Review of the Book , “Aurangzeb – The Man And the Myth”
One line Content : Aurangzeb was not as bad as histories hold him.
The dormant idea…
Having read this book months ago, an idea that an immediate thoughtful review is a must, has since then been haunting my mind. In the meanwhile, fatefully caught up in a vicious circle of distracting issues , the act of penning it lied dormant.
Blownup fallacies…
Aurangzeb – The Man And The Myth , sheds substantial light on the personality of Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, which has hither to been biasly overshadowed by hate filled blown up fallacies and baseless myths let loose by indoctrinated minds to gain political mileage in our electoral democracy.
To rebut the hackneyed stereotypes…
In her book which is the outcome of her methodical research on the person of Aurangzeb the maligned ruler of pre-modern India, Audrey Truschke neutrally assesses him as an evidentially law abiding and just person as against his tormentors’ deliberate projection of him as a despicable zealot. Akin to Kate Brittlebank’s unbiased biographical sketch that dispels the numbers game on Tipu Sultan, the caricatured Islamic Prince of South India, Audrey’s book too authentically rebuts some hackneyed stereotypes of Aurangzeb.
Methodology…
Though the contents of the last fifty pages of this biography read like a trite school text book , the author on the other hand does justice as she candidly sums up the strengths and weaknesses of Aurangzeb derived from the quantum of original sources she was able to tap . She accepts, the inadequacy of data on some profiles of Aurangzeb was due to her inability in using the relevant Persian records.
The herculian task of upkeep of empires…
“An emperor should stand midway between gentleness and severity”, said Aurangzeb once.Yet, harshness had been one of the inalienable traits of many successful monarchs in history including Aurangzeb, for besides consolidation the herculian task of long upkeep of empires in particular was possible by this only means. Peter The Great who went long with his big stick, efficiently modernised Russia, the last born child of European civilization, where as the benign Joseph II of Austria on the contrary had to mournfully inscribe the epitaph ,” Here lies a man who despite good intentions never succeeded in anything”, on his grave. Mahavamsa depicts how Chandasoka ( Cruel Asoka) the worthy son of Bindusara the Amitraghata( slayer of enemies) had to kill his 99 brothers to inherit the Mauryan imperial crown before he became Dhammasoka(Pious Asoka).His non-violence led to his empire’s downfall later is yet another story.
Necessity knows no law…
As we turn the pages of this book we find the parameters drawn upon the axiom ,” Necessity knows no law,” help us reasses Alamgir’s public persona and reimage him against the cliches. If this be the case, Audrey Truschke doesn’t find the cruelty of Alamgir- the Prince, a corollary to his cold bloodedness as he grew, but an inevitable out come of his deep belief in the principle of, “Ya takht.ya tabut…!” ( یا عرش..یا قبر…!, ) a Persian usage which means “Either the throne or the grave..!” in the absence of the law of primogeniture among the Moguls.( அடைந்தால் மகாதேவி; இல்லையேல் மரணதேவி” – MGR திரைப்பட வசனம் இதை பார்த்து எழுதப்பட்டிருக்குமோ..?)
Many such princes over centuries who aspired to be in the saddle by hook or crook had to be parricides either or fratricides, for all was fair in war and love.The modern aspersions on him in the view of the Author are not at all current but a continuum of Hindu – Muslim animosity fuelled by the British communal strategy of divide and rule and fanned by the colonial-era scholarship.
Alamgir-Not a wanton destroyer…
Truschke speaks upon sources that Aurangzeb was more a protector than a destroyer of temples.His princely order ( nishan)of 1654 condemns bigotry ( taassub) and the razing of worship centres especially the Hindu and Jain fanes.Several Brahmins especially that of Benaras( Kasi) who prayed for the empire enjoyed Alamgir’s bounties and what’s more , umpteen of them that enjoyed his munificience got tax free grants too.
Mahant Balakdas of Chitrakoot got eight villages to upkeep Sri Balaji Temple. Ishvaradasa a Brahmin astrologer, praises Aurangzeb in Sanskrit ( 1664) as righteous ( dharmya) for his lawful tax policies( vidhivat). Alamgir incorporated many Hindus into Mughul bureaucracy for their remark able administrative skills.They rose to 31.6 percent of the Mughal nobility between 1679 and 1707. Parsi physicians were also among his beneficiaries.
But the empire is primary…
While thousands of temples elsewhere in the Mughal domain remained intact, only a few fanes that served as bases for his sworn enemies who challenged his supremacy suffered annihilation along with their unfaithful Brahmin priests.The Vishvanatha temple of Benaras for sheltering and conniving at Shivaji’s escape – Aurangzeb’s Deccan Ulcer and the Kesav nath of Mathura for receiving the patronage of Tara Shukoh, Alamgir’s rival claimant were therefore vandalized . More importantly such terminations are not to be deemed as dastardly as that of many Hindu kings of the ancient and medieval India who were offenders of their own fraternal cultures.
Aurangzeb’s God-centric aesthetics…
Though he forbade the erection of new temples in some places, upon a Shariat made the protection of ancient temples ,mandatory. Not an iconoclst ,he generously appreciated the aesthetics of other religious edifices. For him, “Ellora (The rock cut Hindu , Jain and Buddhist temples and chaityas)is one of the finely crafted marvels of the real ,transcendent artisan, i.e., God”.
The dispirited Aurangzeb…
The last pages speak how the patronising generocity of Alamgir’s energetic years of physical stamina fell a victim to the disorientations of his senility and puritanic piety in his last regnal years. If for many an old Alamgir became an inscrutable sphinx with rigidified socio- religious attitude that might have made him abstain from ostentatious court traditions , darbar tamashas etc., Audrey ascribes this extreme mood swing to his failure to choose an able heir to sustain his tottering empire.
Why to paint Alamgir black..?
The contents of Audrey’s book besides challenging the magisterial work of J.D. Sarkar, a renowned historian on the subject, prevent us in a way from jumping into hasty conclusions either or sitting in judgement over the personality of Alamgir ,the Muslim emperor in the Indian context for there were despots with draconian laws and iron fists in the Christian Europe and Hindu India too. If it was a contrivance in the long train of British conspiracy to communally divide India to sustain their hegemony , painting Alamgir black was inevitable for them and floating it till date for some right-wing outfits.
Pages that kindle alternate thinking…
Though some historians consider Audrey’s book ,controversial and a deliberate attempt to rationalize the atrocities attributed to him, a reading of it sends ripples of alternate thoughts in the readers that may help them deconstruct as it were the real personality of Aurangzeb Alamgir by rejecting the concoctions peddled by the colonial -era thinkers and some contemporary right wingers.
நூலின் விவரங்கள்:
நூல் : Aurangzeb – “Aurangzeb – The Man And the Myth”
மொழி: English
ஆசிரியர்: Audrey Truschke (ஆட்ரி ட்ரஷ்கி)
Asst.professor of South Asian History, Rutgers University Newark, New Jersey, USA.)
வகை : Non fiction ,History,Biography
Pages; 189
பதிப்பு : Penguin Books, Gurugram, Haryana India, 2017.
எழுதியவர்:
✍🏻 – ஆண்டனி பால்
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