As Nagpur seethes over the future of Aurangzeb’s grave in Khuldabad/ Daulatabad/Aurangabad—now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar—it may be germane to remember that the sixth Mughal Emperor actually did not want his last resting place to be embellished or commemorated in any way. That, in fact, is the most telling reminder of how orthodox a Muslim he really was. It was the British Viceroy Lord Curzon who had Aurangzeb’s burial spot ‘beautified’.

Aurangzeb’s belief in the most austere form of Islam led him to decree that his grave be simple and unmarked, in a plot that he supposedly paid for by stitching skullcaps and copying the Quran rather than from state funds. His only concession to softer Islamic practices, probably, was that he bought that piece of land near the dargah of a 14th century Sufi saint of the Chishti order, Shaikh Zainuddin Shirazi, in the Tughlaq-era area called Rauza, rather than in Delhi.

The Rs 14 and 12 annas that Aurangzeb earned through his labour to finance his last resting place bought him a modest plot, three yards long and two yards wide. A red sandstone slab with a hollowed centre marks his grave but no inscription indicates its imperial occupant. Obviously, though, who the grave contained did not fade from public memory. Nearly 300 years later the Nizam of Hyderabad, under the benevolent eye of Lord Curzon, added marble decorations.

If anything, Aurangzeb’s idea for his final resting place appeared to be inspired by his older sister Jahan Ara. She famously preferred to go into incarceration with her father Shahjahan rather than continue........

© News18