Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Water Policy: Canals, Wells, and an Empire Thirsting for Control
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's wars and taxes, but there's another resource he fought over that we haven't touched: water. For an empire that stretched from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, controlling water wasn't just about survival—it was about power. Luna: Water as a political tool—I love that angle. Lucas: Exactly. And Aurangzeb's approach to water management was surprisingly systematic. He ordered the construction of canals, stepwells—baolis—and the restoration of old tanks, especially in the Deccan, where the Maratha campaigns were depleting both treasure and groundwater. Luna: So he literally tried to dig his way out of the Deccan quagmire? Lucas: In a sense, yes. The maasir i alamgiri records several imperial orders regarding wells and tanks. For instance, in 1665, Aurangzeb issued a decree that every village in the Deccan must maintain a stepwell or a pond. Failure meant the revenue officials—the amils—would be fined. Luna: That's remarkably hands-on for an emperor who spent most of his reign in a tent. Lucas: It is. And it shows he understood that a thirsty peasant cannot pay taxes. But there was also a symbolic layer. The Mughals saw themselves as bringers of prosperity—the Persianate ideal of the 'just sultan' who makes the desert bloom. So digging a canal was a political statement. Lucas: One of the most famous projects was the nahr i bihisht—the 'Stream of Paradise'—a canal that Aurangzeb ordered to be built in the Kashmir valley, near the Shalimar Gardens. It wasn't just for irrigation; it was to supply water to his new gardens and to the city of Srinagar. Luna: Wait, wasn't the Shalimar Garden built by Jahangir? Lucas: Yes, the garden itself was Jahangir's. But Aurangzeb added a new canal to feed it and extended the water supply to the surrounding areas. The maasir i alamgiri mentions that he appointed a superintendent—a darogha—specifically for the canal's maintenance. Lucas: But in the Deccan, the challenges were different. The region had a history of sophisticated water harvesting—like the stepwells of Ahmednagar and Bijapur. Aurangzeb's engineers repaired many of these, especially around Aurangabad, which was his de facto capital in the south. Luna: I've seen pictures of those baolis—they're beautifully carved. Were they purely functional or also aesthetic? Lucas: Both. Stepwells were architectural marvels, often adorned with arches and niches. But their primary purpose was to store water throughout the year. Aurangzeb's court historian notes that he ordered the construction of a massive baoli at Daulatabad, the old capital of the Deccan sultanates, to support the Mughal garrison stationed there. Lucas: The water policy also had a darker side. In the famine of 1665-66, when crops failed across the Deccan, Aurangzeb remitted some land taxes—but he also ordered that wells and tanks be dug as a form of relief work. It was a classic 'cash for work' program, but funded by local zamindars. Luna: So he made the local elites pay for it? That probably didn't win him friends. Lucas: Not at all. The zamindars resented being forced to finance public works while the emperor's own campaigns bled the treasury. Niccolao Manucci, the Venetian traveler who served in the Mughal court, wrote that nobles complained openly about the expense of digging wells in barren lands. Lucas: Yet Aurangzeb persisted. His letters—the ruqaat i alamgiri—show him personally inquiring about the state of water supplies in different provinces. He wrote to his son Bahadur Shah, then governor of Kabul, ordering him to repair the canals of the city. Luna: So he was micromanaging water infrastructure from hundreds of miles away. Lucas: That's a good way to put it. And it ties into a bigger story—the imperial overreach. Funding canals and stepwells required money, labor, and administrative oversight. By the 1680s, as the Deccan war dragged on, the treasury was so depleted that water projects were abandoned mid-construction. Lucas: There's a poignant account from the maasir i alamgiri of a half-finished canal near Bijapur. The water had dried up because the engineers fled when the Marathas attacked. The canal was never completed. Luna: That's a sad metaphor for the whole empire, isn't it? The thing that was supposed to bring life just... ran dry. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a reminder that empires are built on resources more fundamental than gold—water, grain, people. Aurangzeb understood that, but in the end, even he couldn't make the desert bloom forever. Luna: If today was actually useful to you, the way these stay ad-free is listener support—buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, for anyone coming with us through these conversations about South Asia, that little bit goes a long way to keep it going. Lucas: So what's the takeaway? Aurangzeb's water policy was a mix of genuine innovation and stubborn overreach. It built some lasting infrastructure, but also revealed the limits of centralized control. Luna: And maybe a lesson for today: you can't conquer the water cycle. Lucas: Right. You can't. And that's what makes this history so human.