Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's Maratha Campaign: The Tiger of the Deccan
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, we've talked about so many different aspects of Aurangzeb's reign — his wars, his laws, his letters, even his elephants. But I think there's one war that overshadows everything else, the one that really broke his empire: the long, grinding campaign against the Marathas in the Deccan. Luna: Right, the Deccan campaigns. We touched on them in episode 99, but that was more of an overview. I'd love to go deeper into the actual fighting and the key figures. Lucas: Exactly. So let's start with the Maratha leader who started it all: Shivaji. He died in 1680, but by then he had already carved out a substantial kingdom from the Bijapur Sultanate and even sacked Surat twice. Aurangzeb saw the Marathas as a persistent threat, but he underestimated their resilience. Luna: I remember that Shivaji was known for his guerrilla tactics — hit and run raids, using the terrain of the Western Ghats. Lucas: Absolutely. That was the core of Maratha warfare. They didn't fight set-piece battles like the Mughals did. They'd appear out of the forests, attack supply lines, and then vanish into the hills. Aurangzeb's massive army, with its heavy artillery and elephants, was like a lumbering giant trying to swat flies. Lucas: After Shivaji's death, his son Sambhaji took over. But Sambhaji wasn't as cautious as his father. He was captured by Mughal forces in 1689 after a tip-off from a Maratha nobleman. And then Aurangzeb made a decision that shocked even his own court. Luna: The execution of Sambhaji — I've read about it. It was brutal, wasn't it? Lucas: Yes, it was. Sambhaji was paraded through the streets of Aurangabad, then tortured and executed. Aurangzeb wanted to break the Maratha spirit. Instead, it galvanised them. Sambhaji's half-brother Rajaram escaped to the fortress of Jinji in the Tamil country, and the war continued with even greater intensity. Lucas: Now, Jinji is a fascinating story. It's a massive hill fort in what's now Tamil Nadu, about a thousand miles from the Maratha heartland. Aurangzeb sent his best general, Zulfikar Khan, to besiege it. And the siege lasted from 1689 to 1698 — almost a decade. Luna: A decade? That's an incredible investment of resources for one fort. Lucas: It was. And it shows how determined Aurangzeb was. But Zulfikar Khan was never given enough troops or supplies to finish the job quickly. The Marathas inside Jinji were led by Rajaram, and they held out through famine and disease. In the end, the Mughals only took the fort because Rajaram slipped away. It was a pyrrhic victory. Luna: So the Mughals captured a fort that no longer held the Maratha leadership. That seems like a pattern. Lucas: Exactly. Meanwhile, the Maratha guerrilla bands were spreading across the Deccan. They weren't trying to hold territory — they were raiding, looting, and disrupting Mughal administration. Aurangzeb responded by moving south himself in 1681, and he basically never left the Deccan for the rest of his life — another 26 years. Lucas: That decision had enormous consequences. By staying in the Deccan, Aurangzeb left the north, especially Delhi and the Punjab, neglected. The Sikhs rebelled, the Rajputs were restless, and the empire's finances were bleeding dry. The Mughal treasury was spending something like half its revenue on the Deccan war. Luna: It's like the Vietnam War for the Mughals — a quagmire that drained the superpower. Lucas: That's a great comparison. And like Vietnam, the Marathas had the advantage of knowing the terrain and having local support. They also had an extraordinary leader after Rajaram's death in 1700: his widow, Tarabai. She took command and led the Maratha resistance for years, even defeating a Mughal army in 1702. Luna: Tarabai is such an underrated figure. A woman leading a rebellion in 17th-century India. Lucas: She was remarkable. She kept the Maratha cause alive when it seemed all but lost. And her son Shivaji II was the nominal king. But the real power was with her. Meanwhile, Aurangzeb was getting older, more isolated, more frustrated. He wrote letters to his sons complaining about the Marathas, about the lack of loyalty, about the endless war. Luna: I can imagine. He had no clear path to victory, but he couldn't just walk away after investing so much. Lucas: Exactly. And this is where the Maratha naval power comes in. Kanhoji Angre — the Maratha admiral — controlled the coast from his base at Vijaydurg. He raided Mughal shipping and even allied with the Portuguese and the British at times. Aurangzeb couldn't even secure the sea lanes. Lucas: So by the time Aurangzeb died in 1707, the Marathas were more powerful than ever. They controlled large parts of central India and the Deccan. And the Mughal empire, exhausted and bankrupt, began its long decline. The Marathas would go on to dominate India until the British arrived. Luna: It's ironic — the emperor who wanted to expand and consolidate the Mughal Empire actually hastened its collapse by fighting a war he couldn't win. Lucas: That's the tragedy of Aurangzeb. He was brilliant in many ways, but his obsession with the Deccan was his downfall. And it's a reminder that even the greatest empires can be undone by a war they refuse to end. Lucas: You know, talking about how this war drained the empire of resources, it makes you think about the choices we make when pursuing something relentlessly. And here at Fexingo History, we make a choice too — we keep this show ad-free. No commercials, no sponsors. It's just us, the history, and you. Luna: Yeah, we really believe in that. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Every little bit helps keep this going. Lucas: Anyway, back to the Marathas. One of the most remarkable aspects of their resistance was how they adapted. They weren't just fighters — they built a sophisticated intelligence network. Spies in Mughal camps, knowledge of troop movements, and even double agents inside Aurangzeb's own court. Luna: That must have been incredibly effective against a top-down empire like the Mughals. Lucas: It was. And it's one reason why the war dragged on so long. Every time the Mughals thought they had cornered the Marathas, they'd slip away and strike somewhere else. It's a classic asymmetrical warfare, and Aurangzeb never found a way to counter it. Lucas: In the end, the Maratha campaign is a case study in imperial overreach. Aurangzeb's determination, his military skill, his administrative reforms — none of it could overcome the simple fact that he was trying to conquer a people who refused to be conquered. Luna: And that refusal, that resilience, is what ultimately defined the Maratha legacy. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a story we'll come back to, because the Marathas didn't stop after Aurangzeb. They went on to challenge the British too. But that's for another episode.