Ayush: THE MUGHAL DYNASTY

THE MUGHAL DYNASTY

(1526 AD - 1858 AD)

The Mughal Dynasty was founded by Babur in 1526 as the result of his victory over the last Lodi Sultan, Ibrahim, in the first battle of Panipat in 1526. This victory enabled Babur to occupy Delhi and Agra. Then in 1527 Babur defeated Rana Sanga of Mewar at the battle of Khanua and thus broke Rajput resistance. Lastly, in 1528 Babur inflicted a second defeat on the Afghans in the battle of the Ghagra and thus extended his rule over Bihar and Bengal. These three victories made Babur the Emperor of northern India and enabled him to found the Mughal dynasty which ruled in India from 1526 to 1858. The dynasty composed nineteen sovereigns of whom the first six, namely Babur (1526-30), Humayun (1530-56, with a break from 1540 to 1555), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahan (1627-58) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707) are generally called the great Mughals.
Akbar brought the whole of north India as well as Khandesh and Berar in the Deccan under his rule. The process of extension was continued by the next three rulers until at last in the reign of Aurangzeb the Mughal Empire came to comprise of the whole of India from the foot of the Himalayas on the north to Cape Comorin on the south. But events soon showed that the Mughal Emperor had devoured more than he could digest. Further, Aurangzeb deliberately gave up the policy of religious toleration on which Akbar had based his imperialism, and desired to turn India into an empire for the benefit of Islam. This radical change in policy led to Hindu revolts initiated, first, in Maharashtra by Shivaji and then spreading among the Sikhs in the Punjab, the Jats in Bundelkhand and in Rajputana amongst the Rajputs who had been since the time of Akbar loyal supporters of the Mughal empire. Further complications were created by the presence in India of European traders from Portugal, Holland, England, and France who had aspirations beyond trade, and who had better military equipment and organisation and completely outstripped the Mughals in naval power. Lastly, wars of succession became a feature of Mughal dynastic rule from the end of Jahangir's reign and greatly weakened the Crown. As a result, the last thirteen rulers of the Mughal dynasty, generally called the Later Mughal Emperors, were weak sovereigns whose dominions progressively declined throughout the eighteenth century - a process which was hastened by the invasions of Nadir Shah in 1739 and of Ahmad Shah Abdali from 1751 to 1767.
The later Mughal soveriegns were Bahadur Shah I, or Shah Alam Bahadur (1707-12), Jahandar Shah (1712-13), Farrukhsiyar (1713-19), Rafi-ud-Darjat (1719), Rafi-ud-Daulat (1719), Nikusiyar (1719), Ibrahim (1719), Muhammad Shah (1719-48), Ahmad Shah (1748-54), Alamgir II (1754-59), Shah Alam II (1759-1806), Akbar II (1806-37), and Bahadur Shah II (1837-58).
The Mughal dynasty which had been founded by Babur's victory at the first battle of Panipat in 1526 and confirmed by Akbar's victory at the second battle of Panipat in 1556, received its death blow at the third battle of Panipat in 1761 when Ahmad Shah Abdali helped by Shuja-ud-daula, the Nawab of Awadh, defeated the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, and his Maratha allies and protectors. Thereafter it dragged on a miserable existence not on account of any strength of its own but on account of rivalries amongst its possible successors, namely the seceding Muslim states, the rebellious Hindus, and the clever and steady English merchants, the last of whom defeated all their Muhammadan and Hindu competitors by exploiting their mutual, undying, suspicious jealousies and hostilities and succeeded in placing their soverignty in place of that of the Mughal dynasty. The last nominal Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II, who had been a virtual pensioner of the English since his accession, was formally deposed in 1858 for his alleged conspiracy in the Sepoy Mutiny and exiled to Rangoon in Burma where he died in 1862.

The Mughal Empire
شاهان مغول
Shāhān-e Moġul

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1526–1764

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