THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED 00 OU_158599>[g j Alhcrt Jlfji^fiWi Xfctinin MUGHAL EMPIRE IN INDIA [1526-1761] PART I BY S. R. SHARMA, M. A. FERGUSSON COLLEGE, POONA WITH PREFACE BY REV. H. HERAS, s.j., M.A. DIRECTOR, INDIAN HISTORICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ST. XAVIER'S COLLEGE, BOMBAY " To know anything thoroughly nothing 9 ' accessible must be excluded. SIR OLIVER LODGE. jKARNATAK PRINTING PRESS 318A THAKURDWAR BOMBAY Printed and Published by M. N. Kulkarni, at the Karnatak Printing Press, 318A, Thakurdwar, Bombay 2. To The Sacred Memory of GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE Model Scholar, Teacher, and Servant of India whose ardent devotion to other studies did not blind him to a true appreciation of History this work is most respectfully dedicated. PREFACE A text-book is not an easy thing to write, and because many text-book writers do not realise this, their books are soon forgotten. But the text-book which Prof. S. R. Sharma invites me to present to the students' world to-day, will not be easily forgotten. It is not conceived along the is ordinary lines of a School text ; but original, well thought out and eminently suitable for the B. A. History course. A good text-book for the School boys will not be a good text- book for College students. Prof. Sharma's is a College text-book. Besides the historical events, narrated in much greater detail than in School text-books, Prof. Sharma introduces a number of authors to the students. Some of those authors are eye-wit- nesses of the events themselves, contemporary writers, first class authorities that are called in historical language Sources of History. Others are authors of books written after the study of the Sources, second-hand authorities, valuable also, but not as important as the first ones ; such books are classified under the heading of Historical Literature. It was a happy thought indeed to make the students acquainted with all these books and all these authors. Thus this text-book is not a book for cramming, but a real guide to the student, who thus will know where to study his subject more deeply and in a more scienti- fic way. It is a mistake to think that B. A. students need not know the Sources of History. That would be to lower our Univer- sity students below the level of all other University students. Certainly the detailed study of all the Sources and the use of these Sources for working in research is beyond the scope of B. A. the course ; but some knowledge of these Sources is re- quired for a true University student. No University student should be allowed to finish the History course without know- Vlll ing that the foundations of the historical narrative of the text- book are contemporary documents, the authors of which were either trustworthy witnesses, or, at least, well acquainted with the events they describe. All this will be known by the students who use Prof. Sharma's book. Perhaps this book will force them to work if harder than they used a cramming text-book ; but by read- ing this book and by following the directions pointed out to them in it, they will know more History than by using any other text-book. And this is precisely what they were covet- ing when they enrolled themselves as History students. This text-book is a real source of high and systematic knowledge. The intelligent use of this text-book will introduce the student to the genuine Historical method. H. HERAS, S. J. Bombay. 1st June 1934. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE By Rev. H. Heras, S. J., M. A. vii INTRODUCTION. 1 AUTHORITIES; GENEALOGY. CH. I INDIA AS BABUR FOUND HER : 9 Introduction Natural Conditions Economic Conditions Political Conditions -Babur's Omissions Condition of South India Condition of North India. II CH. HOW THE EMPIRE WAS FOUNDED : 21 Introduction Babur's Early Adventures up to his Con- quest of Kabul Babur as King of Kabul Babur in India First Battle of Panipat Post Panipat Problems Babur's Last Days Estimate of Babur. AUTHORITIES; GENEALOGY. CH. IE THE EMPIRE IN TRANSITION : 63 Introduction Humayun's Early Life up to his Acces- sionStruggles to Maintain his Inheritance Fifteen years of Exile Restoration and Death Character and Achievements of Humayun Humayun's Plan for the Government of the Empire. AUTHORITIES ; GENEALOGY. CH. IV THE SUR INTER-REGNUM : 121 Introduction Sher Shah's Early Life Conquest of Empire Sher Shah's Capacity Some Modern Estimates Sher Shah's Successors Salim and Firoz Shah Three More Kings Failure of the Sur Dynasty. AUTHORITIES; GENEALOGY. CH. V-RESTORATION OF EMPIRE : 185 Introduction Principal Events : Birth to Accession of Akbar Political Situation Second Battle of Panipat Occupation of Delhi and Agra Gwalior and Jaunpur Rantambhor and Malwa The Fall of Bhairam Khan The "Parda Regime" The Conquest of Malva Khan Zaman's Contumacy First Rajput Marriage and Alliance The Capture of Mairtha The Brave Rani Durgavati of Gondwana Adham Khan and Khwaja PAGE Muazzam The Kabul RevoltKhan Zaman's Rebel- lion Asaf Khan's Surrender Revolt of the Mirzas Khan Zaman's SuppressionConquest of Rajputana The Siege of Chitor Kalinjar Jodhpur and Bikanir Results of the Rajput Campaigns Conquest of Gujarat Ahmadabad Cambay Battle of Sarnal Surat Patan- Battle of Ahmadabad Final Settlement of Gujarat Conquest of Bihar and Bengal Fall of Patna and Hajipur Garhi and Tanda Captured Daud's Defeat at Tukaroi Peace with Daud Final Defeat and Death of Daud Rana Pratap's Glorious Resistance The Crisis of 1581 Settlement of the Frontiers Conquest of the Deccan Akbar's Relations with the Europeans The Jesuit Missions Akbar and the English. VI REORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE : 301 Introduction The Central Government Revenue Sys- tem Army and Admiralty The Provincial Govern- mentsThe Imperial Mints Social and Religious Re- formsThe Genesis of Akbar's Reforms Zoroastrians Jains Christians Hindus Some Estimates of Akbar. List of Illustrations. AKBAR AND TWO MANSABDARS ( Frontispiece ) " " THE DREAM IN MARBLE Facing 5 JAHANGIR Facing 284 COINS OF THE EMPIRE Facing 323 List of Maps INDIA AS BABUR FOUND HER [ 1526 A. D. ] Facing 20 MUGHAL EMPIRE IN 1605 A. D. Facing 300 INTRODUCTION " No study has so potent an influence in forming a nation's mind a nation's character as a critical and careful study of its past history. And it is by such study alone that an unreasoning and superstitious worship of the past is replaced by a legitimate and manly admiration." R. C. DUTT. The period of nearly two and a half centuries that forms the subject of this study is one of the most brilliant epochs in Indian History. In 1526, Zahiru-d din Muhammad Babur, by his victory over Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat, ushered in a new era in India and anew dynasty on the throne of Delhi, as Henry VII had done in England after his triumph on the field of Bosworth only forty years earlier (1485). The Age of the Mughals in India was memorable in many ways as of the Tudors in England. The first task of the two adventurers, Henry in England and Babur in India, was not dissimilar : both had to make themselves secure on their newly won either thrones ; both had to contend against champions, legiti- in mate or pretentious, of the disestablished powers ; both, brief, aimed at the establishment of a strong but benevolent monarchy, each in a country newly made his own. If Henry Tudor sought to win the hearts of his subjects and bridge the gulf between two principal factions within England by means of his marriage with Elizabeth of York, likewise did a monarch of the Mughal dynasty, Akbar, marry a Rajput princess to bring about rapprochement between Hindus and Muslims in India, For a king who sought to make him- self absolute in every way in England, it was felt necessary that he should be supreme over Church and State, and hence Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy were passed. Akbar aimed at the same objective, but did not seek to 2 MUGHAL EMPIRE IN INDIA impose his royal will with the blood-stained hand of persecu- ' ' tion. For an Empire ruled by one head/ he thought, it was a bad thing to have the members divided among themselves and at variance one with the other. We ought, therefore, to bring them all into one, but in such a fashion that they should be one and all, with the great advantage of not losing what is good in any one religion, while gaining whatever is better in another. In that way honour would be rendered to God, peace would be given to the peoples, and security to the 1 Empire.' These parallels, striking as they are, may not be pressed too closely. In the first place, there was an essential difference in detail in the two peoples and countries. Secondly, the comparison or contrast is not always between two individual and exactly contemporaneous monarchs, but primarily between the general circumstances and achievements of two dynasties and countries. Yet few can read of Akbar and Elizabeth, or even of Jahangir and James I, without being strongly reminded of certain resemblances or dissimilarities. The death of Elizabeth (1603) in England, and of Akbar (1605) in India, placed on their respective thrones successors who had much in common in their personal composition ; both James and Jahangir were notorious for the mixture of opposite ele- ' ments in their character* The contemporary of the wisest ' fool in Christendom/ who was laborious over trifles and a trifler where serious labour was required/ is thus described by of tenderness V.