Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History
Aurangzeb's Jain Edicts: Faith, Famine, and Imperial Mercy
In 1681, as Aurangzeb marched south to begin the long Deccan campaigns, a famine gripped Gujarat, and the emperor issued a remarkable set of farmans granting protection to Jain pilgrims, temples, and merchants. This episode explores those edicts: how they emerged from a moment of crisis, what they reveal about Mughal religious policy under a ruler often caricatured as fanatical, and the forgotten role of Jain merchants and monks in the imperial economy. We read from the edicts themselves—often inscribed on copper plates in Sanskrit—and trace the career of a Jain monk named Lal Vijayji, who…
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