Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb vs the Rathores: The 1679 Siege of Jodhpur
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's wars in the Deccan, his battles with the Marathas, the Ahoms, the Sikhs. But one conflict that I think gets less attention in the popular narrative is his war with the Rathore Rajputs of Marwar—and it's crucial because it essentially broke the Mughal-Rajput alliance that had been the bedrock of the empire since Akbar's time. Luna: The Rathores—that's the clan based around Jodhpur, right? Lucas: Exactly. Jodhpur and the region of Marwar, in present-day Rajasthan. The Rathores had been loyal Mughal vassals for generations. Maharaja Jaswant Singh, the ruler of Marwar, had served Aurangzeb faithfully for decades—he was a key commander in the Deccan campaigns, even helped suppress the rebellion of Aurangzeb's own son, Prince Akbar. But when Jaswant Singh died in 1678 without a direct male heir—his only son had died in infancy—a succession crisis erupted. Lucas: Now, Jaswant's widows claimed that one of them was pregnant. And indeed, after his death, a son was born—named Ajit Singh. But Aurangzeb was skeptical. He suspected the child might be a substitute, an impostor. He ordered that the newborn be brought to the imperial court for verification, which the Rathore nobles saw as an insult and a power grab. Luna: So Aurangzeb didn't trust them. He thought they were trying to install a fake heir to keep control of Marwar. Lucas: Right. And from Aurangzeb's perspective, he had legal grounds. Under Mughal law, a succession required imperial confirmation, especially when the heir was a posthumous infant. But the Rathore nobles refused. They proclaimed Ajit Singh as the rightful ruler, and Aurangzeb responded by sending an army to seize Jodhpur. He also declared that since there was no legitimate heir, Marwar would be annexed directly into the Mughal Empire. Lucas: In early 1679, Aurangzeb himself marched to Marwar. He besieged the fort of Jodhpur, which was defended by a determined garrison. The siege lasted several months, with heavy fighting. The Mughal artillery pounded the walls, but the Rajputs held out fiercely. Luna: I read that the queen, Rani Hada, was a key figure in the defense. Lucas: Yes, Rani Hada—the widowed queen of Jaswant Singh—took command of the defense. She organized the troops, rallied the soldiers, and even personally oversaw the repair of breaches in the walls. She became a symbol of Rathore resistance. Modern accounts often portray her as this fierce warrior queen, and while some details are romanticized, the chronicles do confirm her active role. Lucas: But despite the heroic defense, the Mughals eventually broke through. The fort fell, and Aurangzeb ordered the destruction of several Hindu temples within Jodhpur and the surrounding area—as punishment for the rebellion and as a statement of his authority. Luna: He destroyed temples? Even in a Rajput kingdom that had been loyal? Lucas: Yes, and this is significant. The temple destruction in Marwar was not just about religious zeal—it was political. By targeting the most sacred sites of the Rathore clan, Aurangzeb was symbolically breaking their power. But it also alienated the Rajputs across the empire. Many Rajput rulers who had been neutral began to side with the rebels. Lucas: After the siege, Aurangzeb appointed a Mughal governor to administer Marwar, but the Rathore resistance didn't end. The infant Ajit Singh was smuggled out of Jodhpur by loyal nobles and raised in secret. He would later emerge as a formidable rebel, leading a decade-long guerrilla war against Mughal garrisons in Rajasthan. Luna: So the war with the Rathores dragged on, even after Aurangzeb's death? Lucas: It did. Ajit Singh eventually regained control of Jodhpur after Aurangzeb died, and the Rathore-Mughal conflict became one of the many drains on the empire's resources. But also, this war had a direct consequence for the Deccan campaigns: the Mughal army was now fighting on two fronts—the Marathas in the south and the Rajputs in the northwest—and that stretched the empire thin. Lucas: There's also a fascinating subplot here about a Mughal general named Tahawar Khan, who was a Rajput in Mughal service. He was ordered to lead the assault on Jodhpur, but he secretly sympathized with the Rathores. He deliberately delayed his attack, and when the fort fell, he helped some of the defenders escape. Aurangzeb later discovered his betrayal, and Tahawar Khan was executed. Luna: That's a tragic story—a man torn between loyalty to his emperor and his kin. Lucas: Exactly. And it shows how Aurangzeb's policies were fraying the very fabric of the Mughal elite. Rajput officers had been the backbone of the Mughal military for over a century. By the end of Aurangzeb's reign, many of them had turned against the empire. Lucas: The siege of Jodhpur also had a cultural legacy. The famous Mehrangarh Fort, which dominates the city skyline today, has a gate called the 'Fateh Pol'—Victory Gate—that was built to commemorate the Mughal victory. But local tradition also speaks of a gate called 'Jodha Pol', built by Ajit Singh after he retook the fort, as a symbol of Rathore resurgence. Luna: You can still see those gates today. They kind of tell the whole story in stone. Lucas: Yeah, exactly. Walking through that fort, you're walking through layers of conflict. And I think this episode of Aurangzeb's reign is often overlooked because it doesn't have the dramatic battles of the Deccan or the iconic figures like Shivaji. But it was a turning point—it signaled to every Rajput clan that the Mughal alliance was no longer a partnership; it was a subjugation. Lucas: And if you've been following along with our series on Aurangzeb—covering the Deccan wars, the Sikh conflicts, the jizya tax—you can see how this one campaign against the Rathores fits into the larger pattern. It wasn't just about Marwar; it was about the empire's ability to hold together its diverse coalition. Luna: It's like each policy decision pulled on a thread that unraveled the whole fabric. Lucas: Right. And you know, it's exactly the kind of deep dive that we love to do on this show. These conversations—about South Asian history, about the Mughals, about the people on the ground—they take a lot of research and time. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going—buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it makes a real difference. And it keeps us ad-free, so we can keep going deep. Lucas: So anyway, back to the Rathores—after Aurangzeb's death, Ajit Singh not only reclaimed Jodhpur but also expanded his territory, and his descendants continued to be major players in Rajput politics for centuries. The Mughal-Rajput alliance never fully recovered from Aurangzeb's policies, and that opened the door for the Marathas and later the British to step into the power vacuum. Luna: So the siege of Jodhpur was a microcosm of the empire's larger problems. Lucas: Exactly. It's a classic case of how a short-term victory can sow the seeds of long-term defeat. Aurangzeb got his temple destruction, his symbolic victory, but he lost the hearts and minds of the Rajputs—and that loss echoed through the 18th century.