Aurangzeb

(r. 1658–1707) The last of the great
emperors in the Moghul dynasty, after
whose reign the empire, which at its
zenith stretched over most of the Indian
subcontinent, was fragmented into
smaller kingdoms. Aurangzeb was a very
strict and pious Muslim who is generally
painted as an enemy of Hinduism. He is
the “bad” Moghul emperor, as opposed
to his great-grandfather Akbar, the
“good” Moghul emperor. Aurangzeb
unquestionably ordered several notable
acts of iconoclasm, the most renowned
being the destruction of the Vishvanath
temple in the city of Benares; however,
the records from his reign also include
orders that the Hindus of that city
should not be hindered from practicing
their religion.
One possible theory that reconciles
these contradictions is that the destruction of the Vishvanath temple and other
acts of iconoclasm were done for political rather than religious reasons, to punish local populations for rebellion and
noncooperation. One piece of evidence
for this theory is that the year before the
destruction of the Vishvanath temple,
the Mahanirvani akhara in Benares took
part in a battle with Aurangzeb’s soldiers.