Before accession.
"The temple of Chintaman, situated close to Sarashpur, and built by
Sitadas jeweller, was converted into a mosque named Quwat-ul-islam by
order of the Prince Aurangzib, in 1645' (Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 252.) The
Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I. pt. 1. p. 280, adds that he slaughtered a cow
in the temple, but Shah Jahan ordered the building to be restored to the
Hindus.
"In Ahmadabad and other parganahs of Gujrat in the days before my
accession [many] temples were destroyed by my order. They have been
repaired and idol worship has been resumed. Carry out the former
order.'1 Farman dated 20 Nov., 1665. {Mirat, 275).
"The village of Sattarah near Aurangabad was my hunting ground. Here on
the top of a hill stood a temple with an image of Khande Rai. By God's
grace I demolished it, and forbade the temple dancers (murlis) to ply
their shameful trade." Aurangzib to Bidar Bakht in Kalimat-i-Tayyibat, 7
b.
After accession.
"It has been decided according to our Canon Law that long-standing
temples should not be demolished, but no new temple allowed to be
built...Information has reached our...Court that certain persons have
harassed the Hindus resident in Benares and its environs and certain
Brahmans who have the right of holding charge of the ancient temples
there, and that they further desire to remove these Brahmans from their
ancient office. Therefore, our royal command is that you should direct
that in future no person shall in unlawful ways interfere with or
disturb the Brahmans and other Hindus resident in those
places."—Aurangzib's "Benares farman" addressed to Abul Hassan, dated
28th Feb., 1659
"The temple of Somnath was demolished early in my reign and idol worship
(there) put down. It is not known what the state of things there is at
present. If the idolators have again taken to the worship of images at
the place, then destroy the temple in such a way that no trace of the
building may be left, and also expel them (the worshippers) from the
place."—Letter of Aurangzib in the last decade of his reign.
Inayetullah's Ahkam, 10a, Mirat, 372.
19 Dec., 1661. Mir Jumla entered the city of Kuch Bihar, which had been
evacuated by its king and people, and "appointed Sayyid Md. Sadiq to be
chief judge, with directions to destroy all the Hindu temples and to
erect mosques in their stead. The general himself with a battle-axe
broke the image of Narayan."—Stewart's Bengal.
"The Emperor learning that in the temple of Keshav Rai at Mathura there
was a stone railing presented by Dara Shukoh, remarked, 'In the Muslim
faith it is a sin even to look at a temple, and this Dara had restored a
railing in a temple ! This fact is not creditable to the Muham-madans.
Remove the railing.' By his order Abdun Nabi Khan (the faujdar of
Mathura) removed it."— Akhbarat, 9th year, sheet 7, (14 Oct., 1666).
9th April. 1669. "The Emperor ordered the governors of all the provinces
to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and strongly put
down their teaching and religious practices."—Masir-i-Alamgiri, 81. (De
Graaf, when at Hughli in 1670. heard of the order. Orme's Frag., 250.)
May, 1669. "Salih Bahadur, mace-bearer, was sent to pull down the temple of Malama."—M.A. 84.
2nd Sep. "News came to Court that according to the Emperor's command,
his officers had demolished the temple of Bishwanath at Benares."—Ibid.,
88.
January, 1670. "In this month of Ramzan, the religious-minded Emperor
ordered the demolition of the temple at Mathura known as the Dehra of
Keshav Rai. His officers accomplished it in a short time. A grand mosque
was built on its site at a vast expenditure. The temple had been built
by Bir Singh Dev Bundela, at a cost of 33 lakhs of Rupees. Praised be
the God of the great faith of Islam that in the auspicious reign of this
destroyer of infidelity and turbulence, such a marvellous and
[seemingly] impossible feat was accomplished. On seeing this linstance
of their strength of the Emperor's faith and the grandeur of his
devotion to God. the Rajahs felt suffocated and they stood in amazement
like statues facing the walls. The idols, large and small, set with
costly jewels, which had been set up in the temple, were brought to Agra
and buried under the steps of the mosque of Jahanara, to be trodden
upon continually."—Ibid
7th April, 1670. "News came from Malwa that Wazir Khan had sent Gada
Beg, a slave, with 400 troopers, to destroy all temples around
Ujjain......A Rawat of the place resisted and slew Gada Beg with 121 of
his men." —Akhbarat, 13th year, sheet 17.
"Order issued on all faujdars of thanahs, civil officers {mutasaddis),
agents of jagirdars, kroris, and amlas, from Katak to Medinipur on the
frontier of Orissa:—The imperial Paymaster Asad Khan has sent a letter
written by order of the Emperor, to say, that the Emperor learning from
the news-letters of the province of Orissa that at the village of
Tilkuti in Medinipur a temple has been (newly] built, has issued his
august mandate for its destruction, and the destruction of all temples
built anywhere in this province by the worthless infidels. Therefore,
you are commanded with extreme urgency that immediately on the receipt
of this letter you should destroy the above-mentioned temples. Every
idol-house built during the last 10 or 12 years, whether with brick or
clay, should be demolished without delay. Also, do not allow the crushed
Hindus and despicable infidels to repair their old temples. Reports of
the destruction of temples should be sent to the Court under the seal of
the qazis and attested by pious Shaikhs."—Muraqat-i-Abul Hassan,
(completed in 167Q-A.D.) p. 202.
"In every parganah officers have come from the thanahs with orders from
the Presence for the destruction of idols."—A letter preserved in the
Yasho-Madhav temple of Dhamrai in the Dacca district, dated 27 June,
1672, and printed in J. M. Ray's Bengali History of Dacca, i. 389.
"Darab Khan was sent with a strong force to punish-the Rajputs of
Khandela and demolish the great temple of that place." (M.A. 171.) "He
attacked the place on 8th March, 1679, and pulled down the temples of
Khande and Sanula and all other temples in the neighbourhood." {M.A.
173.)
"25 May 1679. Khan-i-Jahan Bahadur returned from Jodhpur after
demolishing its temples, and bringing with himself several cart-loads of
idols. The Emperor ordered that the idols,—which were mostly of gold
silver brass copper or stone and adorned with jewels,—should be cast in
the quadrangle of the Court and under the steps of the Jama mosque for
being trodden upon."—M.A. 175.
Jan. 1680. "The grand temple in front of the Maha-rana's mansion [at
Udaipur]—one of the wonderful buildings of the age. which had cost the
infidels much money —was destroyed and its images broken." (M.A. 186.)
"On 24 Jan. the Emperor went to view the lake Udaisagar and ordered all
the three temples on its banks to be pulled down." (p 188.) "On 29 Jan.
Hassan Ali Khan reported that 172 other temples in the environs of
Udaipur had been demolished." (p. 189.) "On 22nd Feb. the Emperor went
to look at Chitor. and by his order the 63 temples of the place were
destroyed." (p. 189.)
10 Aug. 1680. Abu Turab returned to Court and reported that he had
pulled down 66 temples in Amber" (p. 194). 2 Aug. 1680. Temple cf
Someshwar in western Mewar ordered to be destroyed.—A dab, 287a and
290a.
Sep. 1687. On the capture of Golkonda, the Emperor appointed Abdur Rahim
Khan as Censor uf the city of Haidarabad with orders to put down
infidel practices and [heretical] innovations and destroy the temples
and build mosques on their sites.—Khafi Khan, ii. 358-359.
Middle of 1698. "Hamidudcin Khan Bahadur who had been deputed to destroy
the temple of Bijapur and build a mosque (there), returned to Court
after carrying the order out and was praised by the Emperor."— M.A. 396
"The demolition of a temple is possible at any time, as it cannot walk
away from its place."—Aurangzib to Zulfiqar Khan and Mughal Khan in K.
T. 39 a.
"The houses of this country [Maharashtra] are exceedingly strong and
built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Government in the
course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e.,
time) to destroy and raze the temples of the infidels that meet the eye
on the way. You should appoint an orthodox Inspector (darogha) who may
afterwards destroy them at leisure and dig up their
foundations."—Aurangzib to Ruhullah Khan in Kalimai-i-Aurangzib, p. 34
of Rampur MS. and /. 35 a of I. 0. L. MS. 3301.
"1 Jan. 1705. The Emperor, summoning Muhammad Khalil and Khidmat Rai,
the darogha of hatchet-men..., ordered them to demolish the temple of
Pandharpur, and to take the butchers of the camp there and slaughter
cows in the temple...It was done."—Akhbarai, 49-7.
