The Mughal Empire - Introduction

Dateline: 1526AD-1857AD

India had been without a major empire for almost a thousand years now, it had not been since the Gupta Dynasty that an all India empire had been created. The Mughal Dynasty was the last great empire of Indian history. Such was their greatness that not only did they leave a lasting impact on Indian history, the English word Mogul (derived from Mughal) means a powerful person. The Mughals were a remarkable dynasty, and at their peak they produced a successive set of capable rulers. It was also during their reign that some of the finest monuments of India were built, most notably one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal.

The Mughal dynasty was founded by Babur, who was a ruler of a kingdom near Persia (modern day Iran). Babur a Turk, was related to the great Mongol conqueror, Chengiz Khan and the Turkish invader Timur. The increasing power of the Uzbeks of Central Asia, was a cause for Babur to want to leave his country. The Delhi Sultanate around this time existed merely in name, and the political scene was in total disarray. The Sultan in power was Ibrahim Lodi, but the nobles commanded a major portion of power. The entire system was very unstable, and finally it cracked. Daulat Khan, a powerful noble who was dissatisfied with Ibrahim Lodi actually requested Babur to come and invade India. Babur had long cherished a desire to

The Mughal Empire - Shah Jehan

After the death of Jehangir, there was a power struggle amongst the sons of Jehangir, in which Shah Jehan emerged as the emperor. Shah Jehan was in South India at the time of his father's death and speedily rushed to the north and proclaimed himself the emperor. Shah Jehan had a fairly stable rule, with a few rebellions and conquests from which he emerged largely successful. He was able to expand the Mughal territories deep into the South. However, in some areas like the North West Frontier, the Mughal army was defeated repeatedly which lowered the prestige of the Mughal Empire. Shah Jehan's reign was a return to that of the great Mughal kings like Babur and Akbar. An able military commander and man of tremendous cultural ambition. Shah Jehan is perhaps best remembered as being the best builder of the Mughal period, creating some of the finest structures, which blended the distinct Indian and Persian styles into a coherent whole. His most famous building is the mausoleum he made for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, which is called the Taj Mahal.

The Mughal Empire - Akbar

Akbar was one of the greatest emperors of the Mughal dynasty. It was during the reign of Akbar that the rule of the Mughals truly began, for both Babur and Humayun had ruled for extremely short and interrupted periods. Akbar was a minor at the time of his father's death, and was under the guardianship of Bairam Khan. Soon after succeeding to the throne Akbar had to firmly establish Mughal authority and regain the territories it had lost. His enemies challenged his rule and another historic battle was fought at Panipat, one in which Akbar emerged victorious and firmly established the Mughal power as the dominant power in India. Akbar was still under the guardianship of Bairam but now wished to become a full fledged king in his own right. Bairam while providing invaluable service had begun behaving in a high handed manner which had resulted in many enemies. In 1560 Akbar expressed his desire to take over, to Bairam, who reluctantly agreed and prepared to leave the

The Mughal Empire - Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb emerged as the successor after a violent power struggle in which he killed his brothers and imprisoned his father. During his long fifty year reign' the Mughal empire began declining, and despite his devotion to duty he could not prevent its fall.

Aurangzeb was a zealous Muslim. He implemented religious and administrative policies influenced largely by his religious leanings than by what was perhaps more appropriate for the situation. His love for his religion tended to get a bit extreme, and his efforts to spread the religion in India were often violent and militant. Aurangzeb was a completely different emperor then any of his predecessors had been. He was given to an austere and simple life. Aurangzeb brought several changes to the set up. He discontinued the practice of Jharoka-darshan followed by the earlier Mughals, in which the emperor would come out into the balcony of his palace every morning to receive the salute from his citizens. He also dismissed the court musicians and banned music, a ban that had limited effect. He prohibited the sale of alcohol and other artificial intoxicants. He also set up a department to look after public morals and make sure the people were living in strict accordance of the moral code from the holy books. Aurangzeb had hence moved

The Mughal Empire - Jehangir

After the death of Akbar, his son Salim succeeded to the throne at the age of thirty-six and took the title of Jehangir. Shortly after his succession he tried to win over the hearts of all his people and announced a series of concessions. Prisoners were given pardons and his opponents received an amnesty and were forgiven. Jehangir's rule was opposed in its early stages by his own son Khusrav. Khusrav had gotten along very well with his grand father Akbar and was a popular prince amongst the royal family. He became ambitious and began coveting the throne. Shortly after Jehangir's succession, Khusrav left the empire to prepare for his attack. He returned and attacked the empire, which was easily able to fend off the attack. Jehangir who personally marched to the battle with a large army was greatly disturbed by the whole episode. Khusrav was taken a prisoner and after being severely reproached and humiliated by Jehangir in the open court, he was imprisoned. In 1611 Jehangir married Nur Jehan, a woman of exquisite beauty with tastes for Persian literature, poetry and arts. Her entry into the life of Jehangir would have a tremendous impact on his rule. One of the dominating traits of her character was ambition, and soon she ensured that her father and brother became important nobles of the court.

Maratha Rulers

The Marathas The tale of the Marathas' rise to power and their eventual fall contains all the elements of a thriller: adventure, intrigue, and romanticism. Maratha chieftains were originally in the service of Bijapur sultans in the western Deccan, which was under siege by the Mughals. Shivaji Bhonsle (1627-80), a tenacious and fierce fighter recognized as the "father of the Maratha nation," took advantage of this conflict and carved out his own principality near Pune, which later became the Maratha capital. Adopting guerrilla tactics, he waylaid caravans in order to sustain and expand his army, which soon had money, arms, and horses. Maratha Rulers : Shivaji led a series of successful assaults in the 1660s against Mughal strongholds, including the major port of Surat. In 1674 he assumed the title of "Lord of the Universe" at his elaborate coronation, which signaled his determination to challenge the Mughal forces as well as to reestablish a Hindu kingdom in Maharashtra, the land of his origin. Shivaji's battle cries were swaraj (translated variously as freedom, self-rule, independence), swadharma (religious freedom), and goraksha (cow protection). Aurangzeb relentlessly pursued Shivaji's successors between 1681 and 1705 but eventually retreated to the north as his treasury became depleted and as thousands of lives had been lost

The Mughal Empire - Sher Shah's Reign

Although Babur had established the Mughal power as a dominant force in India, many of the left over forces from the Delhi Sultanate did not accept the Mughal as their ruler. Discontent began rising and soon they rallied around an Afghan known as Sher Shah. Sher Shah had a very humble background but rose to several important posts under various rulers. His father had been a landlord of a region called Sasaram which Sher Shah inherited upon his death. Originally known as Farid, he acquired the name Sher Khan, when under the service of Bahar Khan Lohani, a ruler of a kingdom in Bihar, he had single handedly killed a tiger. The king was so impressed that he also appointed Sher Shah, his deputy and the tutor of his minor son, Jalal Khan. Unfortunately for Sher Shah his enemies poisoned his master's mind against him and he was forced to leave his service. He also lost the Sasaram jagir of his father. Sher Shah however moved on and impressed by the success of the Mughals saw a future with them, and so joined Babur. He was of valuable assistance to Babur and as a reward for his services Babur got the Sasaram jagir restored to Sher Shah. Shortly afterwards Sher Shah left the Mughal service and returned to Bihar and went back to the kingdom where he had worked earlier, becoming the deputy governor and guardian of the minor heir Jalal

British Empire in India

India -Company Rule, 1757-1857 The British Empire in India - A multiplicity of motives underlay the British penetration into India: commerce, security, and a purported moral uplift of the people. The "expansive force" of private and company trade eventually led to the conquest or annexation of territories in which spices, cotton, and opium were produced. British investors ventured into the unfamiliar interior landscape in search of opportunities that promised substantial profits. British economic penetration was aided by Indian collaborators, such as the bankers and merchants who controlled intricate credit networks. British rule in India would have been a frustrated or half-realized dream had not Indian counterparts provided connections between rural and urban centers. External threats, both real and imagined, such as the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815) and Russian expansion toward Afghanistan (in the 1830s), as well as the desire for internal stability, led to the annexation of more territory in India.Political analysts in Britain wavered initially as they were uncertain of the costs or the advantages in undertaking wars in India, but by the 1810s, as the territorial aggrandizement eventually paid off, opinion in London welcomed the absorption of new areas. Occasionally the British Parliament witnessed heated debates against expansion,

The Mughal Empire - Humayun The Mughal Empire - Humayu

After the death of his father Babur, Humayun succeeded to the throne of India, at the age of twenty-three. His succession was not a smooth one, he faced many hostile forces including some members of the royal family. The prevailing system of the time did not have the concept of the eldest son succeeding his father, and hence it was not uncommon to see brothers fighting amongst one another to capture the throne. Humayun's court was also full of nobles who were vigorously planning and plotting against him. His army was full of diverse nationalities with conflicting interests. Many Indian kings like the Rajputs, although defeated still remained a threat to the empire. In such times the need of the hour was for a ruler who was a capable military commander, possessed diplomatic skills and had political wisdom. Sadly Humayun lacked these qualities, and perhaps proved to be his own worst enemy. Humayun was an intellectual man, interested in culture etc. and was devoid of the qualities

Decline of the Mughal Empire

The death of Aurangzeb in 1707 was the end of the Mughal empire's greatness. A war of succession would break out amongst his sons, and eventually the empire was divided up between them. Large parts of the empire had already declared independence during the time of Aurangzeb, and such developments increased after his death. The Mughal empire, which had once been one of the greatest empires of Indian history slowly declined to become just an empire in name, with a small area under its command. The empire would drag on for another 150 years, with a series of inconsequential kings, collectively referred to as the later Mughals. The Empire could perhaps have been saved had someone like Akbar succeeded Aurangzeb, but the later Mughals were failures as emperors. Most of them were given more to the luxuries and pleasures of life, and had little interest in rescuing their declining empire. The court of the Mughals was now overrun with nobles and was an active ground of intrigue and treachery. The nobles keen on advancing their own power, would raise one puppet king after the other to the throne. Over time most of the empire had broken up into small kingdoms and only a small region in the north was left under its control. Thus in such a chaotic state, the time was once again ripe for a foreign invader to come in and

Harshavardhan

Harshavardhana was an Indian Emperor, who ruled over the northern parts of India for a period of more than forty years. His empire was spread over the states of Punjab, Bengal, Orissa and the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, lying to the north of the Narmada River. Get more information of the life history of King Harsha Vardhan with this biography:

King Harshavardhana was born in 590 BC to Prabhakar Vardhan. His elder brother was Rajyavardhan, the king of Thanesar. He was instrumental in consolidating the small republics and small monarchical states that had sprung up in North India after the downfall of the Gupta dynasty. Harsha Vardhan united the small republics from Punjab to Central India and they accepted him as their king in 606 AD. Though Harsha was only sixteen years old when he ascended the throne, he proved himself to be a great vanquisher as well as a competent administrator.

Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Maurya Empire in India. He is credited with bringing together the small fragmented kingdoms of the country and combining them into a single large empire. As per the Greek and Latin accounts, King Chandragupta Maurya is known as Sandracottos or Andracottus. During his reign, the Maurya Empire stretched from Bengal and Assam in the East, to Afghanistan and Balochistan in the West, to Kashmir and Nepal in the North and to the Deccan Plateau in the South. Read on this biography cum life history of Chandragupta Maurya to know more about the great king:

Conflicting Views about His Lineage
Chandra Gupta Maurya was born in 340 BC. However, there is not much information about his ancestry. Some of the historians believe that he was an illegitimate child of a Nanda prince and his maid, Mura. Others believe that Chandragupta belonged to Moriyas, a Kshatriya (warrior) clan of a little ancient republic of Pippalivana, situated between Rummindei (Nepali Tarai) and Kasia (Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh). Two other views are that he belonged either to the Muras (or Mors) or to the Kshatriyas of the

Ashoka

Asoka was one of the most powerful kings of the Indian subcontinent. A ruler of the Mauryan Empire, Ashoka ruled over the country from 273 BC to 232 BC. The reign of Emperor Asoka covered most of India, South Asia and beyond, stretching from present day Afghanistan and parts of Persia in the west, to Bengal and Assam in the east, and Mysore in the south. However, the Battle of Kalinga changed King Asoka completely. From a power hungry emperor, he turned into a Buddhist follower and started preaching the principles of Buddhism throughout the world. Read on this biography to know more about the life history of 'Ashoka the Great':

Early Life
Asoka was born in 304 BC, to Mauryan Emperor Bindusara and a relatively lower ranked queen, Dharma. The legend associated with the emperor goes that his birth had been predicted by Buddha, in the story of 'The Gift of Dust'. Buddhist Emperor Ashoka had only one younger sibling, Vitthashoka, but, several elder half-brothers. Right from his childhood days Ashoka showed great promise in the field of weaponry skills

Chhatrapati Shivaji

Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the founder of the Maratha Empire in western India. He is considered to be one of the greatest warriors of his time and even today, stories of his exploits are narrated as a part of the folklore. King Shivaji used the guerrilla tactics to capture a part of, the then, dominant Mughal empire. Read this biography to get more information on the warrior and his life history:

Early Life
Shivaji was born on 19th February 1630, to Sahaji and his wife, Jijabai, in the Shivneri Fort, situated almost 60 km to the north of Pune. He was named as Shiva, after the local Goddess Shivai, to whom his mother Jijabai had prayed for a son. After being defeated by the combined forces of the Mughals and Adil Shah, Sahaji was offered a jagir near the present-day Bangalore. However, he was allowed to keep his holdings in Pune. So, Sahaji left his son Shivaji to manage the Pune holdings, under the care of his mother Jijabai.

Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan, also known as Shahbuddin Mohammed Shah Jahan, was a Mughal Emperor who ruled in the Indian Subcontinent from 1628 to 1658. He was the fifth Mughal ruler, after Babur, Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir. Shah Jahan succeeded the throne after revolting against his father, Jahangir. The period of Shah Jahan's rule in India is regarded as the golden age of Indian architecture. He is credited with constructing numerous beautiful monuments throughout the landscape of India. However, the most brilliant monument is the 'Taj Mahal' of Agra, which he built in the memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The exquisite "Peacock Throne', which he got built for himself, is believed to be worth millions of dollars by modern estimates. Shah Jahan is also the founder of the modern city of Delhi. During that time, the city was known as Shahjahanabad. Get more information on the biography as well as life history of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan:

Mughal Empire

The Mughal rulers in IndiaIn the early sixteenth century, descendants of the Mongol, Turkish, Iranian, and Afghan invaders of South Asia--the Mughals--invaded India under the leadership of Zahir-ud-Din Babur. Babur was the great-grandson of Timur Lenk (Timur the Lame, from which the Western name Tamerlane is derived), who had invaded India and plundered Delhi in 1398 and then led a short-lived empire based in Samarkand (in modern-day Uzbekistan) that united Persian-based Mongols (Babur's maternal ancestors) and other West Asian peoples. Babur was driven from Samarkand and initially established his rule in Kabul in 1504; he later became the first Mughal ruler (1526-30). His determination was to expand eastward into Punjab, where he had made a number of forays. Then an invitation from an opportunistic Afghan chief in Punjab brought him to the very heart of the Delhi Sultanate, ruled by Ibrahim Lodi (1517-26). 
Babur, a seasoned military commander, entered India in 1526 with his well-trained veteran army of 12,000 to meet the sultan's huge but unwieldy and disunited force of more than 100,000 men. Babur defeated the Lodi sultan decisively at Panipat (in modern-day Haryana, about ninety kilometers north of Delhi). Employing gun carts, moveable artillery, and superior cavalry tactics, Babur achieved a resounding victory.

The Coming of Islam

Islam in India   The Delhi SultanateIslam was propagated by the Prophet Muhammad during the early seventh century in the deserts of Arabia. Less than a century after its inception, Islam's presence was felt throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Iran, and Central Asia. Arab military forces conquered the Indus Delta region in Sindh in 711 and established an Indo-Muslim state there. Sindh became an Islamic outpost where Arabs established trade links with the Middle East and were later joined by teachers or sufis (see Glossary), but Arab influence was hardly felt in the rest of South Asia (see Islam, ch. 3). By the end of the tenth century, dramatic changes took place when the Central Asian Turkic tribes accepted both the message and mission of Islam. These warlike people first began to move into Afghanistan and Iran and later into India through the northwest. Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030), who was also known as the "Sword of Islam," mounted seventeen plundering expeditions between 997 and 1027 into North India, annexing Punjab as his eastern province. The invaders' effective use of the crossbow while at a gallop gave them a decisive advantage over their Indian opponents, the Rajputs. Mahmud's conquest of Punjab foretold ominous consequences for the rest of India, but the Rajputs appear to have been both unprepared

British Invasion in India

British in India -The Coming of the Europeans The quest for wealth and power brought Europeans to Indian shores in 1498 when Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese voyager, arrived in Calicut (modern Kozhikode, Kerala) on the west coast. In their search for spices and Christian converts, the Portuguese challenged Arab supremacy in the Indian Ocean, and, with their galleons fitted with powerful cannons, set up a network of strategic trading posts along the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In 1510 the Portuguese took over the enclave of Goa, which became the center of their commercial and political power in India and which they controlled for nearly four and a half centuries. British Invasion Economic competition among the European nations led to the founding of commercial companies in England (the East India Company, founded in 1600) and in the Netherlands (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie--the United East India Company, founded in 1602), whose primary aim was to capture the spice trade by breaking the Portuguese monopoly in Asia. Although the Dutch, with a large supply of capital and support from their government, preempted and ultimately excluded the British from the heartland of spices in the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), both companies managed to establish trading "factories" (actually warehouses)

British Empire in India

India -Company Rule, 1757-1857 The British Empire in India - A multiplicity of motives underlay the British penetration into India: commerce, security, and a purported moral uplift of the people. The "expansive force" of private and company trade eventually led to the conquest or annexation of territories in which spices, cotton, and opium were produced. British investors ventured into the unfamiliar interior landscape in search of opportunities that promised substantial profits. British economic penetration was aided by Indian collaborators, such as the bankers and merchants who controlled intricate credit networks. British rule in India would have been a frustrated or half-realized dream had not Indian counterparts provided connections between rural and urban centers. External threats, both real and imagined, such as the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815) and Russian expansion toward Afghanistan (in the 1830s), as well as the desire for internal stability, led to the annexation of more territory in India.Political analysts in Britain wavered initially as they were uncertain of the costs or the advantages in undertaking wars in India, but by the 1810s, as the territorial aggrandizement eventually paid off, opinion in London welcomed the absorption of new areas. Occasionally the British Parliament witnessed heated debates against expansion,

Gupta Empire

India- Gupta and Harsha The classical AgeGupta age - The Classical Age refers to the period when most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire (ca. A.D. 320-550). Because of the relative peace, law and order, and extensive cultural achievements during this period, it has been described as a "golden age" that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Hindu culture with all its variety, contradiction, and synthesis. The golden age was confined to the north, and the classical patterns began to spread south only after the Gupta Empire had vanished from the historical scene. The military exploits of the first three rulers--Chandragupta I (ca. 319-335), Samudragupta (ca. 335-376), and Chandragupta II (ca. 376-415)--brought all of North India under their leadership. From Pataliputra, their capital, they sought to retain political preeminence as much by pragmatism and judicious marriage alliances as by military strength. Despite their self-conferred titles, their overlordship was threatened and by 500 ultimately ruined by the Hunas (a branch of the White Huns emanating from Central Asia), who were yet another group in the long succession of ethnically and culturally different outsiders drawn into India and then woven into the hybrid Indian fabric.Under Harsha Vardhana (or Harsha, r. 606-47), North India was reunited briefly, but neither