Emperor Aurangzeb was much less involved in architectural production as compared to his predecessors, but he did sponsor some significant monuments, especially religious ones. Indeed, religious monuments and spiritualistic architecture in Bihar was one domain, which is most visible under Aurangzeb`s rule. Early during Aurangzeb`s reign, the harmonious balance of Shah Jahani-period architecture was rejected in support of an increased sense of `spatial tension` with vehemence on height. Stucco and other less expensive materials trying to outperform the marble and inlaid stone of earlier periods cover built surfaces under Aurangzeb. Immediately after Aurangzeb`s accession, the utilisation of forms and motifs, such as the baluster column and the bangala canopy, earlier reserved for the ruler alone, are visible on non-imperially sponsored monuments. This suggests both that there was relatively little imperial interference in architectural patronage and that the vocabulary of imperial and divine symbolism established by Shah Jahan was rather `devalued` by Aurangzeb. At the same time, architectural activity by the nobility had proliferated like never before - a fact which was mostly accentuated in architecture in Bihar during Aurangzeb, which can be comprehended as under. This very fact suggests that the noblemen and Aurangzeb`s Mughal court viziers were much eager and enthusiastic to fill in the `architect`s` role, previously dominated by the emperor.

The flourishing trade of Bihar and the relatively calm political climate had made conditions here much ripened for building activity. For instance, Daud Khan Quraishi, governor of Bihar from 1659 to 1664, had provided structures himself and by example had encouraged others to do so as well. Daud Khan Quraishi indeed had ended the last significant source of on-going opposition to Mughal authority in Bihar by conquering Palamau, inhabited by Chero rajas. Inside the Cheros` seventeenth-century fort, whose elegant gates had been constructed during Shah Jahan`s reign, Daud Khan had constructed a brick mosque in 1660. A single-aisled three-bayed structure surmounted by three low rounded domes, this mosque lacks the sophistication of the fort itself and other contemporary projects, possibly a result of its hasty construction. Nevertheless, it did serve as a powerful indicator of Mughal presence in this newly conquered territory. Indeed, Aurangzeb was so careful and meticulous about his eastern Indian architectural concern, that architecture in Bihar during Aurangzeb was masterfully handled by his positioned governing men, instances of which can be still be seen, standing tall and imposing.

Daud Khan`s serai (a rest house for travellers and caravans, erected during Mughal era), in contrast to his Palamau mosque, is finely built. He had constructed it with the emperor`s permission for the protection of travellers in a robber infested area. This brick serai is in the town still referred to as Daudnagar (Aurangabad District). It remains today as the best-preserved example of seventeenth-century secular architecture in Bihar under Aurangzeb. The serai is entered on the east and west sides by arched portals with chamfered sides, harking back early statelier Mughal portals at the Ajmer Fort, built around 1570. Details, however, such as the stone pillars and cusped arches recalling those on the Sangi Dalan, built about a decade earlier in Rajmahal possess a more contemporary air. So do the small domed chattris atop the portal roof that probably derive from those on the gateway into the Taj Mahal complex.

A second illustrious instance of secular architecture in Bihar under Aurangzeb was built in Bihar Sharif for Shaikha, a member of the Afghan Ghakkar tribe, many of who had lived in Bihar since the early 16th century. Referred to as the Nauratan, it was built in 1688-89. The main building in the Nauratan compound is a single-storied flat-roofed square-plan structure. The interior arrangement, however, is familiar throughout Mughal India. That is, a central domed chamber is surrounded by eight ancillary vaulted rooms, a total of nine chambers, the source of the building`s name, Nauratan, or nine jewels. Beside this building, others in the compound include a tank with underground chambers, a mosque and domestic quarters, some of which are still extant. The building, serving as a school in present times, provides an exceptional view of the penchants of the upper class during the late 17th century.

Throughout the `last Mughal` Aurangzeb`s reign, buildings were constructed in Patna, the capital of Bihar. Only one of them, however, is credited, at least by its inscription, to Aurangzeb as the emperor himself. The building being discussed under scanner is the Rauza mosque, dated 1667-68. It is, in fact, the only Mughal building in all Bihar that claims imperial Mughal sponsorship. This simple single-aisled three-bayed Rauza mosque was built in conjunction with the graves of two saints. It adheres closely to the form established by the early 17th century mosque of Mirza Masum. In spite of the brief inscription, the Rauza mosque`s unostentatious style and plan evoke that it was built in response to a general order encouraging the construction of mosques, but was not actually paid for by the ruler. Now the matter that strikes a reader the most might be that Mughal architecture in Bihar, precisely in Patna during Aurangzeb was nearly accomplished in absence of the emperor himself! Aurangzeb, its is known never had been in Patna, nor did he construct mosques at sites with which he did not have a strong personal interest.

Unlike the simple and humble Rauza mosque, one constructed nearly twenty years later by Khwaja Amber in the service of the empire`s highest-ranking noble, Shaista Khan, features the most elaborate stucco work on any Patna structure of this time. However, the decor of this mosque, dated 1688-89, is considerably more subdued and rather low-key as opposed to contemporary ornamentation elsewhere. Here in the mosque of Khwaja Amber - a noted instance of Aurangzeb`s patronage in Mughal architecture in Bihar, only the interior of the domes is intricately embellished, bringing to mind similar designs on the Benaras Jami mosque or the Bibi-ka Maqbara in Aurangabad, built at the beginning of Aurangzeb`s reign. This contrasts with the more characteristically austere architecture of Mughal Bihar highly not under Aurangzeb - generally unembellished by contrast with contemporary architecture in the Mughal Bengal capitals of Dhaka or Rajmahal.