Babur inherited his religious policy from the Lodis. Sikandar Lodi’s fanaticism must have been still remembered by some of the officials who continue… - Sri Ram Sharma

But Aurangzeb did not confine his iconoclastic activities to the warring states alone. Orders were given to demolish Hindu temples in the friendly state of Jaipur as well. An imperial agent, Abu Tarab, was sent for this purpose and he set about his task with a thoroughness that soon produced a panic. Most of the temples he was able to destroy easily, but there was some opposition in one temple. Certain Rajputs assumed positions there wherefrom they could easily deal with the masons who were sent to demolish the temple. The imperial agents had soon to beat a retreat. The officer in charge of the party thereupon complained to the Raja’s officials- A fojdar was asked to accompany the imperial agent to insure that the imperial officials were not molested in their task of pulling down the temple. There was a skirmish between the soldiers accompanying the fojdar and the Rajputs in the temple. Not before all the Rajputs had been killed was it possible for the imperial agent to destroy the temple. Abu Tarab reached the court on 10 August, 1680, and reported that he had demolished as many as sixty-six temples in Amber.** A letter from one Bhagwan Das to Raja Ram Singh written probably about this time tells us of the destruction of Karor (?) temple in Amber by Dalair, an imperial messenger.

It is wrong to say that Sher Shah did not destroy a temple or break an image. His conquest and occupation of Jodhpur was followed by the conversion of the Hindu temple in the fort into a mosque. The Thrlkh-i-DnUdl ascribes his attack on Maldev, Raja of Jodhpur, partly to his religious bigotry and a desire to convert the temples of the Hindus into mosques. His treachery towards Puran Mall was not, as Qanungo tries to assert, the result of a fanatic religious leader forcing his opinions upon an unwilling king. It had been planned by Sher Shah beforehand, discussed by him with his officers and was deliberately done to earn religious merit by exterminating this arch-infidel. Sher Shah said prayers of thanks after this ‘religious’ deed. No amount of mere rhetoric can enable us to get over the accounts of the expedition, especially when we find Sher Shah, who got ill on the eve of the battle, inviting his officers and confiding to them that ever since his accession he had been anxious, in the cause of his religion, to defeat Puran Mall. All accounts give this expedition a religious significance which no argument can destroy. Sher Shah was only a product of his own age as far as his religious policy was concerned. Like Feroz Shah before him, he combined administrative zeal with religious intolerance. His place in history does not depend upon his initiating a policy of religious toleration or neutrality. He had no more to do with founding a united nation in India, which is yet in the making, than any other successful ruler before him.

Soon after the order was issued, reports of the destruction of temples from all over the empire began to arrive. A royal messenger was sent to demolish the temple of Malarina (now in Jaipur but probably then included in the imperial district of Ajmer) in May, 1669. In August, 1669, the temple of Visvanath at Banaras was demolished. The presiding priest of the temple was just in time to remove the idols from the temple and to throw them into a neighbouring well which thus became a centre of pious interest ever after. The temple of Gopi Nath in Banaras was also destroyed about the same time, He is alleged to have tried to demolish the Shaiva temple of Jangamwadi in Banaras. The tradition has it that his attempt failed because of the opposition which the heavenly hosts of Shiva threatened to put up if he persisted in his designs.