Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Deccan Coin War: The Economics of an Empire in Overdrive
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's endless Deccan campaign—the forts, the battles, the Maratha guerrillas. But there's a quieter front in that war, one that doesn't get as much attention, and it's written in silver. Luna: You mean the coins? Lucas: Exactly. The Mughal Empire ran on the silver rupee—the famous 'Alamgiri' rupee that Aurangzeb's mints struck by the millions. And when you look at where those rupees were minted and how they changed over his reign, you see a story of imperial overreach. Lucas: Aurangzeb moved his imperial camp to the Deccan in 1682, and he never really went back to the north. To pay for that war—the salaries, the grain, the elephants—he needed a constant stream of new coins. So his mint masters in places like Aurangabad and Burhanpur started working overtime. Luna: Were they just minting more coins, or did they start cutting corners? Lucas: Both, actually. The Mughal mint was a marvel of efficiency—a well-run darogha i darb, or mint master, could produce thousands of rupees a day. But as the war dragged on, the treasury faced a crisis: there wasn't enough silver coming in from trade to match the spending. Lucas: So they did what many empires do in a pinch: they debased the coinage. The silver content of the Alamgiri rupee dropped over time. Earlier in his reign, the rupee was nearly pure silver—maybe 96% purity. By the late Deccan years, some coins were down to 90% or less, with more copper mixed in. Luna: And that would cause inflation, right? Prices go up when the coin is worth less? Lucas: Exactly. The local sarrafs—the money-changers—would discount the lighter coins. Merchants started demanding the older, purer rupees for big transactions. So you had two currencies circulating: the good old silver and the new, slightly greyer stuff. Lucas: But here's where the Marathas enter the story in a clever way. After Shivaji's death, his son Rajaram—who we've mentioned before—fled to Jinji fort in the far south. And one of the things he did there was start minting his own coins. Luna: Wait, he issued his own rupees? As a challenge to Aurangzeb? Lucas: Exactly. It was a direct statement of sovereignty. The Maratha coins, called 'Shivrai' or 'Rajaram' rupees, were struck in the name of the Chhatrapati. They circulated in the territories under Maratha control, and they were often of better silver than the later Mughal issues. Lucas: So you had a currency war: Aurangzeb's Alamgiri rupee, increasingly debased, competing with Maratha rupees that were actually purer. The sarrafs in the bazaars of the Deccan knew exactly which coin they trusted more. Luna: That must have undermined Mughal authority in a really practical way. Lucas: It did. And it gets worse for Aurangzeb. The Mughal treasury was also bleeding silver because so much of it was being spent in the Deccan—paying soldiers, buying supplies—but the silver wasn't flowing back north. It stayed in the Deccan economy, or it went to the Marathas as tribute or loot. Lucas: There's a great detail from the English factors in Surat—the merchants of the East India Company—who noted in their letters that the Mughal rupee was losing weight. They started hoarding the older, heavier rupees for export to Europe, where the silver was worth more. Luna: So the English were profiting from Aurangzeb's coin crisis. Lucas: Absolutely. And the Mughal state couldn't stop them, because the Company brought in silver from the New World—the famous pieces of eight from Mexico and Peru—which they used to buy Indian textiles. That fresh silver actually helped keep the Mughal economy afloat, but it also gave the English leverage. Lucas: Let me give you a sense of scale. At the height of Aurangzeb's Deccan war, the imperial mint at Aurangabad alone was striking perhaps 300,000 rupees a day. That's over a hundred million rupees a year from just one mint. And there were mints in Burhanpur, Shahjahanabad, Lahore—all feeding the war machine. Luna: But if the silver content was dropping, that many coins would just accelerate the inflation. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what happened. By the end of Aurangzeb's reign, the Deccan was awash in lightweight rupees. The economy was distorted—prices for grain and horses skyrocketed, while soldiers' salaries stayed the same. The Mughal army itself was being paid in increasingly worthless coin. Lucas: There's a chronicler, Saqi Mustad Khan—who wrote the maasir i alamgiri—who mentions that in the later years, the imperial camp was full of sarrafs from all over India, exchanging coins at fluctuating rates. It was chaos. Luna: And the Marathas, meanwhile, kept minting their own good silver. Lucas: Right. After Rajaram died in 1700, his widow Tarabai and later the Peshwas continued the practice. The Maratha rupee, often called the 'Shivrai', became the trusted currency in large parts of the Deccan. It's a beautiful example of how economic sovereignty works alongside military resistance. Luna: It reminds me of how the American colonies printed their own money before the Revolution—but that's a different story. Lucas: It is, but the principle is similar. Control of coinage is control of the economy. And Aurangzeb, for all his obsessive control over administration, couldn't fully control the silver that flowed—or failed to flow—through his empire. Lucas: One more thing: after Aurangzeb died in 1707, his successors faced an immediate crisis. The treasury was empty, and the coinage was a mess. The later Mughals tried to restore the old purity, but the damage was done. The Maratha states—and later the British—would step into the vacuum. Luna: So the coin war wasn't just a side detail; it was a major reason the empire weakened. Lucas: Exactly. The Deccan campaign didn't just drain men and morale—it drained the silver that held the whole system together. And once the currency started slipping, the empire's authority slipped with it. Luna: If today's deep dive into Mughal coinage and the economics of empire was worth a coffee to you, there's a little way to keep these conversations going. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, that's right. For anyone coming with us through these conversations about South Asia, that link makes a real difference. It helps us stay ad-free and keeps the research coming. Luna: And we really mean it—just the cost of a coffee. No pressure, no perks, just a simple way to say this matters to you. Lucas: Exactly. And it honestly helps us keep digging into these stories—like the way a single coin can tell us about the fall of an empire. So, back to that idea: the Alamgiri rupee, the Maratha Shivrai, and the sarrafs of the Deccan—they all show us an empire straining at its seams. Lucas: Next time we talk, I want to take you to a different kind of battlefield: the imperial court itself. Because while Aurangzeb was in the Deccan, the politics back in Delhi were shifting, and the seeds of the empire's collapse were being sown in the marble halls of the Red Fort. Luna: I'm ready. It's always the human stories behind the big events that stick with me. Lucas: Same here. And with that, I think we've earned our rest. Until next time.