Emperor Aurangazeb’s Letter to his Teacher
I. Satya Sree
Sir! What do you expect from me? Is there any justification in your asking
that I, in my capacity of a famous Muslim ruler, should take you into my
court? May be your request would have
been reasonable if you had imparted education to me in proper way. A student, who receives good education,
should respect his teacher as he respects his father. But, what have you taught
me? Firstly, you taught saying that
Europe means a small island called Portugal, that the king of that country
alone is great, in the next position is the king of Holland and then comes the
king of England. You also said the king
of the France and Spain are like the petty rulers in our country and that the
King of Hindustan are greater than all those Kings, that they are the emperors
who conquered the whole world and the kings of Persia, Uzbek, Tartar, China,
Eastern China, Pegu, Machina, will shiver at the mere mentioning of the names
of Hindustan kings. Ah! You have taught
excellent history and Geography, indeed! Instead, you should have taught me
about the different countries in the world and their varied interests, the
strengths and weaknesses of those kings, their war strategies, their customs,
religions, Government policies, the advantages, History, progress, downfall,
what disasters and blunders had led to great changes and revolutions-you should
have taught me all these things. I did
not learn anything from you regarding the great men, who established the Mughal
empire. You did not teach me anything about their life histories. You did not teach about the policies and the
strategies that they followed to achieve glorious victories.
You wanted me to learn how to read and write
Arabic. You wasted much of my time on
something, which cannot be mastered unless I worked hard for ten to twelve
years. Perhaps, in your opinion, it is
a great thing if a prince becomes a great linguist and a perfect
grammarian. May be you thought this
esteem is enhanced by learning other languages and foreign languages instead of
learning his mother tongue, the language of his people and the languages of
neighboring states! Infact, he does not need these languages. Time is quite precious during the childhood
for the people like me, who belong to the royal family, since we have to
shoulder so many responsibilities.
There is an urgent need to learn many things during the limited time
that is available to us. You have wasted all my time in teaching Arabic for
such a long time, which was boring activity.
Study of an Arabic was tragic event in my life. It was useless pursuit. I had to learn it with extreme
reluctance. It has even blunted my
intellect. (Persian was the official
language at that time).
Don’t you
know that happy childhood memories are preserved forever, that thousands of
things can be learned which makes everlasting impression on the young minds and
that because of their influence, he can be mentally prepared to take up greater
responsibilities? Is it not possible to learn the laws, prayers, and sciences
in our mother tongue instead of learning them in Arabic?
You have told
my father Shahjahan that you would teach me philosophy. I distinctly remember it. For several years you have fed my mind with
half knowledge of many things which would not satisfy me. All that fanciful stuff is not at all useful
to human society. It is very difficult
to understand them but very easy to forget.
I cannot say
how long you had taught me that kind of speculative knowledge. I could only remember that those ugly and
horrible vocabulary which could surprise and confuse even the most intelligent
people. Ignorant egoists like you, who
would like to hide their bad qualities, must have created such words. By listening to such bombastic words, we
should think that you are knowledgeable and omniscient! We should think that
those wonderful words contain some wonderful inner meaning, which could be
understood only by scholars like you!
You should have
trained me to be a person with analytical thinking. You should have taught me the techniques of being a person of
equanimity and imperturbable mind! You
should have told me the laws and grandeur of the universe and the fundamental
principles of life. You should have
filled my mind with this kind of practical philosophy. Had you done these things, I would have
shown you same kind of reverence that Alexander showed to his teacher
Aristotle. I would have helped you more
than that.
Instead of
raising me to the skies with flattery, you should have taught me the essentials
of being a good king. You should have
given me the knowledge of a king’s responsibilities towards his subjects and
their responsibilities towards the king.
You should have foreseen that a day would came when I should use the
sword in the battle with my brother.
You should have taught me how to lay siege to a town and rally the
soldiers who are scattered in confusion.
However, I learned all these things from others, but not from you.
Therefore,
now you must go to your village. I will
not help you in any manner. Let not the
people know who are you. Lead the rest
of your life as an ordinary citizen.
(We have published in an earlier issue of ‘Triveni’
Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher.
Perhaps they are studies in contrast.)