Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Last Words: The Emperor's Final Testament
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's policies, his wars, his religious rulings. But there's one thing we haven't touched on: how he died and what he said at the end. Luna: Oh, I've heard he had some kind of famous last words? Lucas: Yeah, but they're not the heroic final stand you'd expect. They're more… introspective. The maasir i alamgiri records that in his final hours, he wrote letters to his sons. One of the most famous lines is to his youngest, Kam Bakhsh, where he says: 'Life is fleeting, and the empire is but a borrowed garment.' He was 88, he'd ruled for nearly 50 years, and he was warning his son not to trust the court. Luna: Wow. So even at the end, he was thinking about succession and betrayal. Lucas: Exactly. And in the same letter, he said something really striking: 'I have committed many sins, and I know not what punishment awaits me.' This from the man who ordered the execution of his brother Dara Shikoh, who persecuted Sikhs, who imposed jizya on Hindus. He was clearly wrestling with his legacy. Luna: Did he actually express remorse, or was it just standard piety? Lucas: That's a great question. maasir i alamgiri, written by his courtier Muhammad Saqi Mustaid Khan, certainly plays up his piety. It says he spent his last days reciting the Quran and copying it by hand. In fact, he'd been copying the Quran for years — he even sold one of his copies to pay for his own funeral expenses because he didn't want to use state funds. He wanted a simple burial, in an open grave with no tomb, just a bit of earth. Luna: Wait, he sold his own Quran to pay for his funeral? That's oddly humble. Lucas: It is. And it's a powerful image: the most powerful man in India, who had a treasury overflowing with jewels, insisting on a pauper's burial. He was buried in a simple grave at Khuldabad, near Aurangabad, in the Deccan. No grand mausoleum like his father Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal. He lies in an unmarked grave, open to the sky. Luna: Why did he choose to be buried in the Deccan, not in Delhi or Agra? Lucas: He'd spent the last 27 years of his life in the Deccan, fighting the Marathas. He died in his camp, at Ahmednagar. His son Azam Shah initially wanted to move his body to Agra, but Aurangzeb's will insisted on a local burial. He said: 'Do not carry my coffin, bury me where I die.' That's from the Alamgirnama. He didn't want the pomp. Luna: So he knew the empire was falling apart, and he didn't want a big show? Lucas: Exactly. In his will, he wrote that his sons should not fight over the throne, that they should divide the empire peacefully. Of course, they ignored him. Within weeks, Azam Shah and Kam Bakhsh were at war. The Mughal Empire never really recovered. Luna: It's almost like he saw the writing on the wall. What else did he say in those final letters? Lucas: He wrote to Azam Shah: 'I have not been a good ruler. The realm is in chaos.' He also said, 'I came alone, and I go alone. I have not done well by the people of this land.' That's pretty stunning self-criticism from an emperor. But historians debate how genuine it was — some say it's just the standard trope of a dying king humbling himself. Luna: But even if it's a trope, it shows he knew what people would think of him. Lucas: Right. And it contrasts sharply with his earlier self-image as the 'Alamgir', the World-Seizer. He'd spent decades expanding the empire to its greatest territorial extent, but at what cost? The treasury was empty, the army was exhausted, and the Marathas were on the rise. Luna: So his last words were basically 'I blew it'? Lucas: In a way, yes. But they also reveal a man who was intensely religious, even in self-reproach. He wrote: 'I place my trust in God's mercy, for I have none of my own.' That's very much in line with his Islamic piety. He was known as Zinda Pir, the Living Saint, and in his last moments, he lived up to that image. Luna: It's a far cry from the ruthless emperor we've talked about before. Lucas: It is. And that's what makes his legacy so complex. He could be brutal — like the execution of the Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur — but also personally austere. He banned music at court, but copied the Quran by hand. He destroyed temples, but also gave land grants to Brahmins. He was a bundle of contradictions. Luna: Do we know exactly what his last spoken words were? Lucas: According to maasir i alamgiri, his last words were 'God's peace be with you' — in Arabic, 'Assalamu alaikum'. He said it to his attendants just before he died on February 20, 1707. It's a simple, peaceful phrase. Not a command, not a curse, just a blessing. Luna: That's actually kind of beautiful. After all the bloodshed, he goes out with a greeting of peace. Lucas: Maybe that's how he wanted to be remembered. But history hasn't been so kind. His tomb was neglected for centuries. Only recently has the Archaeological Survey of India restored it. Even today, you can feel the irony: the man who expanded the Mughal Empire to its peak, buried in an open grave under the sky, with just a few lines of Quran inscribed. Luna: It makes you wonder: if he could go back, what would he change? Lucas: We'll never know. But his letters suggest he might have done a lot differently. He told his son: 'The empire is not worth the quarrels it causes.' That's a bitter admission from someone who spent his whole life fighting for it. Luna: And yet his sons fought anyway. The empire fractured almost immediately. Lucas: Exactly. Within a year, Azam Shah was killed in battle by his half-brother Bahadur Shah I. Kam Bakhsh was defeated and executed. The Mughal civil wars drained what little strength remained. By the 1720s, the empire was effectively a collection of semi-independent states. Luna: So his last warning went unheeded. Lucas: Completely. But maybe that's the final tragedy of Aurangzeb: even his wisdom couldn't save his legacy. Luna: I think that's a good place to end. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. Join us next time as we explore the aftermath of Aurangzeb's death and the twilight of the Mughal Empire.