Mughal Empire

                                                         Medieval Indian History - 2

Mughal Empire

1. Babur (1526 - 1530) -  He was from Afganistan. He abolished the 'Iqta system'. He also wrote the auto-biography 'BaburNama'.  The battle fought by Babur are 

 a) In 1526 - Battle of Panipat -  with Ibrahim Lodhi

 b) In 1527 -  Battle of Khanwa - with Rana Sangha

 c) In 1528 - Batlle of Chanderi - with Medini Rai

 d) In 1529 - Battle of Ghaghra - with Afghans

He won all these four battles. He died in Agra in 1530 and was buried in Kabul.

2. Humayun (1530 - 1556) -  He was the son of Babur.  He faught the Battle of Chausa with Sher Shah Suri (Afghan) in 1539 and Humayun was defeated in this battle. His biography 'Humayun Nama' was written by Gulbadan Begam. He died in 1556 by falling from the stairs of Sher Mandal library.

3. Akbar (1556-1605) -  Akbar was born in 1542 in Amarkot, Pakistan. He fought the Second Battle of Panipat with Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya (Hemu) in 1556. Akbar won this battle. He became emperor at very young age so his protector was Bairam Khan. His courts members comprised of the famous 'Nav Ratna'. Birbal (Mahesh Das) was his advisor. Todar Mal was his finance incharge. Tansen was famous musician whoes mausoleum is in Gwalior. 

Akbar's biography ' Akbar Nama' was written by Abul Fazal. His period was called the "Golden period of Hindi Literature". He also made Buland Darwaza in Fatehpur Sikri after winning Gujarat.

4. Salim (1605 - 1627) -  He was also known as Jahangir.In 1611 he captured Jalandhar. His wife was Mehr-un-nissa (Nur Jahan). Language of mughal period was farsi. His period was known as "Golden period of Art (paintings)". Europeans came to Indian for trade at his time were William Hawkins, Sir Thomas Roe, William Finch. Salim refused for the tradining business.

5. Shah Jahan (1627 - 1657) - He was son of Salim and was also known as Khurram. He build Taj Mahal for his dead wife, Arjumand Bano (Mumtaz). The architect of Taj Mahal was Abdul Ahmad Lahori. He also built some other famous monuments like Red Fort, Jama Majid, Peacock Throne . The architect of Peacock Thrown was Badal Khan and later Nadir Shah captured Delhi and took away the Peacock Throne with him as the trophy of victory. The last emperor to sit on it was Muhammad Shah. 

        

To decide the next emperor there was a contest between Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh both were sons of Shah Jahan, in which Aurangzeb won and became the next emperor.

6. Aurangzeb (1657 - 1707) -  He was also known as Alamgiri and Zinda Pir. He demolished many Indian temples like Somnath temple in Gujarat, Vishwanath temple in Kashi, Keshav Rai temple in Mathura. He collected the highest tax in his period and has maximum number of Hindus in his army. He used to play Veena. His teacher was Muhammad Hakim.

The last mughal ruler was Bahadur Shah II .After this the European power came to India about which you can read in next blog.