temple in such a way that no trace of the building may be left, and also expel them (the worshippers) from the place."—Letter of Aurangzib in the last decade of his reign. Inayetullah's *Ahkam*, 10a; *Mirat* 372.

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19 Dec., 1661. Mir Jumla entered the city of Kuch Bihar, which had been evacuated by its king and people, and "appointed Sayyid Md. Sadiq to be chief judge, with directions to destroy all the Hindu temples and to erect mosques in their stead. The general himself with a battle-axe broke the image of Narayan."—Stewart's *Bengal*.

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"The Emperor learning that in the temple of Keshav Rai at Mathura there was a stone railing presented by Dara Shukoh, remarked, ‘In the Muslim faith it is a sin even to look at a temple, and this Dara had restored a railing in a temple! This fact is not creditable to the Muhammadans. Remove the railing.’ By his order Abdun Nabi Khan (the faujdar of Mathura) removed it.’—*Akhbarat*, 9th year, sheet 7, (14 Oct., 1666).

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20th Nov. 1665. ‘‘As it has come to His Majesty’s knowledge that some inhabitants of the *mahals* appertaining to the province of Gujrat have [again] built the temples which had been demolished by imperial order before his accession,...therefore His Majesty orders that ...the formerly demolished and recently restored temples should be pulled down.’’—*Farman* given in *Mirat*, 273.

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9th April, 1669. ‘‘The Emperor ordered the governors of all the provinces to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and strongly put down their teaching and religious practices.’’—*Masir-i-Alamgiri*, 81. (De Graaf, when at Hughli in 1670, heard of the order. Orme’s *Frag.*, 250.)

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May, 1669. ‘‘Salih Bahadur, mace-bearer, was sent to pull down the temple of Malarna.’’—*M.A.* 84.

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2nd Sep. ‘‘News came to Court that according to the Emperor’s command, his officers had demolished the temple of Vishwanath at Benares.’’—*Ibid.*, 88.

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[This was ‘‘the temple of Kirtti Visvesvara, at that time a modern shrine of Akbar’s period.’’—Crooke’s *N.W.P.*, 112.]

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January, 1670. ‘‘In this month of Ramzan, the religious-minded Emperor ordered the demolition of the temple at Mathura known as the Dehra of Keshav Rai. His officers accomplished it in a short time. A grand mosque was built on its site at a vast expenditure. The temple had been built by Bir Singh Dev Bundela, at a cost of 33 lakhs of Rupees. Praised be the God of the great faith of Islam that in the auspicious reign of this destroyer of infidelity and turbulence, such a marvellous and [seemingly] impossible feat was accomplished. On seeing this [instance of the ] strength of the Emperor's faith and the grandeur of his devotion to God, the Rajahs felt suffocated and they stood in amazement like statues facing the walls. The idols, large and small, set with costly jewels, which had been set up in the temple, were brought to Agra and buried under the steps of the mosque of Jahanara, to be trodden upon continually."—*Ibid.*, 95-96.

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"He partially destroyed the Sitaramji temple at Soron; one of his officers slew the priests, broke the image, and defiled the sanctuary at Devi Patan in Gonda."—Crooke's *N.W.P.*, 112.

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7th April, 1670. "News came from Malwa that Wazir Khan had sent Gada Beg, a slave, with 400 troopers, to destroy all temples around Ujjain......A Rawat of the place resisted and slew Gada Beg with 121 of his men."—*Akhbarat*, 13th year, sheet 17.

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"Order issued on all *faujdars* of *thanas*, civil officers (*mutasaddis*), agents of jagirdars, *kroris*, and *amlas*, from Katak to Medinipur on the frontier of Orissa :—The imperial paymaster Asad Khan has sent a letter written by order of the Emperor, to say, that the Emperor learning from the news-letters of the province of Orissa that at the village of Tilkuti in Medinipur a temple has been [newly] built, has issued his august mandate for its destruction, and the destruction of all temples built anywhere in this province by the worthless infidels. Therefore, you are commanded with extreme urgency that immediately on the receipt of this letter you should destroy the above-mentioned temples. Every idol-house built during the last 10 or 12 years, whether with brick or clay, should be demolished without delay. Also, do not allow the crushed Hindus and despicable infidels to repair their old temples. Reports of the destruction of temples should be sent to the Court under the seal of the *qazis* and attested by pious Shaikhs."—*Muraqat-i-Abul Hasan*, (completed in 1670 A.D.) p. 202.

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"In every *pargana* officers have come from the *thanas* with orders from the Presence for the destruction of idols."—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.

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"Darab Khan was sent with a strong force to punish the Rajputs of Khandela and demolish the great temple of that place." (*M.A.* 171.) "He attacked the place on 8th March, 1679, and pulled down the temples of Khandela and Sanula and all other temples in the neighbourhood." (*M.A.* 173.)

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25 May 1679. "Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur returned from Jodhpur after demolishing its temples, and bringing with himself several cart-loads of idols. The Emperor ordered that the idols,—which were mostly of gold silver brass copper or stone and adorned with jewels,—should be cast in the quadrangle of the Court and under the steps of the Jama Mosque for being trodden upon."—*M.A.* 175.

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Jan. 1680. "The grand temple in front of the Maharana's mansion [at Udaipur]—one of the wonderful buildings of the age, which had cost the infidels much money—was destroyed and its images broken." (*M.A.* 186.) "On 24 Jan. the Emperor went to view the lake Udaisagar and ordered all the three temples on its banks to be pulled down" (p. 188.) "On 29 Jan. Hasan Ali Khan reported that 172 other temples in the environs of Udaipur had been demolished" (p. 189.) "On 22nd Feb. the Emperor went to look at Chitor, and by his order the 63 temples of the place were destroyed" (p. 189.)

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10 Aug. 1680. Abu Turab returned to Court and reported that he had pulled down 66 temples in Amber" (p. 194). 2 Aug. 1680. Temple of Someshwar in western Mewar ordered to be destroyed.—*Adab*, 287*a* and 290*a*.

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Sep. 1687. On the capture of Golkonda, the Emperor appointed Abdur Rahim Khan as Censor of the city of Haidarabad with orders to put down infidel practices and [heretical] innovations and destroy the temples and build mosques on their sites.—Khafi Khan, ii. 358-359.

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Circa 1690. Instances of Aurangzib's temple destruction at Ellora, Trimbakeshwar, Narsinghpur (foiled by snakes, scorpions and other poisonous insects), Pandharpur, Jejuri (foiled by the deity!) and Yavat (Bhuleshwar) are given by K. N. Sane in *Varshik Itibritta* for Shaka 1838, pp. 133-135.

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1693. The Emperor ordered the destruction of the Hateshwar temple at Vadnagar, the special guardian of the Nagar Brahmans.—*Mirat*, 346.

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3rd April 1694. "The Emperor learnt from a secret news-writer of Delhi that in Jaisinghpura Bairagis used to worship idols, and that the Censor on hearing of it had gone there, arrested Sri Krishna Bairagi and taken him with 15 idols away to his house ; then the Rajputs had assembled, flocked to the Censor's house, wounded three footmen of the Censor and tried to seize the Censor himself ; so that the latter set the Bairagi free and sent the copper idols to the local subahdar."—*Akhbarat*, year 37, sheet 57.

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Middle of 1698. "Hamid-ud-din Khan Bahadur who had been deputed to destroy the temple of Bijapur and build a mosque (there), returned to Court after carrying the order out and was praised by the Emperor."—*M.A.* 396.

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"The demolition of a temple is possible at any time, as it cannot walk away from its place."—Aurangzib to Zulfiqar Khan and Mughal Khan in K. T. 39a.

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"The houses of this country [Maharashtra] are exceedingly strong and built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Government in the course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e., time) to destroy and raze the temples of the infidels that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint an orthodox inspector (darogha) who may afterwards destroy them at leisure and dig up their foundations."—Aurangzib to Ruhullah Khan in Kalimat-i-Aurangzib, p. 34 of Rampur MS. and f. 35a of I. O. L. MS. 3301.

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1 Jan. 1705. "The Emperor, summoning Muhammad Khalil and Khidmat Rai, the darogha of hatchet-men..., ordered them to demolish the temple of Pandharpur, and to take the butchers of the camp there and slaughter cows in the temple...It was done."—Akhbarat, 49-7.