Did Aurangzeb ban Music?

An 18th-century miniature in gouache and gold leaf of Aurangzeb seated on a throne  Photo: Bridgeman Art Library 

The sixth and last great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb banned music in the tenth year of his reign, i.e. 1668, even though he personally enjoyed it.

The contemporary Italian historian Niccolao Manucci writes about Aurangzeb's order to an official to stop all music: "If in any house or elsewhere he heard the sound of singing and instruments, he should forthwith hasten there and arrest as many as he could, breaking the instruments. Thus was caused a great destruction of musical instruments. Finding themselves in this difficulty, their large earnings likely to cease, without there being any other mode of seeking a livelihood, the musicians took counsel together and tried to appease the king in the following way. About one thousand of them assembled on a Friday when Aurangzeb was going to the mosque. They came out with more than 20 highly ornamented biers, as is the custom of the country, crying aloud with great grief and many signs of feeling, as if they were escorting to the grave the body of some distinguished person."

To this incident, Aurangzeb is recorded to have said, "Bury [music] so deep under the earth that no sound or echo of it may rise again.”

However, in spite of this, Manucci writes, the Mughal nobles continued to listen to music in secret. He also writes that Aurangzeb did not ban music for the ladies in the harem for their entertainment.

Khushal Khan, the great-grandson of legendary musician Tansen, was given the title of Gun Samundar by Aurangzeb. During his reign, Fakirullah (Saif Khan) wrote  the Rag-darpan (The Mirror of Music) to dedicate it to Aurangzeb. The work is a translation of Man-Kauthal, written at the court of Raja Man Singh of Gwalior.

 

Shah Jahan the Fifth Mughal Emperor

Accession to the Throne 

Shah Jahan (1628-58) was in Deccan when his father Jahangir died in the month of October in 1627. At Lahore, Nur Jahan, one of the wives of Jahangir, proclaimed her son-in-law Shahryar as the emperor, while Asaf Khan, father of Mumtaz Mahal (Shah Jahan’s wife in whose memory Taj Mahal was built) put Dawar Baksh, son of Khusrav (brother of Shah Jahan), on the throne as a stop-gap emperor till the return of Shah Jahan to Agra from Deccan. When Shah Jahan arrived at Agra in February 1628, Dawar Baksh, the “sacrificial lamb’ was deposed and sent in exile to Persia. Asaf Khan defeated, captured and blinded Shahryar. Now decks were clear for Shah Jahan who ascended the Mughal throne at Agra in February 1628. However, Shah Jahan was paid back in his own coin when during his last days when two of his own sons were executed. 

Military Conquests of Shah Jahan 

The first three years of Shah Jahan’s reign were marked by the rebellions of the Bundela Chief Juhar Singh, son of Bir Singh Bundela and of Khan Jahan Lodi. After suppressing these rebellions, he ousted the Portuguese from Hugli and occupied it in 1632. The Nizam Shahi kingdom of Ahmadnagar was finally annexed to the Mughal empire. In 1636-37, Shah Jahan led from the front and himself arrived in the Deccan and compelled Bijapur and Golconda to accept the Mughal Suzerainty and pay annual tribute. Persia had captured Kandahar during the reign of Jahangir, but no attempt was made to recapture it till 1639. The opportunity came in 1639, when Ali Mardan Khan, the discontented Persian Governor of Kandahar, surrendered the fort to the Mughals without fighting. However, Shah Abbas II of Persia wrested Kandahar from the Mughals in 1649. Subsequently, Shah Jahan sent three expeditions to recover Kandahar, but all proved to be miserable failure. 

Last years of Shah Jahan 

The last years of Shah Jahan were spent in misery. In 1658, he was made prisoner by his son Aurangzeb who came out victorious in the terrible war of succession that took place among the sons of Shah Jahan. The war for succession continued till 1661 and in between 1658 and 1661 all the remaining sons were killed or executed. Shah Jahan passed the remaining years of his life in captivity. While in prison, he was badly treated by Aurangzeb. All his efforts for reconciliation ended in naught. At last he “bowed to the inevitable, and like a child that cries itself to sleep, ceased to complain”. Shah Jahan died at the age of seventy-four, on the 22nd January, 1966.

Estimate of Shah Jahan 

The reign of Shah Jahan has been described by many authorities as the ‘climax’ or ‘golden age’ of the Mughal empire. Mughal architecture under him reached its pinnacle. Several foreign tarvellers who visited India during his reign, have left a vivid account of his reign. Of these, two Frenchmen Bernier and Travenier and an Italian adventurer Manucci, the author of the Storio Dor Mogor, are worth mentioning.