History of Mughals

1. Babur, the first Mughal emperor (1526- 1530) and descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan.
2. Succeeded to the throne of Ferghana in 1494 when he was only 12 years old.
3. He seized Kabul in 1504. After losing Samarkand for the third time he turned his attention to India.
4. In 1526 he defeated the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat and captured Delhi & Agra. He also defeated Rana Sanga in the Battle of Khanwa.
5. Ahom–Mughal conflicts refer to the period between the first Mughal attack on the Ahom kingdom in 1615 and the final Battle of Itakhuli in 1682.
6. Humayun received help from the Safavid Shah to recapture Delhi in 1555. While Akbar, during his expansion campaign, seized Qandahar from Safavids in 1585–1605.
7. Did the annexation of Golconda and Bijapur in Aurangzeb’s region end hostilities in the Deccan? : Prince Akbar rebelled against Aurangzeb and received support from the Marathas and the Deccan Sultanate. He finally fled to Safavid Iran. After Akbar’s rebellion Aurangzeb sent armies against the Deccan Sultanates. Bijapur was annexed in 1685 and Golconda in 1687. From 1698 Aurangzeb personally managed campaigns in the Deccan against the Marathas

BABUR 1526–1530

1. 1526 (First battle of Panipat) — Defeated Ibrahim Lodi and his Afghan supporters at Panipat.
2. 1527 (Battle of Khanwa) — defeated Rana Sunga, Rajput ruler for mewar and allied at Khanua.
3. 1528 — Defeated the Rajputs at Chanderi, Established control over Agra and Delhi before his death.
4. 1529 (Battle of Ghaghra) — Defeated joint forces of the afgans and sultan of Bengal

HUMAYUN 1530–1540, 1555–1556

1539 (battle of Chausa) — Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun (1540–1545)

1. Humayun divided his inheritance according to the will of his father.
2. His brothers were each given a province.
3. The ambitions of his brother Mirza Kamran weakened Humayun’s cause against Afghan competitors
4. Sher Khan defeated Humayun at Chausa (1539) and Kanauj (1540), forcing him to flee to Iran.
5. In Iran Humayun received help from the Safavid Shah.
6. He recaptured Delhi in 1555 but died the next year after an accident in this building.

AKBAR 1556–1605

1556 (2nd Battle of Panipat) — Akbar defeated Hindu king Hemu

1567 (Battle of Thanesar) — Akbar defeated two rival group of sanyasis

1575 (Battle of Tukaroi) — Akbar defeated sultanate of Bangala and Bihar

1576 (Battle of Haldighati) — Undeceive battle between Raja Man Singh of the Mughal army and Rana Pratap of Mewar

1. Akbar was 13 years old when he became emperor. His reign can be divided into three periods.
2. 1556–1570 — Akbar became independent of the regent Bairam Khan and other members of his domestic staff.
3. Military campaigns were launched against the Suris and other Afghans, against the neighbouring kingdoms of Malwa and Gondwana, and to suppress the revolt of his half-brother Mirza Hakim and the Uzbegs.
4. In 1568 the Sisodiya capital of Chittor was seized and in 1569 Ranthambhor.
5. 1570–1585 — military campaigns in Gujarat were followed by campaigns in the east in Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. These campaigns were complicated by the 1579–1580 revolt in support of Mirza Hakim.
6. 1585–1605 — expansion of Akbar’s empire. Campaigns were launched in the north-west.
7. Qandahar was seized from the Safavids, Kashmir was annexed, as also Kabul, after the death of Mirza Hakim.
8. Campaigns in the Deccan started and Berar, Khandesh and parts of Ahmadnagar were annexed.
9. In the last years of his reign Akbar was distracted by the rebellion of Prince Salim, the future Emperor Jahangir.

Jahangir 1605–1627

1. Military campaigns started by Akbar continued.
2. The Sisodiya ruler of Mewar, Amar Singh, accepted Mughal service. Less successful campaigns against the Sikhs, the Ahoms and Ahmadnagar followed.
3. Prince Khurram, the future Emperor Shah Jahan, rebelled in the last years of his reign. The efforts of Nur Jahan, Jahangir’s wife, to marginalise him were unsuccessful.

Shah Jahan 1627–1658

1. Mughal campaigns continued in the Deccan under Shah Jahan.
2. The Afghan noble Khan Jahan Lodi rebelled and was defeated. Campaigns were launched against Ahmadnagar; the Bundelas were defeated and Orchha seized.
3. In the north-west, the campaign to seize Balkh from the Uzbegs was unsuccessful and Qandahar was lost to the Safavids.
4. In 1632 Ahmadnagar was finally annexed and the Bijapur forces sued for peace.
5. In 1657–1658, there was conflict over succession amongst Shah Jahan’s sons. Aurangzeb was victorious and his three brothers, including Dara Shukoh, were killed. Shah Jahan was imprisoned for the rest of his life in Agra.

Aurangzeb 1658–1707

1658 (Battle of Samugarh) — Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh defeated Dara Shikoh

1659 (Battle of Khajwa) — Aurangzeb defeated his brother Shah Shuja

In the north-east, the Ahoms were defeated in 1663, but rebelled again in the 1680s.

1671 (Battle of Saraighat)— Lachit Borpukhan of Ahom kingdom defeated the Mughal army led by Ram Singh.

Notables:

1. Campaigns in the north-west against the Yusufzai and the Sikhs were temporarily successful.
2. Mughal intervention in the succession and internal politics of the Rathor Rajputs of Marwar led to their rebellion.
3. Campaigns against the Maratha chieftain Shivaji were initially successful. But Aurangzeb insulted Shivaji who escaped from Agra, declared himself an independent king and resumed his campaigns against the Mughals.
4. Prince Akbar rebelled against Aurangzeb and received support from the Marathas and the Deccan Sultanate. He finally fled to Safavid Iran.
5. After Akbar’s rebellion Aurangzeb sent armies against the Deccan Sultanates.
6. Bijapur was annexed in 1685 and Golconda in 1687. From 1698 Aurangzeb personally managed campaigns in the Deccan against the Marathas who started guerrilla warfare.
7. Aurangzeb also had to face the rebellion in north India of the Sikhs, Jats and Satnamis, in the north-east of the Ahoms and in the Deccan of the Marathas. His death was followed by a succession conflict amongst his sons.
8. The Mughals did not believe in the rule of primogeniture, where the eldest son inherited his father’s estate. Instead they followed the Mughal and Timurid custom of coparcenary inheritance, or a division of the inheritance amongst all the sons.
9. Which do you think is a fairer division of inheritance: primogeniture or coparcenary ?
10. Mughal rulers campaigned constantly against rulers who refused to accept their authority
11. as the Mughals became powerful many other rulers also joined them voluntarily. The Rajputs are a good example of this.
12. The Sisodiya Rajputs refused to accept Mughal authority for a long time. Once defeated, however, they were honourably treated by the Mughals, given their lands (watan) back as assignments (watan jagir).
13. careful balance between defeating but not humiliating their opponents enabled the Mughals to extend their influence over many kings and chieftains.
14. note that Aurangzeb insulted Shivaji when he came to accept Mughal authority. What was the consequence of this insult?
15. From a small nucleus of Turkish nobles (Turanis) they expanded to include Iranians, Indian Muslims, Afghans, Rajputs, Marathas and other groups.
16. Those who joined Mughal service were enrolled as mansabdars.
17. term mansabdar refers to an individual who holds a mansab, meaning a position or rank. It was a grading system used by the Mughals to fix (1) rank, (2) salary and (3) military responsibilities. Rank and salary were determined by a numerical value called zat. The higher the zat, the more prestigious was the noble’s position in court and the larger his salary.
18. The mansabdar’s military responsibilities required him to maintain a specified number of sawar or cavalrymen.
19. Mansabdars received their salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs which were somewhat like iqtas.
20. unlike muqtis, most mansabdars did not actually reside in or administer their jagirs. They only had rights to the revenue of their assignments
21. In Akbar’s reign these jagirs were carefully assessed so that their revenues were roughly equal to the salary of the mansabdar.
22. Aurangzeb’s reign this was no longer the case and the actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum.
23. huge increase in the number of mansabdars, which meant a long wait before they received a jagir.
24. many jagirdars tried to extract as much revenue as possible while they had a jagir.
25. Aurangzeb was unable to control these developments in the last years of his reign and the peasantry therefore suffered tremendously.
26. The main source of income available to Mughal rulers was tax on the produce of the peasantry.
27. In most places, peasants paid taxes through the rural elites, that is, the headman or the local chieftain
28. The Mughals used one term — zamindars — to describe all intermediaries, whether they were local headmen of villages or powerful chieftains.
29. Akbar’s revenue minister, Todar Mal, carried out a careful survey of crop yields, prices and areas cultivated for a 10-year period, 1570–1580
30. On the basis of this data, tax was fixed on each crop in cash.
31. province was divided into revenue circles with its own schedule of revenue rates for individual crops. This revenue system was known as zabt.
32. This was not possible in provinces such as Gujarat and Bengal.
33. In some areas the zamindars exercised a great deal of power. The exploitation by Mughal administrators could drive them to rebellion. Sometimes zamindars and peasants of the same caste allied in rebelling against Mughal authority. These peasant revolts challenged the stability of the Mughal Empire from the end of the seventeenth century.
34. Akbar ordered one of his close friends and courtiers, Abul Fazl, to write a history of his reign.
35. Abul Fazl wrote a three-volume history of Akbar’s reign, titled Akbar Nama.
36. Abul Fazl explained that the empire was divided into provinces called subas, governed by a subadar who carried out both political and military functions.
37. Each province also had a financial officer or diwan.
38. For the maintenance of peace and order in his province, the subadar was supported by other officers such as the military paymaster (bakhshi), the minister in charge of religious and charitable patronage (sadr), military commanders (faujdars) and the town police commander (kotwal).
39. Akbar’s nobles commanded large armies and had, access to large amounts of revenue.
40. by the end of the seventeenth century many nobles had built independent networks of their own.
41. loyalties to the empire were weakened by their own self-interest.
42. Akbar was at Fatehpur Sikri during the 1570s he started discussions on religion with the ulama, Brahmanas, Jesuit priests who were Roman Catholics, and Zoroastrians. These discussions took place in the ibadat khana.
43. Their teachings created divisions and disharmony amongst his subjects. This eventually led Akbar to the idea of sulh-i kul or “universal peace”.
44. This idea of tolerance did not discriminate between people of different religions in his realm.
45. Abul Fazl helped Akbar in framing a vision of governance around this idea of sulh-i kul.
46. This principle of governance was followed by Jahangir and Shah Jahan as well.
47. The administrative and military efficiency of the Mughal Empire led to great economic and commercial prosperity. International travellers described it as the fabled land of wealth.
48. Documents from the twentieth year of Shah Jahan’s reign inform us that the highest-ranking mansabdars were only 445 in number out of a total of 8,000.
49. The Mughal emperors and their mansabdars spent a great deal of their income on salaries and goods.
50. This expenditure benefited the artisans and peasantry who supplied them with goods and produce.
51. The poorest amongst them lived from hand to mouth and they could hardly consider investing in additional resources.
52. The enormous wealth and resources commanded by the Mughal elite made them an extremely powerful group of people in the late seventeenth century.
53. As the authority of the Mughal emperor slowly declined, his servants emerged as powerful centres of power in the regions.
54. They constituted new dynasties and held command of provinces like Hyderabad and Awadh.
55. Although they continued to recognise the Mughal emperor in Delhi as their master, by the eighteenth century the provinces of the empire had consolidated their independent political identities.

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