Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c18.s3: 3. Aurangzib

Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c18.s3

Language: English

3. Aurangzib

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The next reign we have to consider is that of Aurangzib, the last of the great Mughals, whose educational policy took after that of his general policy in governing the empire in the interests of his co-religionists, to which the interests of the subject people of other faiths were carefully and deliberately subordinated. Unlike Akbar, he cared very little for the promotion of Hindu learning. In April, 1669, for instance, he ordered the provincial governors to destroy the Hindu schools and temples and to put down their teachings and religious practices.¹ He, however, tried earnestly to foster the education of Muhammadan youths and diffuse Muslim learning in his dominions. He appointed professors in the different parts of his empire for educating Muslim youths. Stipends were also given to students in proportion to their progress in education.²

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¹ J. Sarkar's *Anecdotes of Aurangzib and Historical Essays*, p. 11.

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² *Mir'ātul-'Ālam*, by Bakhtāwar Khān, MS. in the Boh. Coll., leaf 257 ; *'Ālamgīr-Nāmah*, by Maulawi Munshī Muḥammad Kāzim (Bibl. Indica), p. 1085 ; *Ma'āṣiri-'Ālamgīrī*, by Muḥammad Sāqi Musta'id Khān (Bibl. Indica), p. 529 ; *Tabṣiratul-Nāẓirīn*, MS. in ASB, p. 158.

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Mr. Keene, in his *Mughal Empire*, thus sums up his educational works along with his other good deeds : " Aurangzib abolished capital punishment, encouraged agriculture, founded numberless colleges and schools, and systematically constructed roads

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and bridges."'¹ Of these educational institutions, very few are known at this distant date, but there is evidence to show that he once confiscated the buildings belonging to the Dutch in Firinghi Mahal (Franks' quarter), a ward of the city of Lucknow, and made them over to a Musalman for a madrasah.² He sent orders to Makramat Khan, Diwan of Gujrat, as he did to other Diwans in his dominions, that all students from the lowest to the highest form, those who read the Mizan as well as those who read the Kashshaf, be given pecuniary help from the State Treasury with the sanction of the professors of colleges and of the Sadr of the place. Orders were also sent that three professors in Ahmadabad, Patan and Surat, and forty-five students in Ahmadabad, be added to the existing number.³ In 1678 he sanctioned a sum of money to repair madrasahs in Gujrat.⁴ It also appears that Akramuddin Khan Sadr built a college in A.D. 1697 in Ahmadabad, at an expense of Rs. 124,000, and asked Aurangzib for pecuniary help. In response, the Emperor gave as jagirs village

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¹ Keene's Mughal Empire, p. 23.

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² Constable's Bernier, p. 292 n.

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³ Mir'ati-Ahmadi, by Ali Muhammad Khan, vol. i, p. 272. "Aurangzib assisted students, in proportion to their proficiency, with daily stipends, viz. students of Mizan received 1 anna, of Munsha'ib 2 annas, and up to Sharhi-Wiqayah and Fiqh 8 annas per diem."—Tarikh-i-Farh-Bakhsh of Muhammad Faiz Bakhsh, translated by W. Hoey, p. 104.

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⁴ Mir'ati-Ahmadi, p. 309.

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Sūndra (in Pergana Sānoly) and village Sīha (in Pergana Karī).¹

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¹ *Mir'āti-Aḥmadī*, by 'Alī Muḥammad Khān, vol. i, p. 363, and vol. ii, p. 37.

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Aurangzib took steps to educate the Bohras of Gujrāt by appointing teachers for them and by monthly examinations, the results of which were reported to the Emperor. As a penalty, however, for the troublesome conduct of some of them, the Emperor ordered that the expense of their education, which was made compulsory, should be borne by the community.² Besides the college of Akra-muddīn Khān Ṣadr, there were other madrasahs established by private individuals. Qāẓī Rafī'uddīn Muḥammad founded a college in Biānāh close to Qāẓīun-ki-Masjid. It bears an inscription dated 1080 A.H. (1670 A.D.).³

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² *Ibid.*, vol. i, pp. 377, 378.

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³ *Archaeological Survey Report*, vol. xx, pp. 76, 77.

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During Aurangzib's reign Siyālkūṭ was a great seat of Muslim learning. Learned men from various parts of the country resorted to this place. Maulawī 'Abdullāh taught in a school in this town set up by his father Maulawī Abul Ḥakīm who was himself an eminent teacher. It should be observed here that the reputation of Siyālkūṭ as a place of learning dates back to the time of Akbar.⁴ It was perhaps due to the fact that it was a seat of

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⁴ *Khulāṣatul-Tawārīkh*, MS. in ASB, leaf 47; see also J. Sarkar's *Topography of the Mughal Empire*, p. 96.

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learning where papers were extensively used that Siyālkūṭ also became distinguished for that commodity, especially the Mānsinghī and the silk paper which were good in texture, clean and durable. They were manufactured in three hamlets forming suburbs of the city, exported to other parts of the country and largely used in the courts of the Delhi Emperors.¹

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¹ J. Sarkar's *Topography of the Mughal Empire*, p. 95, and *Imp. Gazetteer*, xii. As Siyālkūṭ (Sealkot) was famous for paper manufacture, so was Kashmīr for its ink (*ibid.*, p. 112).

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We have already seen that almost all the Mughal Emperors took much interest in the education of the people and the diffusion of learning. This was no doubt due to the love of learning which was infused into them by their education received by them from an early age. It was generally the practice, according to Niccolao Manucci, that when the princes attained the age of five, they were taught to read and write their mother-tongue, which was Tartar, or the old language of the Turks. Afterwards, they were placed under learned men and eunuchs to teach them the liberal and the military arts. The teachers took care to regulate their amusements in such a way as would afford them facility in acquiring knowledge of the world and lead to refined habit and taste.² Like other princes Aurangzib

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² *Storia do Mogor*, by Niccolao Manucci, vol. ii, pp. 346, 347.

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received his education at an early age. His first teacher was Sa’dullah Khān, who afterwards became one of the ministers of Shāh Jahān. Another teacher of his was Mīr Muḥammad Hashim. The Prince had a keen intelligence and learnt quickly what he read. He got by heart the Qur’ān and the Ḥadīṣ, could read and write Arabic and Persian with great facility, and had a mastery over Chāghtā’ī Turkī, the language of his remote ancestors. He had a proclivity for theological works, such as the commentaries on the Qur’ān, the Ḥadīṣ, Islāmic Law, Imām Muḥammad Ghazzālī’s works, etc. This early taste for theological writings made him an orthodox of the orthodox Muhammadans and gave him a Puritanic taste, which made him despise painting, music,¹ and poetry in general except that which contained a moral,² which also accounts for his hatred for everything Non-Islāmic in character.

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¹ *Storia do Mogor*, by Niccolao Manucci, vol. ii, pp. 346, 347. Aurangzib’s excessive orthodoxy caused him to suppress music. Thus the profession of the musicians was almost gone. It is said that about a hundred of them consulted together and brought out twenty biers with loud cries and lamentations, in order to excite the pity of the Emperor on their condition, while he was on his way to the mosque. On Aurangzib’s inquiry, he was told that the musicians were going to bury Music, who was killed by his order. The Emperor calmly remarked that they should pray for her soul and see that she was well buried.—Manucci’s *Storia do Mogor*, vol. ii, p. 8.

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² J. Sarkar’s *Hist. of Aurangzib*, vol. i, pp. 4 ff. ; Lanepoole’s *Aurangzib*, p. 27.

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Aurangzib, however, was not satisfied with the

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instruction that had been imparted to him by his teacher,¹ whom he gave that celebrated rebuke recorded by Bernier, which embodies in itself his views upon the education which a Prince of the Royal House ought to receive :

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¹ Both Bernier and Manucci give the name of this teacher as Mullā Ṣāliḥ (*Bernier's Travels*, Constable's ed., p. 154; Manucci's *Storia do Mogor*, vol. ii, p. 30) ; but Prof. J. Sarkar denies that Mullā Ṣāliḥ was the teacher of Aurangzib (*Hist. of Aurangzib*, vol. i, p. 4).

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"Was it not incumbent upon my preceptor," he said, "to make me acquainted with the distinguishing features of every nation of the earth ; its resources and strength, its mode of warfare, its manners, religions, form of government, and wherein its interests principally consist, and by a regular course of historical reading, to render me familiar with the origin of states, their progress and decline, the events, accidents or errors, owing to which such great changes and mighty revolutions have been effected ?"²

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² *Bernier's Travels*, p. 156.

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Aurangzib, like his father Shāh Jahān, made a division of his time from a sense of duty. He used to read the Qur'ān in the morning between 5 and 7, and in the afternoon between 2.30 and 5.30 he used to read and copy the Qur'ān and study the works of the pious men of Islām. He devoted the whole evening of every Thursday to reading sacred books and to prayer.³ From his last will, it appears that he used to sell the copies of the Qur'ān transcribed by himself for his personal expenses, and that at

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³ J. Sarkar's *Anecdotes of Aurangzib and Historical Essays*, p. 177.

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the time of his death, there was a balance of Rs. 305 in his purse.¹ It is recorded in the *Mir’ātul-’Ālam* that ’Ālamgīr studied with Muḥammad Qanaujī three days in the week the *Iḥyā-ul-’Ulūm* and other books.² The Emperor, as we have stated, was fond of reading Islāmic laws, and collected the eminent jurists of his kingdom and caused them to compile the *Fatāwa-i-’Ālamgīrī* under the supervision of Mullā Niẓām, spending a considerable amount for the purpose.³

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Archaeological Survey of India Reports (1862–1887)