The Mughals, the Marathas and the Later Mughals

Founding the empire

• Babur (1526–30):
  • won the First Battle of Panipat (1526) against Ibrahim Lodi, using the tulughma tactic and artillery;
  • Khanwa (1527) against Rana Sanga;
  • Chanderi (1528) against Medini Rai;
  • Ghaghra (1529) against the Afghans of Bihar and Bengal.
  • He wrote his memoir, the Tuzuk-i-Baburi (Baburnama), in Turki.
• Humayun lost to Sher Shah at Chausa (1539) and Kannauj (1540) and was in exile until 1555.

Sher Shah Suri (1540–45), from Sasaram, Bihar

• Founded the Sur empire.
• Reforms:
  • the silver rupiya (178 grains) and the copper dam;
  • land measured, and revenue set at one-third of produce;
  • patta (title deed) and qabuliyat (agreement) between state and peasant;
  • sarais along roads;
  • the Sadak-e-Azam (Grand Trunk Road) rebuilt, from Sonargaon to Peshawar;
  • an efficient postal system.
• Administration was divided into sarkars and parganas.
• He died at Kalinjar (1545). His tomb at Sasaram stands in a lake.
• Akbar built on many of his reforms.

The great Mughals

Akbar (1556–1605)

• Wars and expansion:
  • Second Battle of Panipat (1556) against Hemu, with Bairam Khan as regent;
  • Haldighati (1576), in which Man Singh fought Rana Pratap;
  • conquest of Gujarat, Bengal, Kashmir and the Deccan (Asirgarh, 1601).
• Rajput policy: matrimonial alliances and high mansabs.
• Religious policy:
  • abolished the pilgrim tax (1563) and jizya (1564);
  • built the Ibadat Khana at Fatehpur Sikri (1575);
  • issued the mahzar (1579);
  • promoted Din-i-Ilahi (1582) and sulh-i-kul (peace with all).
• Administration:
  • The mansabdari system ranked officers by zat (personal rank) and sawar (number of horsemen).
  • Jagirs were revenue assignments.
  • Land revenue was set by the Dahsala/Zabti system (Todar Mal, 1580), using measurement with a jarib.
  • Other systems were batai (crop sharing) and nasaq.
• Court: the Navaratnas, including Birbal, Todar Mal, Abul Fazl, Faizi, Tansen and Man Singh.
• Buildings: Fatehpur Sikri (Buland Darwaza, Panch Mahal), the Agra Fort, and Humayun's tomb (1570, built by Hamida Banu Begum).

Jahangir (1605–27)

• His wife Nur Jahan had great influence.
• He hung a chain of justice.
• Received Sir Thomas Roe (1615), who obtained trading rights for the English.
• Executed Guru Arjan Dev (1606).
• Mughal painting peaked (Mansur, Abul Hasan).
• Wrote Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.

Shah Jahan (1628–58)

• The golden age of architecture: the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and Jama Masjid in Delhi (Shahjahanabad), and the Peacock Throne.
• War of succession among his sons in 1657–58.

Aurangzeb (1658–1707)

• Re-imposed jizya (1679).
• Executed Guru Tegh Bahadur (1675).
• Spent his last 25 years in the Deccan, where he took Bijapur (1686) and Golconda (1687).
• Faced revolts by the Jats, Satnamis, Sikhs and Rajputs (Marwar).
• Built the Bibi ka Maqbara (Aurangabad).

Painting and literature: the Hamzanama, Persian translations of the Mahabharata (Razmnama), and Dara Shikoh's Majma-ul-Bahrain and his Persian translation of the Upanishads (Sirr-i-Akbar).

The Marathas

• Shivaji (1630–80):
  • captured Torna (1646);
  • killed Afzal Khan (1659);
  • raided Surat (1664);
  • Treaty of Purandar (1665) with Jai Singh;
  • escaped from Agra (1666);
  • coronation at Raigad (1674).
• Administration:
  • The Ashtapradhan council was headed by the Peshwa.
  • Revenue: chauth (25%) and sardeshmukhi (10%).
  • Forts and a navy were developed.
• Peshwas:
  • Balaji Vishwanath obtained a Mughal farman in 1719.
  • Baji Rao I expanded the Maratha empire north.
  • Balaji Baji Rao was Peshwa at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), where the Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau lost to Ahmad Shah Abdali.
• The Maratha confederacy was made up of the Peshwa (Pune), Bhonsle (Nagpur), Gaikwad (Baroda), Holkar (Indore) and Scindia (Gwalior).

Decline and the regional states

Causes of decline:

• wars of succession;
• the jagirdari crisis, with too few jagirs for too many mansabdars;
• Aurangzeb's Deccan wars and his religious policy;
• revolts by peasants and zamindars;
• foreign invasions: Nadir Shah (1739) took the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor, and Abdali invaded several times between 1748 and 1767;
• the rise of the European companies.

The later Mughals:

• Bahadur Shah I;
• Farrukhsiyar, whose 1717 farman gave the English East India Company duty-free trade in Bengal;
• the Sayyid brothers ("kingmakers");
• Muhammad Shah "Rangeela".

Regional states:

• Bengal: Murshid Quli Khan, then Alivardi Khan, then Siraj-ud-Daula.
• Awadh: Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk.
• Hyderabad: Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah (1724).
• Mysore: Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan.
• Punjab: Ranjit Singh.

Exam tip: Bihar connects to this period through Sher Shah (Sasaram) and Patna (Azimabad under Azim-us-Shan). Learn the three battles of Panipat with their years, and Sher Shah's reforms. These come up almost every year in BPSC.