AURUNGZEBE, a'rung-zel,', or AURANG ZIB (Hind., 'ornament of the throne'). The last great Emperor of the Mogul dynasty in India. ITe was born October 22, 16I5, and died February 21, 1707. He was the third son of Shah Jehan (q.v.), and in religion lie was a bigoted Sunni. He was set by his father over the 2)fogul Deccan, while his elder brothers, Para and Shuja, resided respectively at Agra, with the court, and in Bengal. The youngest brother of Anrungzebe, named 2)lurad, was viceroy of Gujerat. In 1657 Shah Jehan fell se•ioualy ill, and a contest for the throne was immediately begun by his sons. Aurungzebe, by a mixture of duplicity and fanaticism, outwitted his brothers, the two elder of whom he murdered, and made his fatner a prisoner in his own palace of Agra, and kept him so until the death of the latter, possibly by foul play, in 1665. The usurper assumed the title of Aluingir, or 'con queror of the world.' 1'he reign of Aurung zebe, which began in 165S, was troubled, al most as soon as it had begun, by the opposition of a Maliratta chieftain from the mountains of Konkan. named Sivaji. Treachery was employed
against this wily foe in vain, for he remained independent until his death, in 1680. A religious war against the 1;ajall of Udaipur, which dragged on for several years. resulted unsuccessfully for Aurungzebe, who was forced to abandon his military operations in Rajputana in 1652 on account of an abortive rebellion of his son Akbar. Between 1682 and 1689, however, Aurungzebe conquered the sultans of Bejapur and (;-olkonda, and thereby brought the ..11oguls into touch with the English at Madras. The closing years of Aurungzehe's long reign were full of sorrow, and it is noteworthy that lie alone, of all the Mogul emperors, forbade the composition of any history of his reign. Despite the external pomp and the Mogul Empire was tottering to its fall. The treachery of Aurungzebe alienated iNlohammedan Shiites from him, while his re ligious bigotry won for him the undying hatred of the Hindus, whose faith he had insulted and had endeavored to exterminate. Consult Stan ley Lane-Poole, Aurengzib (Loudon, 1893).