TeaProfessional success of ChorusA drama about the life of the Maratha ruler Sambhaji gives air to many political and historical flames. People scrambled to dig After the Asirgarh Fort, the film claimed that it had buried the treasure. The film also depicts the cruel death of Sambhaji at the hands of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, which is probably leading the right -wing vigilance in Nagpur to demand the destruction of Aurangzeb’s tomb. High ranked politicians have called for “Babri Masjid-type” action there. Amidst an uncertain on-ground position in Nagpur, let’s have a step back to understand all this. As it has been revealed, Aurangzeb is buried in one of the most important centers in India’s religious history – and it is important for a reason you cannot expect.
Where is Aurangzeb’s grave?
The final powerful Mughal emperor is buried once in the grave announced in Kholabad, a Sufi center near Ellora caves. This is a striking departure from the graves of earlier Mughals: no huge dome of marble and sandstone, no huge garden, no tragic love story. Just a tomb, covered with a little marble. Aurangzeb Almagir-Axianly one of the most powerful men in the 18th century ended?
The fact is, as the historian Pushkar Sohony has ArguedKhudadabad Is Ellora. To be accurate, the area around Ellora is one of the most frequent sacred sites in human history: it is home to holy architecture over two thousand years from every pan-Indian religion. Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Islam were all dominating it. While the religious inclination of its rulers changed for centuries, Ellora, located in a holy waterfall near a business route, was considered sacred. Various religious orders, business groups, court groups, and military grandfather gave gifts there for centuries.
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How it has come is one Long storyHistorians write Sam Delerimple. Originally, until the 10th century, Ellora was held from rock-cut temples, the most influential of which was the Kailasnath Temple, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Not all were maintained regularly, however, because the focus of economic activity went to the nearby city of Devagiri, the late 1200s conquered the Delhi Sultanate. Soon after, Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq ordered a part of Delhi’s Muslim intellectuals to move there.
Tughlaq’s move was very unpopular. The Chisti Sufis of Delhi, at the time, was ordered to dispersion in Deccan to convert to the Tughlaq banner, led by the famous Nizamuddin Auliya. Historian Carl W. Ernst, Anant Parks: Mysticism, History and Politics in a South Asian Sufi centerStudied this phenomenon using contemporary Sufi writing. Chistis converted to state officials, nor was he interested in “conversion”. At the same time, many of his initiatives had personal relations with Tughlaq authorities, and therefore, in small groups, they started arriving at Deccan. Ellora, as a sacred site separated from Devagiri/Daulatabad, was the ideal basis for Sufi Masters – and, eventually, for their tombs.
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Aurangzeb (and their rivals) were buried in Khobdabad
After centuries, the Sufi Complex in Ellora received protection from all regional Deccan SultanatsThese regional sultanas, it should be emphasized, Very different From today’s political image of Indian Muslim power: Their courts were multilingual and multi -level, and the Deccan Sultans regularly used Marathi and Telugu, who used to adopt titles such as “son of Saraswati”, after the goddess of learning.
Under his rule, Sufi Masters continued to migrate to North India, Central Asia and Ellora. Such a great Sufi Ellora was fame that many Sultans chose to be buried here, especially the private Shahis, who claimed to be a descendant of Brahmins. These Deccan Muslims were also a great fan of Ellora; As the historian of Bijapuri, Rafi-al Deen Shirazi wrote in the mid-1500s: “Such beautiful and well-written things are in those buildings and courtyards, if someone wishes to convince them all, he will fail … The listener should prepare the brain’s fatigue!”
Unfortunately, a few decades later, Deccan became a goal of Mughal aggression. As it was specific to Indian kings, the Mughals tried muscles in the holy site in Ellora, taking care of some Sufi tombs there. However, from a newly established city of Khadki nearby, a Deccani Ethiopian General, Malik Ambar carried out decades of guerrilla wars against the Mughals before his death in 1626-after which he was buried in a tomb in Sufi Ellora. Khadki, which is now to Aurangabad, became the basis of a Mughal prince: Aurangzeb.
Today, looking at Aurangzeb’s depiction in the right -wing media, he immediately set out to destroy the ancient temples of Ellora (and there is clear evidence that he did so in various North Indian centers of his career). Surprisingly, however, amidst his common religious insults, a letter by Aurangzeb has to say about the Kailasnath Temple in Ellora Kalimat-e-Taiyibat,[It is] One of the miracles of the work of True Transcendant Artison [God]”. Aurangzeb often visited Sufis there, although he spent most of his life Deccan (at a terrible cost in blood and fire) in an attempt to conquer. Obviously, the holy aura of the site could be the most serious and the most serious calm of the chieftains: the Mughal Empire began to slip, Aurangz said” this sinner. Shirazi, one of the early Sufis, who moved to Ellora. Viewed The tomb soon after his release from Mughal captivity around 1708.
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Recurrence of mistakes
I am not questioning the historically present temple destructions of Aurangzeb in North India; Nor does it place to check collective memories and records about their harassment. The reality is that today, Aurangzeb has come to represent all the Mughals, and the Mughals are held to represent all Indian Muslims: our history is presented as the story of eternal fanaticism and religious rivalry. For example, we are to believe that the destruction of a dead person’s grave is about Hindu pride – instigated and provoked by filmmakers and politicians. Importantly, it is also about sending a message to minorities: many reports Claim That Nagpur violence started with the burning of the Quran, although the situation has deteriorated since then.
Instead, I want to ask: Is Khuldabad related to Aurangzeb alone? We know from the documents of the Mughal court, Studied by Historian Abhishek Carcker, that in the 18th century Hindu did not modify Aurangzeb as a distant 21st century far-flung. We have already noticed the activities of Maratha king Shahuji; Court documents also show that both male and female, Hindu pilgrims, visited the grave to eat and pray for children in their kitchen. We also know about the generations of Deccan Muslim teachers, scholars and rulers, who were buried before and after Aurangzeb in Khuldabad, who had nothing to do with war and intolerance. He praised and respected the site. Should St. Zain-al Deen Shirazi’s tomb, of which Aurangzeb is part of the grave, should also be destroyed? Should there be even more destruction of our response to the temple destruction of a dead person?
A cautious attack on Khuladabad, if it comes, will definitely endanger the millennium of Indian Muslim history, both immigrants and local. We cannot only tear any aspect of the past that we dislike, and can white the aspects we like. In every way, Aurangzeb hates, but these high-picked attacks on historical monuments are not a historical wrong, nor do they solve contemporary challenges. How much should our past be sacrificed on the altar of weekly publicity points?
The Anirudh Kanisti is a public historian. He is the author of Lord’s of the Lords of the Daycane, a new history of medieval South India, and hosts the echo of India and Yudh Podcast. He tweets @akanisetti. Views are personal.
This article is a part of ‘Think medievalThe series that makes a deep dive in India’s medieval culture, politics and history.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)