Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

LURE - THRU THE AGES

were ended once and for all. It enabled Akbar to secure firmly his empire in In-

* Babur had also been cherishing the am- bition of invading India like his great an- cestor Timur. * The battle of Kanwah in which Babur de- feated the Rajputs under Rana Sanga de- stroyed the powerful Rajput confederacy. This made possible the foundation of the Mughal rule in India. * Babur's use of heavy artillery confounded his enemies and ensured his victory. Chronology * Zahiru-d-Din Muhammad Babur (1526- 30) * Humayun (son of Babur) (1530-40) (1555-56) * Akbar (son of Humayun) (1556-1605) * Jehangir (son of Akbar) (1605-27) * Shahjehan (son of Jehangir) (1627-58) * Aurangzeb (son of Shahjehan) (1658- 1707) Wars 1526 First battle of Panipat. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi to found Mughal empire. 1527 Battle of Kanwah between Babur and Rajputs under Rana Sanga. Babur vic- torious. 1539 Battle of Chausa. Sher Shah defeated Humayun. 1540 Battle of Kanauj. Sher Shah defeated Humayun. 1556 Second battle of Panipat. Himu de- feated by Akbar and Bairam Khan. 1568 Battle of Chitor. Rajputs defeated by Akbar, Chitor taken over by Akbar. 1576 Battle of Haldighat. Rana Pratap of Mewar defeated by Akbar. 1660 Shivaji defeated Mughal General Shayista Khan. Impact * The first battle of Panipat and the battle of Kanwah secured the way for the foun- dation of the Mughal empire in India. * The battle of Chausa in 1539 forced Hu- mayun to flee India enabling the Afghan overlord Sher Shah to found an empire in India albeit only for a short duration (1539-45). After Sher Shah's death Humayun came back to India and re- established the Mughal empire. * In the second battle of Panipat the Afghan pretensions to the sovereignty of India

Overview * Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire in India, was the descendent on his fa- ther's side in the fifth generation from Timur and through his mother in the fif- teenth degree from Chingiz Khan. Al- though popularly known as 'Mughals' or the descendents of Mongols, they pre- ferred to call themselves the Chaghatayids, originating from Ch- ingizi's second son. Chaghatai, who ruled Transoxiana. In the 16th and 17th century the Mughal emperors unified practically the whole of North India and much of the Deccan, and built up an empire. * The Mughal period was one of great splendour, which has left, its mark on India in the form of many lovely build- ings, wherein Islamic and Hindu motifs often blended in a perfect unity. The Taj Mahal at Agra is the most famous memorial of the times. * Akbar the Great (1556-1605) followed a policy of complete toleration, abolished all religious tests and disabilities, includ- ing the hated poll-tax on unbelievers, appointed Rajput princes and other Hin- dus to high offices of state without con- version to Islam and inter-communal marriages were encouraged by the ex- ample of the emperor himself. * Aurangzeb (1658-1707) reversed the pol- icy of toleration. Restrictions were placed on the free practice of Hindu rites, tax on non-Muslims was reimposed. He carried out a systematic demolition of Hindu temples. He alienated the Sikhs by exe- cuting their Guru Tegh Bahadur. * Some of the Mughal sovereigns, like Babur and Jehangir wrote their own memoirs, which shed abundant light on their personal lives besides providing important details of the events of their reigns. Advent * The Delhi Sultanate existed only in name. It was tom apart by the ambitions, disaf- fections and rivalries of the nobles. Two of them, Daulat Khan, the most power- ful noble of the Punjab, who was discon- tented with Ibrahim Lodi because of the cruel treatment he had meted out to his son, Dilawar Khan; and Alam Khan, an uncle of Ibrahim Lodi, went so far as to invite Babur to invade India.

dia and set it on the path of expansion. Babur (b.l483-dl530; reigned 1526-30)

Babur, a Chaghatai Turk, was descended on his father's side from Timur, and was con- nected on his mother's side with Chingiz Khan. In 1494 he inherited from his father, at the age of eleven, the small principality of Farghana, now a province of Uzbekistan. In his early life he suffered severe hard- ships which strengthened him to face the fu- ture vicissitudes of fortune. His two attempts to take possession of the city of Samarkhand in 1497 and 1503 ended in failure. He also lost his father's kingdom Farghana and had to spend his days as a homeless wanderer for about a year. He dreamt of conquering Hin- dustan like his great ancestor Timur. He oc- cupied Kabul in 1504 A.D. In 1519 he mounted his first invasion of India, seizing Bajaur by storm imposing a ransom on its people. Next he sent an envoy to Ibrahim Lodi, asking him to surrender the west Punjab region previously conquered by Timur. In 1523 he was invited by the Punjab governor Daulat Khan to overthrow Ibrahim Lodi. Ibrahim Lodi who got an inkling of the conspiracy, sent an army against Lahore. Babur who had left Kabul on his fourth In- dian expedition defeated Ibrahim's army at Lahore; appointing a governor at Lahore, Babur left for Kabul to organise reinforce- ments. Babur left Kabul in Oct. 1525 to conquer India. The governor of Punjab surrendered to. Babur. Ibrahim Lodi left Delhi to meet Babur with an army of 100,000 cavalry and 1,000 elephants. Babur's army comprised about 10,000 troopers. The opposing armies met on the historic plains* of Panipat on 21 April 1526. Babur's army had cannons mounted on wagons. Ibrahim’s army depended on ele- phants and consisted of mercenaries. Ibrahim's army could not face Babur's artil- lery and was totally routed. Between 16,000 to 40,000 Lodi soldiers were killed. Herd upon herd of the elephants was captured besides an immense quantity of booty. Delhi and Agra fell into Babur’s hands. At Agra, the Gwalior ruling family presented the famous Kohi-noor diamond to Babur's son Hu- mayun. Babur treated those Afghan leaders who submitted to him magnanimously. He assigned to his Mughal begs the revenue of