Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzeb and the Rathore Rebellion: The Emperor vs Marwar
Transcript
- Lucas: Last time we talked about the Maratha war and how it drained the Mughal empire. But before the Marathas became the big problem, Aurangzeb had already picked a fight with another old ally — the Rathore Rajputs of Marwar. And that conflict, which started in 1679, actually foreshadowed a lot of the issues that would later bring him down. Luna: The Rathores? Weren't they one of the most loyal Rajput clans to the Mughals? Lucas: Exactly. Maharaja Jaswant Singh, the Rathore ruler, had served Aurangzeb's father Shah Jahan and then Aurangzeb himself for decades. He was a trusted general, fought in the Deccan campaigns, and even helped Aurangzeb during the war of succession. But when Jaswant Singh died in 1678 in Kabul, he left no adult heir. His wives were pregnant, but the succession was uncertain. And Aurangzeb saw an opportunity. Luna: He wanted to annex Marwar directly, didn't he? Lucas: Exactly. Instead of waiting for a son to be born and confirmed, Aurangzeb moved swiftly. He sent Mughal officials to take control of Jodhpur, the capital, and ordered the destruction of Hindu temples there. The maasir i alamgiri records that he appointed a Mughal governor and imposed jizya on the Rajputs. This was a huge insult — Marwar had been a semi-independent kingdom under Mughal suzerainty, not a conquered province. Lucas: But then, in early 1679, Jaswant Singh's posthumous son, Ajit Singh, was born. The Rathore nobles immediately declared him the rightful ruler. Aurangzeb refused to recognise the child. He ordered that Ajit Singh be brought to court and raised as a Muslim — essentially, a hostage conversion. Luna: That would have been the ultimate humiliation for the Rajputs. Lucas: It was. And it triggered one of the most stubborn rebellions of Aurangzeb's reign. The Rathores had a young, charismatic leader — Durgadas Rathore, a noble who had been a close aide of Jaswant Singh. He organised a resistance that mixed guerrilla tactics in the Thar Desert with open battles. The maasir i alamgiri describes how Durgadas raided Mughal supply lines, cut communications, and ambushed detachments. Lucas: Aurangzeb responded with overwhelming force. He sent his son Prince Muhammad Akbar with a massive army to Jodhpur. They besieged the fort, and after three months, the Mughals captured it in July 1679. But Durgadas and the infant Ajit Singh escaped into the desert. Luna: So the war was just beginning. Lucas: Exactly. For the next 30 years, the Rathores kept up a guerrilla campaign. They would retreat into the waterless tracts of the Thar, where Mughal armies couldn't follow easily, and then strike at weak points. Durgadas became a legend — he even allied with the Marathas later on, creating a Rajput-Maratha front that directly challenged Mughal authority in western India. Lucas: The most dramatic moment came in 1681, when Prince Muhammad Akbar — Aurangzeb's own son — rebelled against his father. Durgadas saw an opportunity and allied with the prince. They marched together towards Ajmer, nearly capturing Aurangzeb himself. The rebellion failed, but it showed how deep the resentment ran. Akbar fled to the Marathas and then to Persia, and Durgadas continued fighting. Luna: Wait — Aurangzeb's son actually sided with the Rajputs against him? Lucas: Yes, and that was unprecedented. It was a direct consequence of the Marwar annexation. Akbar was raised partly by Rajput women in the harem, and he sympathised with their cause. The maasir i alamgiri says Aurangzeb was so shaken by this betrayal that he moved his court to the Deccan permanently, partly to escape the political fallout in the north. Lucas: The war dragged on for decades. Aurangzeb tried diplomacy — he offered to recognise Ajit Singh as ruler if he converted to Islam and married a Mughal princess. The Rathores refused. Finally, in 1707, as Aurangzeb lay dying, he ordered a settlement. But it was too late — the Rathores had already allied with his son Bahadur Shah, and after Aurangzeb's death, Ajit Singh was restored as Maharaja of Marwar, with Jodhpur and its fort back in Rathore hands. Luna: So all that fighting, all those decades, and in the end they got what they wanted anyway. Lucas: Pretty much. But the damage was done. The Mughal treasury was depleted, Rajput loyalty was shattered for good, and the precedent of rebellion spread to other groups. The Rathore war was a textbook case of how Aurangzeb's religious and centralising policies alienated his most reliable allies. Luna: I'm thinking about something you said earlier — the show depends on people who find these histories worth their time. If today's episode was worth a coffee to you, there's a link at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a tiny thing that keeps us ad-free and making these deep dives. Lucas: Yeah, exactly. And speaking of the Rathores — one fascinating detail I didn't get to: Durgadas Rathore actually wrote letters to Aurangzeb in Persian, and some survive. They're remarkably polite, but firm. He addresses the emperor as 'Alamgir' and then basically says, 'You have no right to take our kingdom. We will fight until justice is done.' It's a window into how Rajputs saw their relationship with the Mughals — as a contract, not a conquest. Luna: Do you know what Aurangzeb's reply was? Lucas: The maasir i alamgiri doesn't record a direct response, but we know Aurangzeb kept trying to buy off Durgadas with jagirs and titles. He never succeeded. Durgadas died in 1719, twelve years after Aurangzeb, having outlasted the emperor who tried to destroy his clan. He's still remembered in Rajasthan as a folk hero — there are songs about him. Lucas: The Rathore rebellion also had a ripple effect on the Mughal military. Aurangzeb had to station a permanent army in Rajasthan, which tied up troops that could have been used in the Deccan. And the desert guerrilla tactics the Rathores used later inspired the Marathas — many of Sambhaji's strategies were copied from Durgadas's playbook. Luna: So in a way, the Marwar conflict taught the Mughals' enemies how to fight them. Lucas: Exactly. And it wasn't just military. The Rajput rebellion undermined the entire mansabdari system — Rajput nobles who had served the empire for generations began to defect. The Mughal state had relied on Rajput military labour for its armies, and once that source dried up, they had to turn to less reliable mercenaries. Lucas: One more thing: the fort of Jodhpur itself. The Mughals held it for only about 30 years, but during that time they built a mosque inside the fort complex — a constant reminder of their occupation. When Durgadas recaptured the fort, he didn't destroy the mosque. He left it standing, as a symbol of what they had overcome. Luna: That's a surprisingly magnanimous gesture. Lucas: It was. And it shows that the Rathores weren't fighting a religious war — they were fighting for their sovereignty. That's a nuance that often gets lost in the simple story of Aurangzeb vs the Rajputs. It was about politics and honour, not just faith. Luna: Let's come back to that idea in another episode — how the Rajputs navigated between loyalty and rebellion across the Mughal period. Lucas: Absolutely. There's a lot more to explore there.