Most Brutal Mughal Emperor - Aurangzeb's Story Explained In 20 Minutes

Summary

The video delves into the controversial reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, known for his brutal path to power. As the son of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb had to navigate familial treachery and political intrigue to ascend the throne. The narrative covers the influence of Aurangzeb's siblings, the dynamics of power struggles, and his formidable military tactics. Aurangzeb is portrayed not only as a ruthless leader but also as a complex figure shaped by circumstances. His skill in battlefield strategies and manipulation of alliances are highlighted, along with the intricate relationships and cultural tensions within the Mughal Empire.

Highlights

• Aurangzeb emerged victorious in a deadly power struggle against his brothers to claim the throne. 👑
• His battlefield prowess and clever strategy turned seemingly unfavorable situations to his advantage. 🤺
• The influence of rich, fertile provinces played a crucial role in his rise to supremacy. 🚀
• Aurangzeb skillfully manipulated alliances, especially with his brother Murad, to strengthen his position. 🔗
• The religious dynamics within Aurangzeb's reign were complex, often used as tools for political gain. 📜

Key Takeaways

• Aurangzeb had to defeat his own brothers to ascend the throne, classic Game of Thrones drama! ⚔️
• Despite being ruthless, Aurangzeb was a brilliant military tactician, turning challenges into strengths. 💪
• Aurangzeb's story shows how circumstances shape leaders, not just inherent cruelty. 🤔
• The Mughal Empire was rife with familial intrigue and political machinations, truly a royal mess! 🏰
• Religious and cultural complexities ran deep in the Mughal court, stirring both unity and discord. ✨

Overview

Navigating through tumultuous familial relations and a brutal path to power, Aurangzeb is one of the Mughal Empire's most controversial figures. Often labeled as ruthless, his ascent to the throne was marked by dramatic confrontations with his brothers, turning royal bloodline into a battlefield. This period was nothing less than a historical soap opera filled with betrayal, rivalry, and a relentless quest for power which Aurangzeb mastered with calculated precision.

What set Aurangzeb apart was not just his willingness to act decisively but his expertise in military strategies and his astute use of resources. Sent to less fertile provinces by his father to keep him in check, Aurangzeb turned these challenges into opportunities. His battlefield acumen and ability to rally sizeable forces underlined his campaign, leveraging wealth and resources to fortify his power base.

In the tapestry of the Mughal court where cultural and religious diversity were profoundly intertwined, Aurangzeb's reign was both divisive and defining. His use of religious narratives furthered his political agenda, crafting an empire where alliances were fluid and loyalties tested. The intrigue of Mughal politics reflected the endless struggle for authority and survival, culminating in Aurangzeb's complex legacy that resonates through history.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to the Channel The chapter introduces the "TRS Clips" channel, which aims to be a learning space on YouTube. The host encourages viewers to watch more videos, like, and subscribe. A brief mention is made about a Bollywood movie related to a power struggle involving Aurangzeb, suggesting an interest in historical narratives and their representations in media.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Aurangzeb's Ascent to Power and Family Dynamics The chapter discusses the ascent of Aurangzeb to power within the Mughal Empire, highlighting the ruthless strategies he employed to claim the throne. It introduces the notion that Aurangzeb's actions were not unique but part of a historical pattern within the Mughal dynasty where siblings often fought to the death for power. The commentary suggests that although Aurangzeb is often perceived as the most malevolent of his siblings, his actions were in line with historical practices among Mughal rulers.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Darashikoh's Personality and Interests The chapter discusses the brutal and deadly struggle for succession among the Mughal princes. The process is depicted as a ruthless battle where each contender must eliminate their rivals to survive and become the Emperor. It highlights the grim reality that the choices are stark: one either secures the throne or faces death. This struggle involves key figures like Aurangzeb, Darashikoh (Darashikoh is likely intended but was cut-off in the transcript), and Murad, indicating the intense competition and deadly nature of royal succession during this historical period.
• 04:00 - 10:00: Aurangzeb's Military Encounters and Strategy The chapter titled 'Aurangzeb's Military Encounters and Strategy' seems to explore the dynamics among the four sons of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, with a focus on Aurangzeb. The transcript highlights how Aurangzeb's character and relationships are perceived, particularly in contrast to his brothers. Aurangzeb is seen through the lens of his secular outlook and charisma, as well as being Shah Jahan's favored or 'darling' son. This favoritism might have influenced Aurangzeb's position and actions as a prince, potentially impacting his military strategies and encounters.
• 10:00 - 15:30: Alliance with Murad and the War of Succession This chapter discusses the strategic alliance with Murad during the Mughal War of Succession. A Mughal Prince is provided with provinces, particularly the fertile regions of Punjab along the Ganges, from which he can extract revenue. The narrative briefly touches upon the personal characteristics and behavior of Murad, mentioning his indulgence in certain vices.
• 15:30 - 18:30: Capture and Execution of Darashikoh This chapter covers a strategic move by Shah Jahan, the emperor, to neutralize potential threats from his sons. Aurangzeb, perceived as a threat, was assigned to govern less prosperous lands such as Kabul and Deccan. These provinces were less fertile, yielding less revenue and consequently reducing military power as financial limitations would hinder the ability to pay and reward jagirdars (mansabdars) effectively. This action was intended to keep Aurangzeb occupied and away from the center of power.
• 18:30 - 19:00: Aurangzeb's Justification and Family Dynamics This chapter delves into the familial and political dynamics during Aurangzeb's time, highlighting Aurangzeb's motivations and justifications. It explores how his brother, Dara Shikoh, grew up with the belief that he would be the next emperor. Dara Shikoh's interests lay significantly in religious discussions, engaging with Hindu, Christian, and Muslim scholars to foster a more stable future empire.
• 19:00 - 19:40: Representation of Women in Mughal History The chapter explores the representation of women during the Mughal era, highlighting their societal roles and contributions. The narrative intermingles historic anecdotes with literary references, illustrating how women's identities transformed and flourished in the Mughal dominion. It delves into poetry interpretations and the metaphorical aspects of becoming pearls versus oceans, indicating a transformative process linked with empowerment.
• 19:40 - 20:00: Conclusion and Channel Playlists The chapter discusses a metaphor about not wanting to limit oneself to becoming just a 'pearl', but rather aspiring to encompass the 'entire ocean'. It touches upon the idea that poetry focuses on beauty and expression rather than absolute truth.

Most Brutal Mughal Emperor - Aurangzeb's Story Explained In 20 Minutes Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 welcome to TRS Clips I began this channel because sometimes on YouTube you just want to go on learning space so after this fantastic video make sure you watch the other videos on the channel hit like subscribe and enjoy why don't we talk about his Ascent to power because I believe there was a Bollywood movie being made about it called and whatever little I've read about the story of that seems to be based on the fact that there was this uh kind of power struggle between aurangzeb and his brothers and he had to kill a
• 00:30 - 01:00 bunch of his brothers to actually Ascend to the throne and the kind of consensus is that he was the most evil of all the brothers and the other brothers were better but ma'am you go on but as I told you it was the it was the legacy of the Mughal it was the history that they have to kill whoever is claiming the throne and then become the emperor please do not blame Bacha aurangzeb alone you mean one of the younger siblings or someone later on in
• 01:00 - 01:30 the succession line has to kill the ones ahead of him no who he not has to kill whoever survives after killing others not has to kill everybody is trying to kill each other though but the Survivor of the whole entire drama will become the Emperor as I told you either you have the throne or you go into the grave there are only two options you will have if you wear aurangzeb if you were the rashiko if you wear Murad or if you are
• 01:30 - 02:00 shashuja the four sons of sajan so you choose you and I don't blame aurangzeb because whom we praise and whom we you know like because he was secular he was so he was very good looking and he was the ladla I don't know exact English word in that the darling the darling of shahajan so he was always given the see even as a Mughal Prince if
• 02:00 - 02:30 you are a Mughal Prince you are given certain provinces and you get you get to get some money out of those provinces so he was given the excellent fertile provinces of Punjab wherever on the Ganges on the belt of Ganges all fertile land to uh was sent to bengal they say was a womanizer and a Murad who
• 02:30 - 03:00 was a drunkard youngest of them was sent to Gujarat and aurangzeb who who was a threat to shahajan whom he thought is a threat to him was sent on provinces like fight your fight your war in Kabul borders get me Kabul or you go to Deccan these are not fertile lands you are not getting money in from that and when you get less money you have less military power because you can't pay the you can't give the land to mansadas and ask
• 03:00 - 03:30 them to keep the cavalry so all these problems so Aaron said what happened in the process uh darashiko grew up thinking he is the next Emperor and he spent all his time discussing religion with Hindu pandits and Christian pandits and Muslim pandits as an attempt to create a most stable Empire on the Future No he was just interested in that he was interested in
• 03:30 - 04:00 those subjects he was an intellectual I'll tell you what he's one of the poems I love is why do I have to as a ray I am a raindrop ah why do I have to fall in the ocean and become a pearl I don't want to be that I want to become the ocean this is going to take some time for me to understand the meaning so I will let you explain your meaning of this point so he says I may as a received raindrops fall in
• 04:00 - 04:30 the uh in the Shell that and then they become Pearl pearls he said I don't want to become a pearl I want to become the entire ocean is I don't want to limit myself to become a pull he didn't want to become the emperor hold on he didn't say he doesn't say that he did want to become the emperor see when you write poems it's not that always you write the truth it's just the beauty of the people okay okay gotcha so it's like I don't want to
• 04:30 - 05:00 just become the Pearl and then you know restrict myself to become a pearl I I want to fall in the ocean to become the ocean but unfortunately he got killed so he got killed because now you tell me who only say only thing was aurangzeb was very good on the battlefields and that's what counted excellent in Battlefield and his Mansa and their Cavalry forces were X where real
• 05:00 - 05:30 ruthless uh soldiers this is excellent on the battlefield angle what does it actually translate to its military tactics were very good military tactics then it it is the practice you know if you spend your life on the battlefield then you become you know what tactics to apply experience experience because he was saying exactly experience that is what I'm trying to tell you experience so shaja sent him far out to give him a
• 05:30 - 06:00 tough challenge oh tough challenge but he became stronger Stronger Yeah yeah there were a lot of hassles shahajan was always I always see nobody no baby is born cruel and no baby is bad or good it's the circumstances so I do not want to outright said Bacha aurangzeb was bad man or afzal Khan was bad man or Mirza Rajesh I sing the one who could have become the Emperor of India uh joined
• 06:00 - 06:30 the Mughal forces and he's a idiot or a bad man no is this the circumstances you know that is what I try to depict in my books how circumstances paid a played role in badshah aurangzeb's life so when he was in the Deccan when he was in the Deccan uh you have to send some see 20 percent of the earnings you have to say some money has to go to the Empire or the all the money has to go to the emperor's Treasury and then he will send
• 06:30 - 07:00 you money or something like that it was so there was a lot of fight between Father and Son according to shahajan he blamed aurangzeb that you are cheating me and you are not sending the entire money and because he was and aurangzeb said this is these are my uh books you know these are my account books look at that I am not cheating you so there was a lot of misunderstandings so what was aurangzeb's strategy now
• 07:00 - 07:30 he's very clever you know he's very very clever now he thought I don't have money and my father is going to die soon and I do not want because the entire military forces are going to go to um his brother darashiku because he's the ladla the darling of the masses and even the emperor so how do I become strong how do I become strong I have this
• 07:30 - 08:00 I was almost winning these two shahis are there if I conquer them I will get 10 to 15 crores of rupees you know they're lying in their treasury they were Rich Hyderabad was a rich very rich State you can read in why it was rich rich you can read in challenging Destiny what's the short yeah so they had lot of trade they had Diamond trade they had they had elephant Cavalry trade with who with the entire world see whatever
• 08:00 - 08:30 little world was there the diamonds of Hyderabad were very famous they had spices and it was a rich country you see and that is why uh another character comes in I forget the name of that character mirjumla Miriam last character is there very famous in my books so what he thought that if I capture now they are giving paying me tribute and they have not paid the Mughal Empire tribute for long long time if I capture them and make make
• 08:30 - 09:00 them Deccan provinces provinces of the Empire and I am a Deccan subedar of Mughal they were the subedars you know okay so if I get these kingdoms or shahis as provinces of the mughals then I get I can lay hand on their entire wealth and
• 09:00 - 09:30 I become rich and I can keep mansadas and improve my Army so he went and attacked he went and attacked Adil Shahi he went and attacked Hyderabad hyderabadi almost captured but they wrote to shahajan that your son is getting too powerful call him back so shahajan send a firman do not touch Qutub Shahi and he had to come back aurangzeb had to come back but still he acquired some land and money from them
• 09:30 - 10:00 and he strengthened this Army so this way he he was going against his father's wishes to become powerful in the end he did become powerful and then comes the treachery first he made himself little powerful in the on the basis of having more mansabdas and more army because he squeezed some money out of Qutub Shahi some money of Adil Shai and he bought their soldiers
• 10:00 - 10:30 so then he became powerful enough then he knew that Murad is a brother who can be used and what he writes to Murad that darashiko is a mulhid means the idolater means it's like a it's a curse in good in Persian that he is non-believer because he is discussing defunct politics of Aristotle and Pluto with Hindu pundits so how he can be he we
• 10:30 - 11:00 have to cut him down with Islamic sword so why I'm explaining this that this how shirai used all this history you know so he wrote to Murad and he said that look uh you know uh we both can join together I'm though I I am so like I
• 11:00 - 11:30 don't want to become the emperor I am very like I am very religious and I want to go into the path shown by our religion so I want you to become the emperor he wrote the letter is there I am talking with the correspondents nothing no there is no dispute on this and then um we will join hands and we will attack uh when shaja and the news of shajan illness started filtering in he writes
• 11:30 - 12:00 this to Murad and says that we will attack them together and you I want to make you the emperor because I don't have any um desire to become the Emperor or badshah what desire I have to cut down the person who is going against our religion joined him in that war of succession why did he fall for it now that is more that he wasn't that intelligent perhaps I don't know I that
• 12:00 - 12:30 see certain things in history we don't really know why people acted the way they acted but as for my instincts in why historical fiction I have given the reason why he acted because alone he could not have done anything alone he would have died anyway committed lot of crimes in Gujarat for that he was punished later by aurangzeb himself so he joined aurangzeb in his forces and aurangzeb's forces then they went
• 12:30 - 13:00 through towards ujjain where they where they faced a very brave rajput not Mirza Raja jaising jaswan Singh rathod and jaswan Singh rathod had come to fight the war to with them sent by shahajan or to protect his darling darashiku and they massacred the entire 100 10 000
• 13:00 - 13:30 rajputs were massacred in that war that was now war of succession had started so uh then um this Murad and Aaron Zeb proceeded towards Agra they defeated jaswan Singh rathod he was a he was the king of most powerful rajput Kingdom and the force was so huge you know so darashiko came to the south of Agra with his forces and
• 13:30 - 14:00 he hesitated for two three days because he was never on the battlefield so he says what should I do or shall I attack shall I not attack he had 40 50 000 once uh I mean Cavalry forces either elephant or horse so he wasted three days in that three days that was a month off I think it was summer that time and these people have come from ujjain to Agra you see how the temperatures must have been so in three
• 14:00 - 14:30 days uh aurangzeb's Army could relax and there he took the there he used the religion there he lectured his soldiers that how important our religion is and our religion sword should come down on darashiku so many orthodox mansabdas they joined our friendship see he used I'm not talking any religion is bad or good how you perceive it and
• 14:30 - 15:00 how you use it to your advantage you can use it for good you can use it for bad then the relaxed Army of aurangzeb and Murad and they had a big fight there huge War happened not fight huge not even born battle happened the right word is battle in that battle a lot of forces joined aurangzeb Tara's forces ran away towards him and uh the entire Army was massacred darashikus who stood by him
• 15:00 - 15:30 and then he ran away that's when he fell down from the you can read in my book how he fell down from the elephant and how he was saved and he rescued and he ran away to into the Agra fort and hid there and from there he ran away to Delhi and from there he ran away to uh to the borders of Afghan
• 15:30 - 16:00 and then he went to Boland pass and
• 16:00 - 16:30 caught darashika and brought him back to Delhi and then where he was he was put to a trial um you know and she under Sharia law and he was beheaded that is his story beheaded four we headed for being uh being a mulhid uh idolater and uh and he he actually what he did he wrote a book
• 16:30 - 17:00 which is known as meeting of two oceans two religions so that is his biggest crime how can he do that it is like a books like this still available I don't know but he wrote that book manuscripts may be available he wrote that book uh oceans mingling of two oceans what's a manuscript manuscript is the like there were no printing books printed books no so when an author writes the book which
• 17:00 - 17:30 is not a book as it but his story is known as manuscript okay okay maybe available go on so my in the in that book I have made there is a strong character their sister jahanara she was very secular and there is a big conversation which happened between aurangzeb and jahanara it is there in history and it is there in my book also that she tells him that uh you know spare your brothers
• 17:30 - 18:00 at least she loves darashiko very much as a brother so he then he tells her in my book don't cast morals what has father done you see father had Massacre 36 of them including khushru khushru who was the son of jahangir and who was blinded and imprisoned by his own father who was also killed by his half-brother we don't call Step Brothers they called
• 18:00 - 18:30 half brothers that time which is shajan shajan masaka 36 of them to come to the bar so there aurangzeb tells jahanara I like to empower women characters you know in my book being a woman writer Maybe then I love that character Johanna and I really went deep into her poetry and a lot of things including aurangzeb's daughters what was the condition of women they see actually the Mughal women were
• 18:30 - 19:00 too in the eyes of Mughal men the Mughal women were too precious to marry anybody so they all remained unmarried really yeah many of them were never married one was imprisoned by aurangzeb she was a great poet her poetry is amazing so you know these women characters even maratha women are very strong they were
• 19:00 - 19:30 so now I am thinking of writing a book on maratha women non-fiction The Feisty women in maratha history which I would like to write if you know my health remains good thank you for watching our team spends a lot of time curating playlists just for you so make sure you check out all the playlists that we've created on TRS Clips if you want to speed up your learning process