Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Deccan Campaigns: The War That Broke the Mughal Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's various policies — the taxes, the bans, the legal code. But I think the single thing that defined his reign more than anything else was the endless war in the Deccan. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life down there, practically living in a tent, chasing down Maratha forces. Luna: Twenty-five years? That's more than a quarter of his entire reign. Lucas: Exactly. He ascended the throne in 1658, but it wasn't until 1681 that he personally moved south and never really came back. By then, the Maratha kingdom under Shivaji had already carved out a significant territory, and after Shivaji's death in 1680, his son Sambhaji took over. Aurangzeb saw the Marathas as a threat that had to be crushed completely. Luna: And he threw everything he had at them. Lucas: He did. The Mughal army that marched into the Deccan was massive — hundreds of thousands of soldiers, elephants, artillery. The idea was to besiege Maratha forts one by one, cut off their supplies, and force a surrender. But the Marathas didn't fight set-piece battles. They used guerrilla tactics — hit and run raids, cutting supply lines, melting into the hills. Luna: So it became a war of attrition. Lucas: Exactly. And attrition favors the defender, especially on their home terrain. The Deccan plateau is rugged, with countless hill forts — Sinhagad, Rajgad, Torana, you name it. Each one had to be besieged individually, which took months, sometimes years. And even when the Mughals captured a fort, they had to garrison it, which drained more resources. Lucas: The chronicler maasir i alamgiri gives us a sense of the scale. In 1689, Aurangzeb's forces finally captured Sambhaji at Sangameshwar after a betrayal. They executed him brutally — tortured, dismembered, his body fed to dogs. It was meant to be a message, but it backfired. Luna: It just radicalized the Marathas further. Lucas: Yes. Sambhaji's brother Rajaram escaped to the fortress of Jinji in the far south, and the war continued. The Marathas now had a martyr. And they started using scorched-earth tactics — burning crops, poisoning wells, making it impossible for the Mughal army to sustain itself in the field. Lucas: Now, this is where it gets interesting. One of the Maratha commanders, Santaji Ghorpade, became a legend for his lightning raids. He would appear out of nowhere, attack Mughal supply trains, and disappear before the army could react. The Mughal general Zulfikar Khan chased him for years without ever catching him. Luna: So the Mughals were fighting a ghost. Lucas: Pretty much. And the cost was staggering. The Mughal treasury was hemorrhaging money — not just on soldiers' salaries, but on maintaining a vast network of supply depots, building roads, and paying for artillery. By the 1690s, the empire was effectively bankrupt. They had to debase the currency, which led to inflation and economic hardship across the north. Luna: And meanwhile, the Marathas just kept coming. Lucas: They did. After Rajaram died in 1700, his queen Tarabai took over, and she was just as determined. The war dragged on until Aurangzeb's death in 1707. He never achieved his goal of pacifying the Deccan. In fact, by the end, the Mughals controlled little more than the land under their tents. Lucas: You know, it strikes me that this is a show made possible by listeners who value deep-dive history without interruptions. We keep it ad-free deliberately — no commercials, no sponsors. If you appreciate that approach, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep these conversations going. Luna: Yeah, it's a model that works because of people who chip in. We're grateful for that. Lucas: So back to the Deccan — one of the most telling details is how the war affected the common soldier. Niccolao Manucci, the Italian traveler who served in the Mughal court, wrote about soldiers dying of starvation and disease by the thousands. The supply lines were so long that food often rotted before it reached the front. Luna: That's grim. And it's a far cry from the glorious campaigns Mughal propaganda liked to portray. Lucas: Absolutely. The official chronicles talk about victories and captured forts, but the reality was a grinding stalemate. Aurangzeb's obsession with conquering the Deccan actually weakened the empire's core. Provinces like Bengal and Punjab were neglected, rebellions broke out, and the Marathas eventually filled the vacuum after his death. Luna: So in a way, the Deccan campaigns are the perfect metaphor for Aurangzeb's entire reign — immense effort, huge cost, and ultimately counterproductive. Lucas: Exactly. He expanded the empire to its largest territorial extent, but he also sowed the seeds of its destruction. The Deccan war bled the Mughal state dry, and within decades of his death, the empire was fragmenting. The Marathas, whom he tried so hard to crush, became the dominant power in India. Luna: It's a classic case of overreach. Lucas: Yes. And the lesson is as old as empire itself — you can't sustain an endless war on an enemy that refuses to fight on your terms. The Marathas understood their terrain and their limitations. The Mughals, for all their might, could never adapt. Luna: So what happened to all those forts the Mughals captured? Did they hold them? Lucas: Most were abandoned within a few years. The Marathas simply retook them once the Mughal army moved on. It was a futile game of whack a mole. By 1705, even Aurangzeb seemed to realize the futility — he wrote letters to his sons expressing despair. But he couldn't bring himself to stop. Luna: He was trapped by his own ambition. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the tragedy of Aurangzeb's later years — a man who could have consolidated his vast empire instead chose to chase an impossible dream, and in doing so, destroyed everything he'd built.