The Mughal Empire And Its Founder – Muhammad Babur
Importance of Mughal Rule in Indian History
The first quarter of the 16th century witnessed the emergence of the Mughals – a remarkable dynasty who like the Tudors in England heralded a new age in all spheres. The Mughals too, like their Turko-Afghan predecessors, hailed from Central Asia. The Mughals, with their rule of over two centuries, not only successfully bestowed peace, law and order upon the country but also imparted a sense of continuity and unity to the people. Culturally, the period coincided with the attainment of unprecedented glory in various spheres of art and literature. In the religious sphere too, for the first time, Babur and later, Akbar inaugurated a political rule devoid of all religious prejudice. As the founder of this dynamic dynasty, Babur inevitably stands out.
Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur
was born on February 14, 1483, in Ferghana, of which his father, Umar Shaikh Mirza, was the ruler. He descended from two central Asian warriors; Timur, the Turkish hero from his father’s side and Chengiz Khan from his mother’s side. His family belonged to the Chagtai section of the Turkish race, but he was commonly known as “Mughal’.
Though Babur succeeded his father, Shaikh Mirza as ruler of Farghana, he was soon defeated and deprived of his kingdom by a distant relative, Shaibani Khan Uzbek. Reduced to a mere fugitive, Babur soon took Kabul from one of his uncles and developed an interest in the conquest of India. He launched four expeditions between 1519 and 1523.
Towards the end of 1525, Babur left Kabul to conquer India. Daulat Khan Lodi, the Lodi governor of Lahore, surrendered to Babur after some initial resistance. His victory over the Afghans under Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat (1526) laid the foundation of the Mughal dynasty in India. – Then his subsequent victories over the Rajputs under Rana Sanga of Mewar in the battle of Khanwa near Agra (1527), and the Afghans under Muhammad Lodi in the battle of Ghagara in Bihar (1529) consolidated the Mughal power in India. Though Babur died at Agra in 1530, his body was taken to Kabul and buried in a garden called Aram Bagh, The Tuzuk-i-Baburi, his memoirs in Turki (his mother tongue), is a great work in which he frankly confesses his own failures. Babur was a devoted follower of the Naqshbandiya order.