The Great Mughal Emperor Alamgir Aurangzeb (1618-1707; Reign: 1658-1707) was an enigmatic personality in the history of South Asia. Aurangzeb assumed the name of Alamgir only on becoming the Emperor in 1658. Unlike the Mughal emperors who preceded him, he is not directly credited with a lot of architectural activity other than religious and pious buildings. For example, Aurangzeb’s personality and architectural contributions are described thus: Alamgir Aurangzeb was known for his piety and zeal, and his reign was marked by a gradual increase in Islamic orthodoxy.
The latter part of his reign marks the end of a great age of imperial Mughal patronage. Alamgir Aurangzeb added little to the imperial palaces built by his forebears but commissioned the construction of a number of mosques. Aurangzeb is credited with commissioning the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore (1671), and was also responsible for various mosque expansions such as the Jamia Mosque in Bijapur (1686) and the Mecca Masjid Mosque in Hyderabad (1687). The construction and enlargement of mosques is often understood as an expression of his Sunni zeal.
In the Deccan, where he spent much of his life, first as the Viceroy (ca. 1636-45, and 1653-58) and later as the Mughal Emperor (ca. 1683-1707), only two sites other than mosques are popularly associated with him, the Bibi-ka-Maqbara mausoleum that he built for his wife in Aurangabad, and his own grave at Khuldabad.
Both are well-known, and serve to highlight his complex personality. The ostentatious Bibi-ka-Maqbara (literally ‘Tomb of the Queen’ in Urdu) was built in memory of his wife Dilras Banu Begum (posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Durrani died 1657), a princess from the Safavid ruling family
As per an in situ inscription, the Bibi-ka-Maqbara was completed in 1660/61 after Alamgir Aurangzeb had become the Emperor.
Yet, the story of his son being the patron is commonly perpetuated because the commission does not fit the narrative of Aurangzeb’s puritanical zeal and austerity. In keeping with that latter image, Aurangzeb’s grave at Khuldabad is a very simple affair, a piece of land open to the ground in the corner of a courtyard in the dargah of Sayyad Zain-al-din Shirazi.
His own orders regarding his simple burial are quite well known. Even the marble screens added around the spartan grave were only added in the early twentieth century upon the insistence of Lord Curzon, who asked the Nizam of Hyderabad to commission them.
