TEMPLE DESTRUCTION BY
AURANGZIB
APPENDIX I
TEMPLE DESTRUCTION BY AURANGZIB
(By Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar)
BEFORE ACCESSION.
"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.
"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).
"The village of Satara near Aurangabad was my hunting-
ground. Here on the top of the hill stood a temple with an
image of Khande Rail 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'.
AFTER ACCESSION.
"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'.
"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 idolaters have
again taken to the worship of images at the place, then des-
troy 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.
19 Dec., 1661. Mir Jumia 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'.
"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).
20th Nov. 1665. "As it has come to His Majesty's know-
ledge 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 acces-
sion,...therefore His Majesty orders that...the formerly de-
molished and recently restored temples should be pulled
down."--'Farman' given in 'Mirat', 273.
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.)
May, 1669. "Salih Bahadur, mace-bearer, was sent to
pull down the temple of Malarna."--M. A. 84.
2nd Sep. "News came to Court that according to the
Emperor's command, his officers had demolished the temple of
Vishwanath at Benares."--'lbid'., 88.
(This was "the temple of Kirtti Visvesvara, at that time
a modern shrine of Akbar's period."--Crooke's N.W.P., 112).
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 Rail 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 accom-
plished. On seeing this (instance of the) strength of the Em-
peror's faith and the grandeur of his devotion to God, the
Rajahs felt suffocated and they stood in amazement like sta-
tues 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.
"He partially destroyed the Sitaramji temple at Soron;
one of his officers slew the the priests, broke the image, and
defiled the sanctuary at Devi Patan in Gonda."--Crooke's
N.W.P., 112.
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.
"Order issued on all 'faujdars' of 'thanas', civil officers
('mutasaddis'), agents of jagirdars, ~kroris', and tamias' 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 des
troy 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.
"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.
"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.)
25 May 1679. "Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur returned from
Jodhpur after demolishing its temples, and bringing with him-
self 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 quad-
rangle of the Court and under the steps of the Jama Mosque for
being trodden upon."--M. A. 175.
Jan. 1680. "The grand temple in front of the Maha-
rana's mansion (at Udaipur)--one of the wonderful buildings of
the age, which had cost the infidels much money~was destroy-
ed and its images broken." (M. A. 168.) "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 All 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.)
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.
Sep. 1687. On the capture of Golkonda, the Emperor
appointed Abdur Rahim Khan as Censor of the city of Haidara-
bad 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.
'Circa' 1690. Instances of Aurangzib's temple destruc-
tion at Ellora, Trimbakeshwar, Narsinghpur (foiled by snakes,
scorpions and other poisonous insects), Pandharpur, Jejuri
(foiled by the deity!) and Yavat tBhuleshwar) are given by K.
N. Sane in'Varshik Itibritta' for Shaka 1838, pp. 133-135.
1693. The Emperor ordered the destruction of the
Hateshwar temple at Vadnagar, the special guardian of the
Nagar Brahmans.--'Mirat', 346.
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 siet the
Bairagi free and sent the copper idols to the local subahdar."--
Akhbarat, year 37, sheet 57.
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.
"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.
"The houses of this country (Maharashtra) are exceed-
ingly 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
af terwards destroy them at leisure and dig up their f ounda-
tions,"--Aurangzib to Ruhullah Khan in 'Kalimat-i-Aurangzib',
p. 34 of Rampur MS, and f.35a of I. O. L. MS. 3301.
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.
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