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The Mughal or Mogul Empire was founded by Babur in
1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First battle of Panipat. It was largely conquered by Sher Shah during the time of Humayun, but under Akbar, it grew considerably, and continued to grow until the end of Aurangzeb's rule. After Aurangzeb died in 1707, the empire started a slow and steady decline in actual power, although it maintained all the trappings of
power for another 150 years. In 1739 it was defeated by an army from Persia led by Nadir Shah. In 1756 an army of Ahmad Shah looted Delhi again. The final defeat was
by the British Empire in 1857,
although it had become almost a ceremonial title by then, with no real control.
Religion
The Mughal Empire was Islamic, although many of the subjects of the Empire, up to and
including very high-ranking members of the court, were Hindu. When Babur first founded
the Empire, he did not emphasize his religion, but rather his Turkic
heritage. (The name Mughal, seems to have been attached somewhere in the 19th
century. It is derived from Mongol, another piece of Babur's ancestry.) Under
Akbar, the court dropped use of the jizya, the tax on non-Muslims, and dropped
use of the lunar Muslim calendar in favor of a solar calendar, more useful for agriculture. These actions were later retracted by
Aurangzeb, known for his religiosity, but even under Aurangzeb, one quarter of his court princes were Rajput Hindus.
Political Economy
The Mughals used the mansabdar
system to generate land revenue. The emperor (whose title was Badshah or "vice-Shah," in relation to the Shah of
Persia, the emperor of all emperors) would grant revenue rights to a mansabdar in exchange for promises of soldiers in
war-time. The greater the size of the land the emperor granted, the greater the number of soldiers the mansabdar had to
promise. The mansab was both revocable and non-hereditary; this gave the center a fairly large degree of control over
the mansabdars.
Greater Mughal Emperors (Badshahs of Hindustan):
Establishment and reign of Babur
In the early 16th century, descendants of the Mongol, Turkic, Persian, and Afghan invaders of Southwest 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. A year later, he decisively defeated a Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sangha. In 1529 Babur routed the joint forces of Afghans and the sultan of
Bengal but died in 1530 before he could consolidate his military gains. He left behind as legacies his memoirs (Babur Namah), several beautiful gardens in
Kabul, Lahore, and Agra, and descendants who would fulfill his dream of establishing an
empire in Hindustan.
Reign of Humayun
When Babur died, his son Humayun (1530-56), also a soldier, inherited a difficult
task. He was pressed from all sides by a reassertion of Afghan claims to the Delhi throne, by disputes over his own succession,
and by the Afghan-Rajput march into Delhi in 1540. He fled to Persia,
where he spent nearly ten years as an embarrassed guest at the Safavid court. In 1545
he gained a foothold in Kabul, reasserted his Indian claim, defeated Sher Khan Sur, the most powerful Afghan ruler, and took
control of Delhi in 1555.
Reign of Akbar
Humayun's untimely death in 1556 left the task of further imperial conquest and consolidation to his thirteen-year-old son,
Jalal-ud-Din Akbar (r. 1556-1605). Following a decisive
military victory at the Second Battle of Panipat in
1556, the regent Bayram Khan
pursued a vigorous policy of expansion on Akbar's behalf. As soon as Akbar came of age, he began to free himself from the
influences of overbearing ministers, court factions, and harem intrigues, and demonstrated his own capacity for judgment and
leadership. A "workaholic" who seldom slept more than three hours a night, he personally oversaw the implementation of his
administrative policies, which were to form the backbone of the Mughal Empire for more than 200 years. He continued to conquer,
annex, and consolidate a far-flung territory bounded by Kabul in the northwest, Kashmir in the north, Bengal in the east, and beyond the Narmada River in central India--an area comparable in size
to the Mauryan territory some 1,800 years earlier.
Akbar built a walled capital called Fatehpur Sikri (Fatehpur means
Fortress of Victory) near Agra, starting in 1571. Palaces for each of Akbar's senior
queens, a huge artificial lake, and sumptuous water-filled courtyards were built there. The city, however, proved short-lived,
perhaps because the water supply was insufficient or of poor quality, or, as some historians believe, Akbar had to attend to the
northwest areas of his empire and simply moved his capital for political reasons. Whatever the reason, in 1585 the capital was
relocated to Lahore and in 1599 to Agra.
Akbar adopted two distinct but effective approaches in administering a large territory and incorporating various ethnic groups
into the service of his realm. In 1580 he obtained local revenue statistics for the previous decade in order to understand
details of productivity and price fluctuation of different crops. Aided by Todar Mal, a Rajput king, Akbar issued a
revenue schedule that the peasantry could tolerate while providing maximum profit for the state. Revenue demands, fixed according
to local conventions of cultivation and quality of soil, ranged from one-third to one-half of the crop and were paid in cash.
Akbar relied heavily on land-holding zamindars. They used their considerable local
knowledge and influence to collect revenue and to transfer it to the treasury, keeping a portion in return for services rendered.
Within his administrative system, the warrior aristocracy (mansabdars) held ranks (mansabs) expressed in numbers of troops, and indicating pay, armed contingents, and obligations. The warrior
aristocracy was generally paid from revenues of nonhereditary and transferrable jagirs (revenue villages).
An astute ruler who genuinely appreciated the challenges of administering so vast an empire, Akbar introduced a policy of
reconciliation and assimilation of Hindus (including Maryam al-Zamani, the Hindu Rajput mother of his son and heir, Jahangir), who represented the
majority of the population. He recruited and rewarded Hindu chiefs with the highest ranks in government; encouraged
intermarriages between Mughal and Rajput aristocracy; allowed new temples to be built; personally participated in celebrating
Hindu festivals such as Deepavali, or Diwali, the festival of lights; and abolished the
jizya (poll tax) imposed on non-Muslims. Akbar came up with his own theory of "rulership as a divine illumination," enshrined in
his new religion Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith), incorporating the principle of acceptance of all religions and sects. He encouraged
widow re-marriage, discouraged child marriage, outlawed the practice of sati, and persuaded Delhi merchants to set up special
market days for women, who otherwise were secluded at home. By the end of Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire extended throughout
most of India north of the Godavari River. The exceptions were Gondwana in central
India, which paid tribute to the Mughals, Assam in the northeast, and large parts of the
Deccan.
Akbar's empire supported vibrant intellectual and cultural life. A large imperial library included books in Hindu, Persian,
Greek, Kashmirian, English, and Arabic, such as the Shanameh, Bhagavata Purana and the Christian Bible. Akbar sought knowledge
and truth wherever it could be found and through a wide range of activities. He regularly sponsored debates and dialogues among
religious and intellectual figures with differing views, and he welcomed Jesuit
missionaries from Goa to his court. Akbar directed the creation of the Hamzanama,
an artistic masterpiece that included 1400 large paintings.
Reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan
Mughal rule under Jahangir (1605-27) and Shah Jahan (1628-58) was noted for political stability, brisk economic activity, beautiful paintings, and
monumental buildings. Jahangir married a Persian princess whom he renamed Nur Jahan (Light of the World), who emerged as the most powerful individual in the court
besides the emperor. As a result, Persian poets, artists, scholars, and officers--including her own family members--lured by the
Mughal court's brilliance and luxury, found asylum in India. The number of unproductive, time-serving officers mushroomed, as did
corruption, while the excessive Persian representation upset the delicate balance of impartiality at the court. Jahangir liked
Hindu festivals but promoted mass conversion to Islam; he persecuted the followers of Jainism and even executed Guru Arjun Das, the fifth saint-teacher of the
Sikhs. The release of 52 Hindu princes from captivity in 1620 is the basis for the
significance of the time of Diwali to Sikhs. Nur Jahan's
abortive schemes to secure the throne for the prince of her choice led Shah Jahan to rebel in 1622. In that same year, the
Persians took over Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, an event that struck a serious
blow to Mughal prestige.
Between 1636 and 1646, Shah Jahan sent Mughal armies to conquer the Deccan and the
northwest beyond the Khyber Pass. Even though they demonstrated Mughal
military strength, these campaigns consumed the imperial treasury. As the state became a huge military machine, whose nobles and
their contingents multiplied almost fourfold, so did its demands for more revenue from the peasantry. Political unification and
maintenance of law and order over wide areas encouraged the emergence of large centers of commerce and crafts--such as Lahore, Delhi, Agra, and Ahmadabad--linked by roads and waterways to distant places
and ports. The world-famous Taj Mahal was built in Agra during Shah Jahan's reign
as a tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It symbolizes both Mughal artistic achievement and excessive financial expenditures
when resources were shrinking. The economic position of peasants and artisans did not improve because the administration failed
to produce any lasting change in the existing social structure. There was no incentive for the revenue officials, whose concerns
primarily were personal or familial gain, to generate resources independent of dominant Hindu zamindars and village leaders,
whose self-interest and local dominance prevented them from handing over the full amount of revenue to the imperial treasury. In
their ever-greater dependence on land revenue, the Mughals unwittingly nurtured forces that eventually led to the break-up of
their empire.
Reign of Aurangzeb and decline of empire
Extent of Empire in late 1600s: the Mughals ruled all but the southern tip of the
subcontinent.
A full size image is
available. The last of the great Mughals was Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), who seized the throne by killing all his brothers and
imprisoning his own father. During his fifty-year reign, the empire reached its utmost physical limit but also witnessed the
unmistakable symptoms of decline. The bureaucracy had grown bloated and excessively corrupt, and the huge and unwieldy army
demonstrated outdated weaponry and tactics. Aurangzeb was not the ruler to restore the dynasty's declining fortunes or glory.
Awe-inspiring but lacking in the charisma needed to attract outstanding lieutenants, he was driven to extend Mughal rule over
most of South Asia and to reestablish Islamic orthodoxy by adopting a
reactionary attitude toward those Muslims whom he had suspected of compromising their faith.
Aurangzeb was involved in a series of protracted wars — against the Pathans
in Afghanistan, the sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan, the Marathas in
Maharashtra and the Ahoms in Assam.
Peasant uprisings and revolts by local leaders became all too common, as did the conniving of the nobles to preserve their own
status at the expense of a steadily weakening empire. The increasing association of his government with Islam further drove a
wedge between the ruler and his Hindu subjects. Aurangzeb forbade the building of new temples, destroyed a number of them, and
reimposed the jizya. A puritan and a censor of morals, he banned music at court, abolished ceremonies, and persecuted the Sikhs
in Punjab. These measures alienated so many that even before he died challenges for power had already begun to escalate.
Contenders for the Mughal throne fought each other, and the short-lived reigns of Aurangzeb's successors were strife-filled. The
Mughal Empire experienced dramatic reverses as regional governors broke away and founded independent kingdoms. The Mughals had to
make peace with Maratha rebels, and Persian and Afghan armies invaded Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the Peacock
Throne in 1739.
Mughals as Indian Muslims
The term Mughal is sometimes used to refer to Indian Muslims, by people from outside India. However, this
usage is not popular in India itself.
Alternate meanings
- In popular news jargon,
Mughal or Mogul also denotes a successful business magnate, who has built for himself, a vast (and often monopolistic)
empire, in one or more specific industries. The usage seems to have an obvious
reference to the expansive and wealthy empires built by the Mughal kings in India. Rupert Murdoch, for example is a news-Mogul. See also Media mogul
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