Kapil Kumar
The Mughal Empire or
Mogul Empire, self-designated as Gurkani (meaning "son-in
law") was an empire based in the Indian Subcontinent, established and
ruled by a MuslimPersianatedynasty of Chagatai Turco-Mongol origin that
extended over large parts of the Indian subcontinent and
Afghanistan.
The beginning of the empire is conventionally dated to the founder Babur's victory over Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in the First Battle of Panipat (1526). The Mughal emperors were Central Asian Turco-Mongols belonging to the Timurid dynasty, who claimed direct descent from both Genghis Khan (founder of the Mongol Empire, through his son Chagatai Khan) and Timur (Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire). During the reign of Humayun, the successor of Babur, the empire was briefly interrupted by the Sur Empire. The "classic period" of the Mughal Empire started in 1556 with the ascension o fAkbar the Great to the throne. Under the rule of Akbar and his son Jahangir, the region enjoyed economic progress as well as religious harmony, and the monarchs were interested in local religious and cultural traditions. Akbar was a successful warrior. He also forged alliances with several Hindu Rajput kingdoms. Some Rajput kingdoms continued to pose a significant threat to the Mughal dominance of northwestern India, but most of them were subdued by Akbar. All Mughal emperors were Muslims; while Akbar was Muslim most of this life, he followed a new religion in the latter part of his life called Deen-i-Ilahi, as recorded in historical books like Ain-e-Akbari and Dabestan-e Mazaheb.
The Mughal Empire did
not try to intervene in the local societies during most of its existence,
but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative
practicesand diverse and inclusive ruling elites,leading to more
systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.Newly coherent social groups in
northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, the Pashtuns,
the Hindu Jats and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions
during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them
both recognition and military experience.
The reign of Shah Jahan,
the fifth emperor, between 1628–58 was the golden age of Mughal
architecture. He erected several large monuments, the best known of which
is the TajMahal at Agra, as well as the Moti Masjid, Agra, the Red Fort,
the Jama Masjid, Delhi, and the Lahore Fort. The Mughal Empire reached
the zenith of its territorial expanse during the reign of Aurangzeband
also started its terminal decline in his reign due to Maratha military
resurgence under ShivajiBhosale. During his lifetime, victories in the south
expanded the Mughal Empire to more than 3.2 million square kilometres
(1.2 million square miles), ruling over more than 150 million subjects,
nearly one quarter of the world's population a the time, with a combined
GDP of over $90 billion.
By the mid-18th century,
the Marathas had routed Mughal armies, and won over several Mughal
provinces from the Punjab toBengal, and internal dissatisfaction arose due to
the weakness of the Mughal Empire's administrative and economic systems,
leading to the break-up of the empire and declaration of independence of
its former provinces by the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, the
Nizam of Hyderabad and other small states. In 1739, the Mughals were
crushingly defeated in the Battle of Karnal by the forces of Nader Shah,
the founder of the Afsharid dynasty in Persia, and Delhi was sacked and
looted, drastically accelerating their decline. During the following
century Mughal power had become severely limited and the last emperor, Bahadur
Shah II, had authority over only the city of Shahjahanabad. He issued a firman
supporting the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and following the defeat was
therefore tried by the British East India Company for treason, imprisoned
and exiled to Rangoon. The last remnants of the empire were formally
taken over by the British, and the Government of India Act 1858 let the
British Crownformally assume direct control of India in the form of the
new British Raj.
Explanations
for the decline
Historians have offered
numerous explanations for the rapid collapse of the Mughal Empire between 1707 and 1720, after a century of growth and
prosperity. In fiscal terms the throne lost the revenues needed to pay its chief officers, the
emirs (nobles) and their entourages. The emperor lost authority, as the widely scattered imperial officers lost
confidence in the central authorities,
and made their own deals with local men of influence. The imperial army, bogged
down in long, futile wars against
the more aggressive Marathas, lost its fighting spirit. Finally came a series of violent political feuds over control
of the throne. After the execution of emperor Farrukhsiyar in
1719, local Mughal successor states took power in region after
region Contemporary chroniclers
bewailed the decay they witnessed, a theme picked up by the first British
historians who wanted to underscore the need for a British-led
rejuvenation.
Since
the 1970s historians have taken multiple approaches to the decline, with little
consensus on which factor was dominant. The psychological
interpretations emphasize depravity in high places, excessive luxury, and increasingly narrow
views that left the rulers unprepared for an external challenge. A Marxist school (led by
IrfanHabib and based at Aligarh Muslim University) emphasizes excessive exploitation of the peasantry by the
rich, which stripped away the will
and the means to support the regime.Karen Leonard has focused on the failure of
the regime to work with Hindu
bankers, whose financial support was increasingly needed; the bankers then helped the Maratha and the British. In a
religious interpretation, some scholars argue that the Hindu Rajputs revolted against Muslim ruleFinally other
scholars argue that the very prosperity of the Empire inspired the
provinces to achieve a high degree of independence, thus weakening
the imperial court.
Influence
on South Asia
South
Asian art and culture
A major Mughal
contribution to the Indian subcontinent was their unique architecture.
Many monuments were built by the Muslim
emperors, especially Shah Jahan, during the Mughal era including the UNESCO World Heritage Site TajMahal,
which is known to be one of the finer examples of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites include
Humayun's Tomb, FatehpurSikri, the Red Fort, the Agra Fort, and
the Lahore Fort
The
palaces, tombs, and forts built by the dynasty stand today in Agra, Aurangabad, Delhi, Dhaka, FatehpurSikri,
Jaipur, Lahore, Kabul,Sheikhupura, and many other cities of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.With
few memories of Central Asia,
Babur's descendants absorbed traits and customs of South Asia,[50] and became more or less
naturalized.
Mughal
influence can be seen in cultural contributions such as
∙ Centralized, imperialistic government which brought
together many smaller kingdoms ∙ Persian
art and culture amalgamated with Indian art and culture
∙ New trade
routes to Arab and Turkic lands.
∙ The development of Mughlai cuisine
∙ Mughal Architecture found its way into local Indian
architecture, most conspicuously in the palaces built by Rajputs and Sikh rulers.
∙ Landscape and Mughal gardening
Although
the land the Mughals once ruled has separated into what is now India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, their influence can still
be seen widely today. Tombs of the emperors are spread throughout
India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The
Mughal artistic tradition was eclectic, borrowing from the European Renaissance
as well as from Persian and Indian sources. Kumar concludes,
"The Mughal painters borrowed individual motifs and certain naturalistic effects from
Renaissance and Mannerist painting, but their structuring
principle was derived from Indian and Persian traditions."
Science
and technology
Muhammad
SalihThattvi headed the task of creating a seamless celestial globe using a
secret wax casting method, the famous celestial globe was
also inscribed with Arabic and Persian inscriptions.
Astronomy
While there appears to
have been little concern for theoretical astronomy, Mughal astronomers continued to make advances inobservational astronomy
and produced nearly a hundred Zij treatises.
Humayun built a personal observatory near Delhi. The instruments and
observational techniques used at
the Mughal observatories were mainly derived from the Islamic tradition. In particular, one of the most remarkable astronomical
instruments invented in Mughal India is the seamless celestial
globe.
Alchemy
Sake Dean Mahomed had
learned much of Mughal Alchemy and understood the techniques used to produce various alkali and soaps to produce
shampoo. He was also a notable writer who described the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and the cities of Allahabad
and Delhi in rich detail and also made note of the glories of the
Mughal Empire.
Sake
Dean Mahomed was appointed as shampooing surgeon to both Kings George IV and William
IV.
Technology
See also: History of
gunpowder: India
FathullahShirazi
(c. 1582), a Persian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar, developed a volley
gun.
Akbar
was the first to initiate and use metal cylinder rockets known as bans particularly
against War
elephants, during the Battle of Sanbal.
In the
year 1657, the Mughal Army used rockets during the Siege of Bidar Prince Aurangzeb's
forces discharged rockets and grenades while scaling
the walls. SidiMarjan was mortally wounded
when a rocket struck his large gunpowder depot, and after twenty-seven days of
hard fighting Bidar was captured by the victorious
Mughals
Later,
the Mysorean rockets were upgraded versions of Mughal rockets used during the
Siege of Jinji by the progeny of the Nawab of Arcot. Hyder
Ali's father Fatah Muhammadthe constable at
Budikote, commanded a corps consisting of 50 rocketmen (Cushoon) for the
Nawab of Arcot. Hyder Ali realised
the importance of rockets and introduced advanced versions of metal cylinder rockets. These rockets turned fortunes in favour of
the Sultanate of Mysore during the Second Anglo-Mysore War, particularly during theBattle of Pollilur.
Conclusion
The Indian economy
remained as prosperous under the Mughals as it was, because of the creation of a road system and a uniform currency,
together with the unification of the countryManufactured
goods and peasant-grown cash crops were sold throughout the world. Key industries included shipbuilding (the Indian
shipbuilding industry was as advanced as the European, and Indians sold ships to European firms),
textiles, and steel. The Mughals maintained a small fleet, which merely carried pilgrims to Mecca,
imported a few Arab horses in
Surat. Debal in Sindh was mostly autonomous. The Mughals also maintained
various river fleets of Dhows,
which transported soldiers over rivers and fought rebels. Among its admirals were YahyaSaleh, Munnawar Khan, and Muhammad
SalehKamboh. The Mughals also protected the Siddis of Janjira. Its sailors were renowned and often voyaged to
China and the East African Swahili Coast, together with some
Mughal subjects carrying out private-sector trade.
Cities
and towns boomed under the Mughals; however, for the most part, they were
military and political centres, not manufacturing or commerce
centres Only those guilds which produced goods for the bureaucracy made goods in the towns; most industry was
based in rural areas. The Mughals
also built Maktabs in every province under their authority, where youth were
taught the Quran and Islamic law such as the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri in
their indigenous languages.
The
Bengal region was especially prosperous from the time of its takeover by the
Mughals in 1590 to the seizure of control by the British East
India Company in 1757. In a system where most wealth was hoarded by the elites, wages were low for manual labour.
Slavery was limited largely to
household servants. However some religious cults proudly asserted a high status
for manual labour.
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