Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Lost Successors: The War of 1707
Transcript
- Lucas: We’ve spent a long time tracing the architecture of Aurangzeb’s rule, from the minting of his coins to the meticulous bureaucracy that kept his vast territories running. But when he died at the age of eighty-eight in March of 1707, that machinery didn’t just stop; it turned inward with terrifying speed. The empire wasn’t conquered by an external enemy at that moment, but by the desperate hunger of his own sons. Luna: So the real fracture happened before anyone even touched the throne. Lucas: Exactly. Aurangzeb had outlived most of his potential heirs, leaving three surviving sons who were hardened by decades of warfare and suspicion. Muazzam, the governor of Kabul, was the eldest remaining son, but he wasn’t the favorite in the traditional sense. He was the one who had survived the wars of succession against his brothers Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb himself, so he knew exactly how brutal the game could be. He received news of his father’s death while still far away in the north, and he immediately began marching south toward Delhi. Luna: And who else was claiming the crown? Lucas: Azam Shah, who was stationed in Gujarat, and Kam Bakhsh, who ruled Hyderabad in the Deccan. Azam was the one who actually reached the capital first, seizing control of the treasury and declaring himself Emperor Alamgir II. He thought he had won simply by being present in Delhi, assuming Muazzam would take too long to arrive. But he underestimated the loyalty of the northern nobles and the sheer velocity of Muazzam’s march. Luna: It sounds like a race where the prize was everything or nothing. Lucas: Precisely. And while these two armies were converging, the rest of the empire was holding its breath. The Marathas, who had been bled dry by Aurangzeb’s twenty-year Deccan campaign, saw their chance. They weren’t just waiting for peace treaties; they were actively raiding Mughal supply lines, knowing that the central authority was about to tear itself apart. It was a perfect storm of internal rivalry and external opportunism. Luna: Wait, really? The Marathas were actively attacking during the succession crisis? Lucas: They were. Under Chhatrapati Shahu, who had just been released from Mughal captivity after years of imprisonment, the Maratha Confederacy shifted from a guerrilla force to a state power. They realized that the Mughal Emperor was either dead or distracted. While Azam and Muazzam focused on each other, the Marathas secured their eastern flank and began negotiating directly with local governors, effectively bypassing the center of power in Delhi. Lucas: Before we dive into the bloodshed at Jajau, I want to pause for a moment to talk about how this show exists. Fexingo History is entirely listener-funded. There are no ads, no corporate sponsors, just a small group of people who believe deep historical conversations matter. If you’ve enjoyed stepping into these eras with us, you can support the work directly at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps keep the research rigorous and the stories accessible. Luna: Yeah, it’s great to have the space to focus on the details without distraction. Lucas: Right. And back to the battlefield. By June 1707, Muazzam’s army met Azam Shah’s forces near Agra, at a place called Jajau. It wasn’t just a clash of armies; it was a tragedy of brothers. Azam Shah, confident in his number superiority, ordered a full assault. But Muazzam’s commanders, many of whom had served under Aurangzeb and respected his military discipline, executed a flanking maneuver that shattered Azam’s center. Luna: Did Azam survive the initial engagement? Lucas: He didn’t. According to the maasir i alamgiri, Azam Shah was found hiding in a tent after his guards fled, wearing women’s clothes to disguise himself. He was recognized by a Mughal officer who shot him on the spot. It was a gruesome end for a man who had briefly held the title of Emperor. His body was sent to Delhi, where it was publicly displayed as a warning to any other pretenders. Luna: That is incredibly violent for a succession dispute. Lucas: It was standard practice, unfortunately. But the crisis wasn’t over. Muazzam now declared himself Bahadur Shah I, but he still had to deal with his youngest brother, Kam Bakhsh, in the Deccan. Kam Bakhsh refused to submit, raising his own army and challenging Muazzam’s claim from the south. This meant Bahadur Shah couldn’t even consolidate his power in Delhi immediately; he had to leave the capital to hunt down his own sibling. Luna: So the emperor was fighting a war against his brother while trying to rule. Lucas: Exactly. And while Bahadur Shah marched south, the empire in the north began to unravel. The Sikh community, which had been severely persecuted under Aurangzeb, saw the chaos as an opportunity to strike back. Banda Singh Bahidur, leading a rebel force, captured Sirhind and established a short-lived Sikh state. For the first time, the Mughals lost control of a significant region not to another empire, but to a religiously motivated insurgency that they couldn’t easily suppress. Luna: It feels like the leash was slipping off completely. Lucas: It was. Bahadur Shah eventually defeated Kam Bakhsh in 1709, but the victory cost him dearly in terms of prestige and resources. He returned to Delhi not as the triumphant conqueror his father had been, but as a manager of decline. He tried to negotiate with the Marathas, offering them jagirs in exchange for peace, which was a stark departure from Aurangzeb’s policy of total submission. It was an admission that the sword alone could no longer hold the empire together. Luna: So he switched from conquest to diplomacy almost overnight. Lucas: He did, recognizing that the treasury was empty and the army was exhausted. But this shift didn’t please everyone. The orthodox ulema and the hardline nobles who had thrived under Aurangzeb’s strict policies felt betrayed. Bahadur Shah’s willingness to compromise with Hindus and Marathas alienated his own base, making his reign unstable from the start. He spent his final years trying to prevent the very fragmentation that would accelerate after his death. Luna: It seems like the foundation was already cracked before he even sat on the throne. Lucas: Absolutely. The Battle of Jajau wasn’t just a battle for the throne; it was the moment the myth of Mughal invincibility died. The empire continued for another century, but it was never the same centralized power again. It became a loose confederation of provinces, each ruled by nawabs who paid lip service to the Emperor in Delhi but acted independently in reality. The war of 1707 proved that the empire’s strength was tied entirely to the personality of the ruler, not its institutions. Luna: So when Aurangzeb died, the system collapsed because there was no backup plan. Lucas: That’s the key takeaway. Aurangzeb had built a system that relied on his personal authority to balance the competing factions of Turanis, Iranis, and Hindustanis. Without him, those factions turned on each other, and the regional powers like the Marathas, Sikhs, and Rajputs seized the vacuum. The empire didn’t fall because it was weak; it fell because it was too rigid to adapt to a post-Aurangzeb world. Luna: It’s sad to think how much stability depended on one man. Lucas: It is. And it leaves us wondering what might have happened if Aurangzeb had planned for a smoother transition instead of fostering such intense rivalry among his sons. But history rarely allows for happy endings, especially in the corridors of power where survival is the only law. Luna: Do you think any of his successors could have reversed the trend? Lucas: Perhaps, but they lacked both the military genius and the political will. Bahadur Shah tried, but he was fighting a rear-guard action against forces that had already gained momentum. The window for recovery had closed with Azam Shah’s death at Jajau. From that point on, the Mughals were reacting to events rather than shaping them. Luna: It’s a sharp turning point for the whole region. Lucas: Undeniably. It marks the end of the early modern period in India and the beginning of a more fragmented, competitive landscape that would eventually invite European colonial powers into the mix. The seeds of the next century were sown in that blood-soaked field near Agra. Luna: I’ll be thinking about that battlefield when we look at the next era. Lucas: Let’s carry that image with us. The silence after the battle, the broken tents, and the sudden emptiness of a throne that had once seemed unshakeable.