Book Review: Aurangzeb - The Man and the Myth by Audrey Truschke

In India people don’t need to search about Aurangzeb online or offline, the name itself is enough. From the Indian history, Aurangzeb has always been surrounded with pernicious myths, even in schools it has been taught that Aurangzeb was the most powerful and successful king of Mughals because of his barbarian nature. And because of this negative portrayal he has been always placed around controversy. On the other hand, he was the only Mughal Emperor to actually have an empire that expanded the Mughal Empire to its maximum size.

Aurangzeb, a personality that has been researched and written on by many, but still remains one of the widely talked off Emperors even today. He is seen as a king who was communal, and pushed forth an Islamic agenda. Well, many of these myths have been broken by this book. Only readers can decide whether this book was written in the emperor’s favour or to check the veracity of history.

It is an intelligently argued book, which gives a logical reasoning for why a certain myth, surely popular but untrue must have surfaced and lingered around over the centuries. It breaks a lot of images and poplar imprints on our brain regarding this man. A must read for people interested in knowing the other side of Aurangzeb.

The author made all plausible attempts not to sound monotonous, however at some places information is being repeated. The last chapter sums up the entire book and it builds an aura of credibility and readers may feel satiated. All in all, an interesting read for anyone interested in Mughals or the controversial King - Aurangzeb.

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