Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb's War of Succession: The Bloody Path to the Peacock Throne
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we've covered a lot of Aurangzeb's reign. But one thing we haven't really touched on is how he actually got the throne in the first place. The war of succession that erupted when Shah Jahan fell ill in 1657. Luna: Right, the whole thing started with a rumour about the emperor's health, didn't it? Lucas: Exactly. Shah Jahan was in Agra, and in September 1657, news spread that he was deathly ill. He actually recovered, but by then the damage was done. His four sons — Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja, Murad Bakhsh, and Aurangzeb — all began maneuvering for power. Lucas: Dara was the eldest and Shah Jahan's clear favourite. He'd been designated heir and was acting as regent during his father's illness. But Aurangzeb, who was governing the Deccan, saw an opportunity. Luna: And the other two princes, Shuja and Murad, they also had ambitions, right? Lucas: Absolutely. Shuja was the governor of Bengal, and he crowned himself emperor in February 1658, then marched towards Agra. Murad, based in Gujarat, also declared himself emperor at Ahmedabad. But Aurangzeb played the smartest game. Lucas: He formed an alliance with Murad, promising to share the empire. They met at the town of Ujjain and combined their armies. Then they marched north to confront Dara's forces. Luna: So it was Aurangzeb and Murad against Dara at first? Lucas: Yes, but first they had to deal with a Rajput army sent by Dara. That was the battle of Dharmat, fought in April 1658 near Ujjain. Aurangzeb's forces defeated the imperial army under Maharaja Jaswant Singh of the Rathore clan. Lucas: Jaswant Singh was loyal to Shah Jahan, but his army was outmaneuvered. After that loss, the road to Agra was open. Luna: And that set up the big confrontation at Samugarh. Lucas: The Battle of Samugarh, May 29, 1658 — it was the decisive engagement. Dara led a massive army personally, with war elephants and cannons, but Aurangzeb and Murad fought with discipline. The historian maasir i alamgiri describes how Aurangzeb's troops used flanking tactics. Lucas: Dara's elephant was hit by a rocket, and he fled the field. His army collapsed. Dara escaped to Delhi, then Lahore, and eventually to Gujarat, but his cause was lost. Luna: What happened to Murad after the victory? Lucas: That's the part that really shows Aurangzeb's ruthlessness. Once Samugarh was won, he turned on his ally. Aurangzeb invited Murad to a banquet, had him arrested, and later executed him on charges of murder — though really it was to eliminate a rival. Lucas: Shah Jahan had meanwhile recovered from his illness, but he was confined to the Agra Fort by his own son. Aurangzeb claimed he was protecting his father, but it was house arrest. Shah Jahan would spend the last eight years of his life gazing at the Taj Mahal from a window. Luna: So by the summer of 1658, Aurangzeb had the capital and his father. But what about Dara and Shuja? Lucas: Shuja was still a threat. He had crowned himself again in Bengal, and Aurangzeb sent his son, Prince Muhammad Sultan, to deal with him. But that campaign didn't end well — the prince actually defected to Shuja for a time. Lucas: Aurangzeb himself marched east and met Shuja at the Battle of Deorai, near Allahabad, in January 1659. It was a hard-fought victory, but Shuja escaped to Bengal and eventually fled to Arakan, where he was killed. Luna: And Dara — he was captured near Bolan Pass in 1659, right? Lucas: Yes. Dara had been wandering through Sindh and Balochistan, trying to reach Persia, but a local chieftain betrayed him. He was brought to Delhi in chains. Aurangzeb put him on trial for apostasy — Dara had studied comparative religion, translated Hindu texts, and was seen as too liberal. Lucas: Dara was executed by stoning on August 30, 1659, in a public square. His head was presented to Aurangzeb, and his body was buried in Humayun's Tomb. The French traveler François Bernier witnessed it and described the crowds weeping. Luna: That's brutal. And Aurangzeb formally crowned himself Alamgir in June 1659 at the Red Fort in Delhi, with a grand ceremony. Lucas: Yes, he took the title Alamgir, meaning 'Conqueror of the World'. But the war of succession had already drained the treasury and sown deep mistrust among the nobility. Many Rajput nobles who had served Dara were alienated. The empire would never again see the stability it had under Shah Jahan. Luna: And some historians argue that Aurangzeb's methods in this war set the tone for his entire reign — pragmatic, ruthless, and ultimately self-defeating. Lucas: Absolutely. He eliminated his brothers, imprisoned his father, and relied heavily on Deccani nobles and officers who were loyal to him personally. That created a factionalism that would plague the Mughal Empire for decades. Lucas: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps keep these conversations free of ads. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. Lucas: So back to the war of succession — one of the most fascinating 'what ifs' is what would have happened if Dara Shikoh had become emperor. He was a scholar, a patron of the arts, and a religious pluralist. Would the Mughal Empire have taken a different path? Luna: It's hard to say. But the empire Aurangzeb inherited was already huge, and his reign would be defined by constant warfare — especially in the Deccan against the Marathas. Lucas: Exactly. The war of succession was just the beginning. In the next episode, we'll talk about how Aurangzeb's Deccan campaigns unfolded, and how they ultimately drained the empire. Luna: Looking forward to that.