Reflections on Things at Hand: Aurangzeb's Tomb

Yes, back to India - must still be working through some karmic homework. Here are a couple pictures from the weekend that I took the sleeper bus from Mumbai up to Aurangabad. The weekend was a whirlwind, including seeing the holy caves, which I've written about before. One of the quicker stops on the tour was a visit to the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who was a fascinating character. He is the one who overthrew his father, Shah Jahan, partially because of all the financial resources that Shah Jahan was spending on the construction of the extraordinary tomb for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal - the Taj Mahal. Having already seen the Taj Mahal, it was strange to see the tomb of the man who was so opposed to the splendor of it. Augangzeb was an incredibly devout Muslim and he reversed a lot of the religious toleration that had marked the reigns of the earlier Mughal rulers, especially that of the extraordinary Akbar. In much the same way that a very strict protestant might have been opposed to the luxury of the Catholic Church at its height, Aurangzeb was also appalled by the artistic flowering of the earlier Mughal rulers - so many of the painting were white-washed, etc. For this reason Aurangzeb isn't portrayed in too positive of a light historically - although at the end of his life he realized that he had gone too far. His final writing reflect a man who had, in his own way, tried to follow Allah's light, but who regretted the severity of his actions. As you might have expected from such a man, the tomb was essentially nothing - really just a shrub planted on top of a small bit of ground. The tomb was watched over by two guardians, one a charming and wizened old gentleman - and the other his young and blind apprentice. The younger man had memorized his speech on Aurangzeb's reign, which he presented quite beautifully, although he felt that he English was not very good - and he was very shy about having his picture taken - but his older teacher talked him into it, and obviously loved having the visitor.