How MARATHAS ENDED Mughal dominance in INDIA?

How MARATHAS ENDED Mughals dominance in INDIA? In 1658, Aurangzeb ascended the throne after a bloody civil war with his own brothers. To gain the throne, he imprisoned his father, killed his eldest brother Dara Shikoh, and eliminated other rivals in the royal family.

Unlike his father Shah Jahan – the emperor of art and white domes like the Taj Mahal – Aurangzeb was a fierce warrior and a devout Muslim. He wanted not only to protect what his predecessors had built, but also to bring the Mughal empire to dominate the entire subcontinent. 

How MARATHAS ENDED Mughals dominance in INDIA? Under his rule, the Mughal empire reached its territorial heights, controlling almost the entire land from Kabul to Bengal, from Kashmir to the southern Deccan. In 1686, he declared war on the kingdom of Bijapur – one of the powerful Muslim states in the Deccan – and after more than a year of siege and bloody battles such as the Battle of Sholapur and the Bijapur Fort campaign, he finally conquered the kingdom. 

Soon after, in 1687, Golconda, a kingdom rich in diamonds and precious stones, also fell to the Mughals after an eight-month campaign – culminating in the siege of Golconda, where the Mughals used heavy artillery to break through the Balahisar Gate and enter the heart of the capital. The last independent kingdoms in the south such as Bijapur and Golconda were conquered one after another.

But the glory of territorial expansion could not hide the fact that the empire was hollowing itself out from within: the treasury was depleted by constant warfare, the army was tired, the governing apparatus was increasingly out of touch with reality, and most importantly – the people were gradually cracking down on Aurangzeb’s harsh religious policies.