Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Mughal Navy: The Emperor Who Abandoned the Sea
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's land campaigns — his roads, his forts, his elephants. But there's one domain he never really mastered, and it cost him. Luna: The sea? Lucas: Exactly. The Mughal navy. It's almost an oxymoron — we think of the Mughals as a land empire, but they did have a significant maritime presence, especially under Akbar and Jahangir. Aurangzeb inherited a fleet, but he let it rot. Lucas: The backbone of that navy was the Sidis of Janjira — an African-origin community of admirals who controlled a string of fortresses along the Konkan coast. Their flagship port was Surat, the Mughal empire's gateway to the Indian Ocean. Luna: I've heard of the Sidis. Weren't they loyal to the Mughals? Lucas: They were. The Sidi admiral — usually just called the Sidi of Janjira — commanded a fleet of armed merchantmen and warships. Under Aurangzeb's predecessors, they kept the Arabian Sea safe for Mughal trade and even fought off Portuguese incursions. But Aurangzeb, focused on the Deccan, rarely paid them. Lucas: By the 1680s, the English East India Company had established itself at Bombay, just a few miles from Janjira. They were building their own ships, training their own crews, and increasingly ignoring Mughal authority on the water. Luna: So Aurangzeb had a rival navy right next to his own base. Lucas: Worse than that — he couldn't stop them. In 1682, a critical moment came. The Marathas, who were fighting Aurangzeb in the Deccan, had been receiving European-supplied arms, including English cannons. Aurangzeb ordered the Bombay fleet to be intercepted. But his ships were undermanned and outgunned. The English convoy passed unmolested. Lucas: The maasir i alamgiri records that Aurangzeb was furious. He ordered the Sidi to build more ships, but the treasury was already bleeding from the Deccan wars. The navy became a low priority. Luna: It's like he was fighting with one hand tied behind his back. Lucas: Exactly. And the irony is that Aurangzeb had a model for a strong navy right under his nose. His own great-grandfather, Humayun, had briefly built a fleet on the Ganges. But Aurangzeb's mindset was completely continental. He thought in terms of cavalry and infantry, not ships. Lucas: The result: by the early 1700s, the Indian Ocean was effectively controlled by Europeans. The Mughal fleet was reduced to a few coastal patrol boats. When Aurangzeb died, the English and French were already competing for the scraps of his empire. Luna: So the navy's decline wasn't just a military failure — it was an economic one too. Lucas: Absolutely. Surat's trade fell off as merchants shifted to British-protected ports. The Sidi held on at Janjira for another century, but they were a shadow of what they had been. The Mughal empire lost its maritime muscle, and that made it vulnerable from all sides. Lucas: You know, it's strange — Aurangzeb was so meticulous in so many areas: his legal code, his tax policy, his road building. But the sea, he just let slip away. It's a reminder that even the most powerful land empire can't ignore the ocean. Luna: Kind of like how we can't take for granted the things that keep our show afloat — like, for listeners who want to help keep us ad-free, there's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, exactly. Every bit helps us keep diving into these stories. And speaking of stories — the Sidis themselves are fascinating. They were originally from East Africa, brought to India as slaves and mercenaries, but they rose to become admirals and even rulers of their own small kingdom. That's a whole episode in itself. Luna: I'd love to hear that one. Lucas: We'll get there. For now, back to Aurangzeb — his neglect of the navy wasn't just an oversight. It was a strategic choice that accelerated the empire's decline. And it's a lesson that echoes even today.