NCERT Class 7 - Our Pasts II • NCERT Class 12 - Themes in Indian History Part II, Chapter 9

Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb

The empire reached its greatest extent under Aurangzeb and its greatest wealth under Shah Jahan, yet the strains that destroyed it - endless Deccan war, a shortage of jagirs and rebellions - all appear in these same reigns.

Jahangir

• He ruled 1605-1627 and wrote his memoirs, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, in Persian.
• He set up the zanjir-i-adl, a chain of justice outside the Agra fort, that any petitioner could shake to reach the emperor.
• Nur Jahan became the most powerful figure at court; coins were struck in her name, and she headed a group that included her father Itimad-ud-Daula and brother Asaf Khan.
• The English arrived - Captain Hawkins came first, and Sir Thomas Roe came as ambassador from James I and secured trading rights for the East India Company.
• His reign is the peak of Mughal painting; the artists Ustad Mansur and Abul Hasan worked on birds, animals and portraits of great accuracy.
• He faced the revolt of his son Khusrau, and the Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was executed during his reign.

Shah Jahan

• He ruled 1628-1658 and is remembered as the great builder.
• He built the Taj Mahal at Agra for Mumtaz Mahal, the Red Fort and Jama Masjid at Delhi, and moved the capital to his new city Shahjahanabad in 1648.
• The Peacock Throne, studded with the Kohinoor among other stones, was made in his reign.
• He recovered Ahmadnagar in the Deccan but permanently lost Kandahar to Persia.
• His illness in 1657 set off a war of succession among his four sons, won by Aurangzeb; his eldest son Dara Shukoh, who had the Upanishads translated into Persian as Sirr-i-Akbar, was defeated and executed.
• Shah Jahan spent his last years imprisoned in the Agra fort.

Aurangzeb

• He ruled 1658-1707, taking the title Alamgir, and had the longest reign of any Mughal.
• The empire reached its largest territorial extent as he annexed Bijapur in 1686 and Golconda in 1687.
• He reimposed the jizya in 1679, ending Akbar's policy, and adopted a more orthodox style of rule; the compilation Fatawa-i-Alamgiri was prepared under him.
• He fought the Marathas for decades. Shivaji escaped from Agra in 1666 and was crowned at Raigad in 1674; after Shivaji's death the war became a long guerrilla struggle that drained the treasury.
• He faced revolts from the Jats, Satnamis and Sikhs, and the Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed in his reign.
• He built the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad and the Badshahi mosque at Lahore, and personally lived austerely, copying the Quran and stitching caps.