The Mughal Empire

The Mughals were descendants of two great lineages of rulers, from their mother’s side they were descendants of Mongol ruler Changez Khan and from their father’s side they were descendants of Timur. The ‘Mughals’ are so called because of their Mongol ancestry.

The reasons for Babur’s success in the First Battle of Panipat were following:

1. Babur was better military general and diplomat than Ibrahim Lodhi. He had the capacity to infuse spirit in the dead bodies with his lively speech.
2. Babur introduced a new mode of warfare in India that was a skilled combination of artillery and cavalry. He employed two Ottoman master-gunners, Ustad Ali and Mustafa in his army.
3. He made use of Tulughma strategy of war in which he tied together a large number of carts to act as a defending wall and erected fortifications in between for soldiers to rest their guns and fire. Ibrahim Lodhi had no idea of this kind of warfare.
4. Babur used horses instead of elephants as they were more active. Elephants when wounded used to run back trampling their own armymen under their feet.
5. Army of Babur was small but disciplined. His soldiers knew when to charge and when to retreat. On the other hand, Ibrahim Lodhi's soldiers moved more or less like a crowd. Their vast numbers were more a source of weakness than a source of strength.
6. Disunity among the Indian rulers was another cause that led to Ibrahim Lodhi's defeat.
7. Ibrahim Lodhi was not supported by his own Amirs because of the ill treatment he gave them.
8. Ibrahim Lodhi was an inefficient general who could neither properly organise his forces nor plan the battle well.

When Humayun ascended the throne, the empire was not strong. The Afghan chiefs wanted to oust the Mughals from India; Bahadur Shah, the powerful ruler of Gujarat wanted to expand his empire. Humayun’s brothers Kamran, Hindal and Askari were planning to oust him. Humayun attacked Sher Khan and then Bahadur Shah; captured Chunar fort and provinces of Gujrat and Malwa from them. But later in 1539, he faced defeat at Chausa from Sher Khan. He had to run to save his life. For next 15 years he became a prince without a kingdom and wandered from one place to another in search of shelter.

Sher Shah was the son of Hasan Khan a Jagirdar of Sasaram in Bihar. His childhood name was Farid Khan. He was given the title of ‘Sher Khan’ by Bahar Khan, Subedar of Bihar when he single-handedly killed a lion.

Sher Shah introduced a novel land revenue system, which was adopted by Akbar as well as the British Government later on. He got the land measured and fixed the land-revenue at one-third of the produce as tax. The peasants were given the option to pay the land tax, either in cash or in kind. The areas sown, type of crops and amount of revenue payable was written down on a paper called patta. The peasants were required to deposit the revenue directly in the government treasury (in cash or kind) so that they could not be charged extra by collecting officers. Suitable relief measures were taken to help the farmers during drought or famine.

Sher Shah built roads to encourage trade, to provide convenience to travellers, to facilitate movement of troops and to carry on administration systematically. The most important roads built by Sher Shah included - the Grand Trunk Road between Sonargaon in Bangladesh and Peshawar in Pakistan; Road from Agra to Burhanpur; Road from Agra to Jodhpur to Chittor; and Road from Lahore to Multan. He built sarais (rest houses) for the travellers. These sarais were also used as dak chowkis (post offices). He also set up charitable hospitals and dispensaries.

(a) First battle of Panipat in 1526.

(b) Battle of Khanwa in 1527.

(a) Persian.

(b) Turkish.

(a) The Grand Trunk (G.T.) Road between Sonargaon in Bangladesh and Peshawar in Pakistan.

(b) The road from Agra to Burhanpur.

(a) Muqaddam

(b) Patwari

(a) Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque.

(b) The Rohtas fort.

(a) The building in the picture is Tomb of Sher Shah Suri. It is located at Sasaram in Bihar.

(b) The person associated with the building was Sher Shah Suri who was an Afghan and not a Mughal. He overthrew the Mughals and established Afghan rule in India.

(c) The three characteristic features of reign of Sher Shah were:

1. Revenue reforms — He introduced a novel land revenue system which was also adopted by Akbar and later by British government.
2. Military reforms — His army was well trained and disciplined. He introduced many reforms in the army like branding of horses, identity (chehra) of soldiers. The soldiers were paid in cash.
3. Welfare measures — His administration was based on the principle of a welfare state. He built many roads to promote trades and also built sarais(rest houses).

(d) Sher Shah is known as forerunner of Akbar because Akbar adopted many of his practices. Akbar followed his administrative, revenue and military system with a few changes.