Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb had constructed a huge temple in Chitrakut (Uttar Pradesh) and made arrangement for the 'bhog' at this temple for generations. Many historians consider Aurangzeb as the most bigot emperor.
However, the old arrangement continues till date. Nearly 323 years back Aurangzeb Alamgir had issued a 'firman' as per which 8 villages (330 bighas of land) were allotted for the upkeep of the temple besides Re 1 every day from the government fund.
Mahant Balram Das of the temple is in possession of the firmaan that was written on brass plate and issued on 19th of Islamic month of Ramzan. As per the decree Sant Balak Das of Allahabad's Kalinjar pargana's Chitrakoot was given 330 bighas of land without any 'lagaan'. The temple is now in a poor state despite enormous funds at the disposal. The discord amongst Mahants has led to the situation, say locals.
Interestingly, Aurangzeb had not only got the temple constructed but also wrote the order of 'rajbhog', himself. The land adjoining the Balaji temple has been encroached by musclemen and the infighting amongst the temple committee has hit the structure, which is crumbling, says the District Magistrate, Chitrakot.
RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 03:55 PM Permalink
Aurangzeb was a religious bigot and actively promoted forced conversions of Hindus to Islam. By passing discriminatory laws based on the Shariat he created the conditions for his administrators to actively pursue his forced conversion agenda. He didn't go from house to house to convert people he didn't need to his job was to create the conditions within which he plan would be implemented, thats what rulers do.
e.g.,
From "The Mughal Empire", John F. Richards. Pg. 176
Zealous imperial officers had considerable power to enforce the new edicts, especially among the urban non-warrior groups. At Suray in 1669 the qazi terrorized the entire Bania or Hindu merchant community of that city. He pressured several members of the community to convert to Islam and threatened others with forcible conversions unless they paid ransom money. He extorted other sums to prevent defacement of the Hindu temples and shrines in the city. The qazi forcibly circumsized and converted a Bania serving as a Persian writer or clerk, who then killed himself. At this point there was a mass protest: "all heads of the Banian families of what condition whatsoever departed the Town to the number of 8000 leaving their wives and children in Surat under charge of their brothger or next of Kinn".
RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 04:02 PM Permalink
After he became the king, he adopted the policy of converting the whole of India to Islam. He wanted to see only one religion in India and in the world and that was the Sunni sect of Islam. In order to achieve this aim, he revamped the religious policy of his predecessors and made life for Hindus very difficult. Here are some of the examples to prove what he did to the Hindus of that time:
1) When he was the governor of Gujrat, he declared Jihad against non-Muslims. In 1645, he started razing Hindu temples in Gujrat. The famous temple, Chintamani got converted to a Mosque at this time. To humiliate the Hindus, he killed cows in their temples and washed the temples with blood of cows.
2) When he became the governor of South India, he continued his sadistic activities. He destroyed many temples there. Shah Jahan, his father sensed what he was doing there and moved him from there to Afghanistan. As soon as he left South, temples got constructed again. Aurangzeb used to say that if he gets a chance, he would eliminate all temples from India.
3) When he became the king, he doubled the road toll for Hindus while halved it for the Muslims. He was trying to create financial difficulties for the Hindus and at the same time creating incentive for them to become Muslim, by halving the road tolls for Muslims.
RE:RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 04:03 PM Permalink
5) He issued a decree to all his governors to raze all religious schools of non-Muslims.
6) In August 1669, he destroyed the famous Vishavnaath temple of Banaras and constructed a mosque there. Same year he razed the Gopi Nath temple.
7) The biggest temple of Mathura that was constructed by Nar Singh Bundela, a Rajput king, got razed in 1670. The official name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad.
8) All temples built in the last 10 years were destroyed.
9) Aurangzeb constituted a team of Maulvis and gave them a unit of his army. This group used to go village to village and city to city and destroyed centres of non-Muslims.
10) Lala Daulat Rai, in his book Sahib-e-Kamaal, writes that Hindus were humiliated in various ways. If a Muslim felt like spitting, he had the right to spit in the mouth of a Hindu standing there. If the Hindu refused to open his mouth to accept the spitting of the Muslim, he would get punished by the authorities.
In 1674, Aurangzeb decided to destroy the root of Hinduism. The most educated and strict Hindus lived in Kashmir. He decided to concentrate in that area. Bhai Mani Singh jee Shaheed writes that Aurangzeb thought that Kashmiri Pandits were the most educated Hindus and were also teaching Hindu texts to other Hindus. He decided to bring Kashmir to the fold of Islam.
Sensing this, he dispatched Afghan Khan to got to Kashmir and convert that region to Islam. Afghan Khan used very ruthless means to convert people to Islam.
RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 03:49 PM Permalink
After he became the king, he adopted the policy of converting the whole of India to Islam. He wanted to see only one religion in India and in the world and that was the Sunni sect of Islam. In order to achieve this aim, he revamped the religious policy of his predecessors and made life for Hindus very difficult. Here are some of the examples to prove what he did to the Hindus of that time:
1) When he was the governor of Gujrat, he declared Jihad against non-Muslims. In 1645, he started razing Hindu temples in Gujrat. The famous temple, Chintamani got converted to a Mosque at this time. To humiliate the Hindus, he killed cows in their temples and washed the temples with blood of cows.
2) When he became the governor of South India, he continued his sadistic activities. He destroyed many temples there. Shah Jahan, his father sensed what he was doing there and moved him from there to Afghanistan. As soon as he left South, temples got constructed again. Aurangzeb used to say that if he gets a chance, he would eliminate all temples from India.
3) When he became the king, he doubled the road toll for Hindus while halved it for the Muslims. He was trying to create financial difficulties for the Hindus and at the same time creating incentive for them to become Muslim, by halving the road tolls for Muslims.
