(IGP) IAS Pre: GS - Indian History - Medieval Indian - The Mughal Kings

Babur (1526-30)

1. Belonged to Cheghati section of the Turkish race
2. Originally fromFarghana (Trans – ociana). Born in 1483 in the family of Taimur
3. Was invited by mahmud Khan Lodi AND Ranasanga.

• Founded a new capital city Fatehpur Sikri (1572-80) which contains edifices of high quality like Buland Darwaja, Diwani-i- Khas, Turkish Sultan’s Palace, Panch Mahal etc. Agra and also Lahore served as his capital cities.
• Akbar designed his mausoleum himself which was constructed by Jahangir at Sikandara

4. A skilled musician and player of ‘Naqqara’(Kettled drum)

5. Some of the great musicians like Tansen, Baba Ramdas and Baba Haridas adorned his court

6. The mode of calligraphy favourite to Akbar was ‘ Nastaliq’.

7. Some of the prominent painters who wre in court of Akbar were Khawaja Abdus Samad. Dasawanta & Basawan.

8. Made Persian translation of Mahabharta known as ‘Razm –Naman’. Also got Ramayana Translated into Persian.

9. Muzaffar Khan , Todarmal & Shah Mansur were three most notable wazir of his time.

10. Compiled a code of education regulations.

11. Prohibited polygamy.

12. Assumed the title of Zul –i- ilahi (Shadow of god).

13. Introduced Gaz-i-ilahi, of 41 digits a new yard for land measurement (89 inches in length) in1588.

14. In 1573 introduced Kirori experiment.

15. In 1581 introduced Dah- sala system (important role of Todar Mal)

16. Akbar’s empire was divided into 12 subas (1575). Later the number rose upto 15 (1605)

Jehangir (1605-27)

1. Popular known as ‘Salim’ born at Lahore in1569.
2. Promulgated twelve edicts / ordinances for the general welfare and better government to mark his coronation. Capital city was at Agra
3. Lost the province if Kandhar to Persia.
4. Married Mehrunnisa (daughter of Mirza Ghiya Beg) later known as Nuramahal& Nurjahan.

5. Formation of Junta( Clique) comprising Nurjehan , her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg (Itimaud- Daula) her brother Asaf Khan Jehangir’s eldest son and son-in-law of Asaf Khan Khurram which practically played a decisive role in running the government for many years.

6. Coup ofMohabat Khan Took place that captured Jehangir & Nurjahan in Lahore.

7. Coming of two English emissaries of king James of England, Captain Hawkin and Sir Thomas Roy for favourable trade concessions. As a result of their efforts English factories were set up at Agra , Surat , Ahmadabad & Broach .

8. Wrote his autobiography Tuzuk-I-Jehangari in Persian.
9. He was buried at Shahadara near Lahore (Died near Lahore while returning from Kashmir).
10. Mughal Painting reached its climax during his reign, great progress was made in portrait painting & paintings of animals, Mansure was the greatest name in this field.
11. He himself was accomplished in pain….. he claimed that he cold distinguish the work of different artists done in a single painting.
12. Introduced ‘Du- Aspah’ & Sih-Aspah system (literally tropper with 2 or 3 horses)in  Manasabadri system.
13. Ordered the abolition of inhuman coropal punishments like the cutting of nose and ears of the culprits.
14. Ordered the preparation of a Zanjir-i-Adl the chamof justice made of pure gold . to hear public grievances against the highhandedness and oppression of government officers.
15. Executed Guru Arjun Dev with charge of giving help to the prince Khusrao after his revolt in1606.

Shahjahan

1. Real name Khurram. Born in 1592 . Died in 1666.
2. Witnessed a war of succession among his four sons. Later on impressed till death by Aurangzeb.
3. Made greatest contribution to architecture, introduced large scale use of marble , pietra dura and added elegance and sophistication in buildings.
4. Built magnificient edifices like the Red Fort ( Red Stone ), the Jma Masjid ( Red Stone), the Taj Mahal (Marble ),and the Moti Masjid ( Marble )at Agra.
5. Ousted the Portuguese from Hugli and occupiedit in 1632.
6. Foreign travelers Brenier (French) Travenier (French) and Manucci (Italian ) visited his court.
7. His court historian was Abdul Hamid Lahori .
8. Got built the Peacock throne Takht-i- Taus (1628-35) and Taj Mahal (1632-56)
9. Introduced scale of 1/3.1/4&1/5 inMansabadri system.

Dara Shikoh

1. He was the eldest son of Shahjahan andf his most favoured nominee for the throne.
2. He was liberal and possessed moderate views.
3. He was a devotee of Qadiri order of Sufis.
4. He was disciple of Miyan Mir and then his successor Mulla Shah Badaksni.
5. He received the tittle of Shai–I- Buland Iqbal from Shahjahan.
6. He developed the Persian version of the Upanishads.
7. His famous works are

• Sufiant –ul- Auliya: Biographies of sufi saints
• Sakinat –ul- Auliya : Biographies of his two preceptors Miyan Mir & Mullah Shah.
• Hasant –ul- Arifin : Contains his religious ideas.
• Majma –ul- Baharain : Contains his religious ideas( Meaning: Confluenceof two oceans)
• Sirr-I- Akbar : Translation of 552 .Upanishads.
• Risala-I- Haq Numa

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Aurangzeb (1657-1707)

1. Adopted the title of Alamgir (Conqueror of the world), Padshah (Emperor0 and Ghazi (Holy Warrior0.
2. Confronted a number of rebellions.

• Jats under Gokala Rajaram and Churaman successively.
• Satnamis (Mudiyas0 by the followers of Birbhan
• Sikhs, after humilitation and imprisionment of Shambhaji
• Rjaput by Rathors ofMarwar after the death of Jaswant Singh, on account of Aurangzeb’s refulas to recongnise Ajit Singh (Posthumous son of Jaswant Singh) as the legal heir.
• Bundelas led by Champat Rai & Chhatrasal

3. Reimposed Jizya in 1670.

4. Abolished Rahdari (Inland transit duties) Pandari (Octroi0 and Abwab (Miscellaneous taxes).

5. Discontinued the practice of inscbing the Kalima (Muhammadan confession of faith) on the coins.

6. Abolished the celebrations of the Nauroz (New year’ Day), Sati (1163), Jhorakha-darshan, music and singing.

7. Discontinued the ceremony of weighing the emperor (Tuladan) on his birthdays.

8. Executed Shambhaji (son of Shivaji) in 1690

9. A proficient player of veena.

10. Forbade singing at court.

11. Reimposed Pilgrims Tax.

12. Forbade the cultivation of ‘Bhang”

13. Built Pearl Mosque (Moti Masjid) inside the red Fort at Delhi

14. He was regarded as a ‘Zinda Pir’ (a living saint)

15. Appointed a board of ulemas to compile a digest on law which came to be known as Fatwa-i- Alamgiri.

16. Appointed ‘Muhtasibs’.

The Departments of Mughal State

Diwan-I-Ala

1. Finance Minister of the state.
2. Looked after the revenue and expenditure of the state

Mir Bakshi

1. Minister in charge of military establishment.

Sadr-Us- Sudr

1. Also known as sadr-i-Jehan.
2. Head of ecclesiastical department.
3. Looked after religious affairs of the state.

QAZI-UL-QUZZAT

1. Constituted the second highest judicial authority after the king
2. Supervised and control entire judicial set-up of the state

KHAN-I-SAMAN

1. Also known as Mikr-saman.
2. Head of royal household
3. In charge of royal Korkhanas.

The organization of army

Ahdis	Known as gentleman troopers who were directly recruited and paid by the state.
Ahsham	Soldiers belonging to infantry.
Bargirs	Soldiers belonging to cavalry. They were mounted and equipped by the state.
Dasti	Light Artillery
Dhakhilis	Known as supplementary troopers. They were recruited by the State and paid from the State treasury,
Jinsi	Heavy Artillery.
She-Bandi	Soldiers belonging to infantry. They wee more like the civil police.
Silehdars	Cavalrymen who brought their own horses and arms. They were paid higher salaries than bargirs.

POLITICO-ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS

Subah

1. The largest unit equivalent to province.
2. The head was known as Nazim or Subedar of Sipahsalar.
3. Other functionaries at this level were: Diwan (Finance), Bakshi (Defence), Sadr (religious affairs) and Qazi (justice).

Sarkar

1. The unit was equivalent to district.
2. Headed by Faujdar or Shiqdar or Shiqdar- I_Shiqdaran. He was overall incharge of law & order.
3. Assessment & collection of revenue was looked after by Amalguzar.
4. The head of the district treasury was Khazandar.
5. Bitikchis functioned as writers and record keepers.

Pargana

1. The administrative unit next to sarkar.
2. Headed by Shiqdar, who was in charge of law & order.
3. The revenue official at this level was Amil.
4. The head of the treasury was Fotadar.

Village

1. Village affairs were looked after by the  Panchayat.
2. Lambardar was the head of the Panchayat.
3. There was a Chowkidar.

Translations of Different Book During the Mughals

Atharvaveda	Translated into Persian by haji Ibrahim Sarhindi.
Babarnamah	Translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khana.
Lilawati	Translated into Persian by Faizi.
Mahabharata	Translated into Persian by Abudul Qadir Badayuni, Naqib Khan and Shaikh Sultan. It is known as Razm nama in this form.
Nal Damayanti	Translated into Persian by faizi
Pancha Tantra	Translated into Persian by Abul/Fazi. The book is known as Anwer-I-Suhalli in Persian form.
Rajatarangini	Translated into Persian by Mulla Shah Muhammad.
Ramayana	Translated into Persian by Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Naquib Khan and Shaikh Sultan.

Mughal Painting

Humayun	Brought Abdul Samad and saiyyad Ali to Delhi.
Akbar	Established royal Karkhana for painting.
	Tlazam Nama and Trikh-i- Khandane Timuria were painted.
	Europen painting was introduced by portugese
Jehangir	He, himself was a painter.
	Sent Bisan Dara to Russia.
	Mansoor was the greatest painter of his time
	He loved paintings on animal and birds.
Shahjahan	Badsah name Illustrated
	Used lavish gold.
Aurangjeb	He was antagonistic towards miniature painting.
Mughal Gardens
Hasht Bahist	Laid out by Babar at a Agra, now known as Ram Bagh.
Shalimar Bagh	Laid out by Jehangir at Srinagar.
Nisat Bagh	Laid out by Asaf Khan at Srinagar.
Shalimar Garden	Laid out by Shahjehan near Lahore.
Hayat Baksh	Laid out by Shahjehan inside the red Fort.
Shalimar Bagh	Laid out by Shahjehan in Delhi
Wazir Bagh	Laid out by Dara in Kashmir.
Chahar Burji Bagh	Laid out by zeb-un-nisa near Lahore. Crops & Industries Distribution
Sind	Cooon, silk, wooden article, ivory, bangles, saltpeter, mattresses.
Gujarat	Silk weaving, velvet Needlework, Embroidery. Jewellery, Furniture, Weapons, Gold 7 Silver embroidery.
Delhi/Agra	Paper, Glassware, Copper & Brass utensils.
Avadh	Saltpetre
Bihar	Glass vessels, Wooden articles.
Bengal	Muslin, Cotton, Silk, Embroidered quilts.
Agra	Bayana Indigo (Costlier)
Ahmedabad	Sarkhej Indigo

Varieties of cloth

1. Pat                             A coarser kind of cotton cloth used by the poor.
2. Kirpas (Calico)          A superior variety of cotton cloth than Pat
3. Sirinbaft                     A variety of mullsim
4. Salahati                      A variety of muslin obtained from Sylhet
5. Devgiri                       A fine & expensive variety of muslin obtained from Devagiri
6. Patola                        A Kid of silk
7. Chitrapat                    Painted or printed cloth.
8 Tafetas                        Silk embroidered with gold.
9. Toti                            Matting cloth for wrapping merchandise.
10. Tatband                   Jute cloth

Terminologies in Use During Mughal

Ahadis	Efficient troops which were not placed under the control of emperor Later on it has important role in the decline of the mughal empire.
Ain-i-Dahsala	A system where the average produce of different crops as well as the average prices prevailing over the last ten years were calculated 9introduced by Akbar)
Al-tamgha	Jagirs given to Mulsim nobles (Introduced by Hahangir)
Amalguzar	Head of the revenue establishment at local level
Amir	Commander of hundred
Batai/Bhaoli	Crop sharing
Ghalla-Bakshi
Biswa	1/20 part of a bigha
Charas	Method for lifting water from wells in a leather bucket and drawn over by yhoke of oxen
Chehra	Muster roll that was also called Hulia
Dagh	Branding of horses
Dam/Palse/Fulus	Chief copper coin of 323.5grains (21Grams) (40DAM=1 Rupee).
Dasturs	Cash revenue rates.
Dhenkil	Wooden scoop, used for lifting water from wells into field channels.
Fatwa	Ruling
Gaz-i-Ilahi	New yard for land measurement, consisting of 41 digist (approx 33 inches0, introduced by Akbar.
Hasil	Actual collection from land
Hundi	Bill of exchange
Jagirdars	Revenue assignees
Jama	Estimated revenue of Jagir which was equal to the pay given to the mansabdar.
Jama Dami	Assessed revenue in terms of luxury goods.
Karoris	seniors revenue collectors who collected crores of rupees from the people of the crown lands.
Khalisa	The land where revenue was reserved for the Sultan’s treasury .
Khan	Commander of ten thousand horsemen or more.
Khud-Kashta/	Owners of land in the official documents
alik-I-Zamin	or resident cultivators.
Khutb	A sermon, recited in mosques on Fridays wherein the name of ruler was included
Kotwal	Police chief
Madad-I-Maash/	Grants of land to men of learning for
Sayughal	their subsistence for life time.
Mahzar	Religious decree issued by Akbar
Malik	Commander of thousand horsemen
Millat	The muslim brotherhood (Entire Muslim Population)
Muhatsibs	Public censors
Nauroz	The new years day of the Zoroastrian calendar introduced by Akbar. (Aurangzeb banned it)
Paikasht/	Peasents who cultivated land in villages
Pahikasht	other then their own.
Qabulliat	Paper to be signed by pessants. A mark of acceptance of state’s demand of land revenue.
Qanungo	Head of the patwaris who as the field officer constituted the land revenue establishment at pargana level.
Qanungo	Head of the patwaris who as the field officer constituted the land revenue establishment.
Rupee	Rounded silver coin of 172 grains
Saqlya	Sophisticated device for lifting water by Persian wheel.
Sawar	A Mughal rank that determine the number of cavarley-men.
Shiq	An Administrative division (District0 during Delhi Sultanate
Sipah salar	Commander of less than one hundred soldiers.
Taqavi	Advance loans to peasant
Tuyul	Term used for jagirs
Waqf	Grants for religious and educational institutions
Waquianavis	News writer
Watan Jagirs	Jagirs which were assigned to zamindars in their homelands
Zat	A Mughal rank that determined the position of a Mughalmansabdar in the hierarchy as well as the personal day.
Zortalab	Area where there was objection made by the zamindars.

Later Mughals

Bahadur Shah (1702-12)

1. Aurangzeb died in 1707. He had surviving sons- Price Muzzam, Muhammad Azam and Kam baksh.
2. Price Muzzam succeeded the throne by defeating Azam at Jajau (1707) and Kam Baksh at Hyderabad (1709) and adopting the title Bahadur Shah.
3. Adopted pacific polices.
4. Reserved some of the religious policies of Aurangzeb.
5. Guru Govind Singh was given highmansab and had peace with the Sikhs.
6. Sahu, son of Sambhaji (Karasha) was released (captured by Aurangzeb) After which there began a civil war between Sahu and Tara Bai for Maratha Thoren.
7. Known on Shah-i-Bekhaber

Jahander Shah (1712-13)

1. Parctice of revenue farming of ‘Ijara’ was started
2. Abdulah Khan was made the Wazir and
3. Hussain Ali the Mir Bakhi known as Sayyid brothers known as King Maker.

Farrukh Siyar (1713-1719)

1. Chin Qulich Khan or Nizam-ul-Mulk was made governor of the six provinces of Deccan.
2. Banda Bahadur, the Sikh leader, was defeated captured and put to death at Delhi 1716.
3. Sayyid brothers adopted tolerant polices towards Hindus.
4. Jizya was finally abolished
5. Pilgrimage taxes were also abolished .
6. Sayyid brothers virtually became king-makers.
7. Farruksiya was killed by sayyid brothers.

Muhammad Shah (1719-48)

1. Rose to Mughal throne by the Sayyid brothers after death of Rafi-ud-Daulah.
2. Original name was Raushan Akhtar, but took the title of Muhammad Shah after he became the Mughal emperor.

3. Nizam-u-mulk was made Wazir in 1722. He carried out many administrative reforms, but dissatisfied over the infighting at the court, left for deccan, where he founded the state of Hyderabad after defeating Mughal governor of Deccan, Mubariz Khan in the battle of Shakr- Khed (1724)

4. Musrshid Quli Khan was governor and subedar of Bengal.
5. Burhan-ul-Mulk Saadat Khan was made subedar of A sadh, also followed similar course and established his rule over there.
6. Thus Bengal and Bihar, Awadh and Decean were lost to the Mughals. However, they never threw the over lordship of the Mughal Emperor.

7. Jat leder Bharat Singh-Founded a Jat state of Bharatpur. He himself as “Feudatory” of Jai Singh Sawai of Amber, who was appointed faujdar of Mathura region byh Farrukh Siyar to contain the Jat movement.

8. Rohilla Chiefs (Afghans) founded an independent state of “Rohilkhand”.
9. Found of Luxurious style of living, and hence called “Rangilla”
10. 1739-Attack of Nadir Shah.

• Mughal army fought at the Battle of Karnal but was defeated
• Nadir Shah marched to Delhi and plundered it, meanwhile, Saadat Khan poisoned himself to death.
• Nadir Shah collected huge war booty, and took away the famous Koh-i-noor diamond, the Peacock Throne and large number of books on music.

Ahmad Shah (1748-54)

1. Nawab of A wadh Safdar Jang became theWazir of Mughal emperor.

Shah Alam II 1759-1806) Ali Gauhar

1. Due to his conflict with the wazir, Fled to awadh.
2. Defeated by the British alongwith Awadh and Bengla at the Battle of Buxure 91764)
3. Signed treaty of Allahabad (1765) with the East India Company by which.

• Allahabad and Kara (taken fromA wadh) was given to Shah Alam II.
• Granted Diwani Right (right to collect land revenue) of Bengal. Bihar and Orissa for a fixed annual payment of Rs. 26 lakhs.

4. Lived for long at Allahabad as pensioner of East India Company

5. 1761 Abdali gave disastrous defeat to the Third Battle of Panipat

6. Brought to Delhi by Marathas (Mahadji Scindia) in 1772 and declared them to be the protector of the Mughal court.

7. 1803 taken to prisoner and confined to the Red Fort after Marathas were defeated by Lord Lake.

Bahadur Shah II (1837-62)

1. The leaders of the 1857 revolts declared him to be the ‘emperor of India’ fought the British in name.
2. After the 1857 revolt was suppressed. He was deposed (1858), tried for waging war against the British and deported to Rangoon (Burma) where he died in 1862.
3. His wife Zeenat Mahal participated in the revolt of 1857.

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