On 2/8/23 7:38 PM, Louis Epstein wrote:
> If either this war had gone differently on battlefields,
> or Aurangzeb had not been lucky fighting an elephant head-on
> when he was fifteen circa 1933.and Dara Shikoh had become
> Emperor...then what?
All I know about this period is that by the end of Aurangzeb's reign,
the Moguls held the entire subcontinent except the very southern tip.
ISTR that he was viewed as a ferocious conqueror.
Presumably there was a lot of damage done during his campaigns. If
Dara Shikoh reigns as Grand Mogul instead, India remains largely
peaceful and thus stronger and more prosperous later on.
Alternatively, Dara Shikoh as a religious pluralist might have
united India more peacefully and more successfully than
Aurangzeb.
Or under Dara Shiloh, less able than Aurangzeb, the Mogul state
declines and breaks up in the mid-1600s, leading to widespread
chaos and violence.
--
Nous sommes dans une pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdés.
--- General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot at Sedan, 1870.