CIVIL S ERVICES ( PRELIMS) S PECIAL

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Notes on
Indian History
Mughal Empire - I
1. Mughals belonged to a branch of
the Turks named after Chaghtai, the
second son of Chingez Khan, the famous
Mongol leader.
2. The foundation of the Mughal
empire in India was laid by Babur, who
was a Chaghtai Turk. He descended from
his fathers side from Timur and was
connected on his mothers side with
Chingez Khan.
3. In 1494, at the age of 11 years,
Babur inherited the small principality of
Farghana, now a province of Chinese
Turkistan.
4. Babur was later deprived of his
own patrimony of Farghana and had to
spend his days as homeless wanderer for
about a year. During this time, while
staying with a village headman, he heard
the story of Timurs exploits in India from
a old lady and this inspired him to begin
preparations to conquer India.
5. Babur occupied Kabul in 1504 and
after this it took him 12 years to advance
into the heart of India.
6. Daulat Khan, the most powerful
noble of Punjab, who was discontended
with Ibrahim Lodhi, invited Babur to
invade India.
7. Babur occupied Lahore in 1524 but
had to retreat to Kabul after Daulat Khan
turned against him once he realised that
Babur had no desire to give up his Indian
conquests.

8. Babur attacked and occupied

Punjab again in November 1525.
9. On April 21, 1526, Babur
proceeded against Ibrahim Lodhi and
met him at Panipat (First Battle of
Panipat). Although Ibrahim Lodhis
troops were vastly superior, Babur
managed a victory by superior strategy
and use of artillery, and quickly occupied
Delhi and Agra.
10. The first battle of Panipat
marked the foundation of Mughal
dominion in India.
11. Babur faced the toughest
resistance to his expansion plans from the
Rajput king Rana Sangha.
12. Rana Sangha, along with rulers of
Marwar, Amber, Gwalior, Ajmer and
Chanderi, as also Sultan Mahmood Lodi,
whom Rana Sangha had acknowledged as
ruler of Delhi, met Babur in a decisive
contest at Kanhwa, a village near Agra, on
March 16, 1527. The aim was to prevent
the imposition of another foreign yoke on
India. Babur triumphed over them by
using similar tactics as in Panipat.
Another major reason for defeat of Indian
forces was non-joining of several Afghan
chiefs.
13. While the battle of Panipat
marked the defeat of titular Sultan of
Delhi, the battle of Kanhwa resulted in
defeat of the powerful Rajput
confederacy.
14. Babur met the allied Afghans of
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Bihar and Bengal on the banks of Gogra,

near Patna, and inflicted a crushing defeat
on them on May 6, 1529. This battle led to
a considerable portion of northern India
submitting to him.
15. Babur died at Agra, at the age of
47, on December 26, 1530. His body was
first laid at Arambagh in Agra, but was
later taken to Kabul, where it was buried
in one of his favourite gardens.
16. During his four-year stay in India,
Punjab, territory covered by United
Provinces, and North Bihar were
conquered by Babur. Rajput State of
Mewar also submitted to him.
17. Baburs Memoirs were translated
into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-iKhananni at the time of Akbar in 1590.
18. Baburs son Humayun ascended
the throne of India three days after
Baburs death.
19. Humayun was devoid of wisdom
and discretion, as well as strong
determination and perseverance of his
father. Thus, as a king he was a failure.
20. Six months after his accession,
Humayun besieged the fortress of
Kalinjar in Bundelkhand, gained a
decisive victory over Afghans at Douhrua
and drove out Sultan Mahmood Lodhi
from Jaunpur, and even defeated
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. His victories,
however, were short-lived due to
weakness of his character.
21. Humayuns forces were defeated
by Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri at
Chaunsa near Buxar in June 1539.
22. On May 17, 1540, the Mughals
and the Afghans met again opposite
Kannauj.
Humayuns
hopelessly
demoralised army was defeated at the
battle, commonly known as battle of
Kannaujalso known as battle of the
Ganges or Bilgram. Thus, the sovereignty
of India once more passed to the Afghans.
Humayun had to leave the life of a
wanderer for 15 years.
23. The intense rivalry of Humayuns
brothersKamran, Askari and Hindal
also made it difficult for Humayun to pool
all his resources and fight back.
24. During his wanderings in deserts
of Sindh in 1952, Humayun married
Hamida Banu Begum, daughter of Sheikh
Ali Amber Jaini, who had been a
preceptor of Humayuns brother Hindal.
25. On November 23, 1542,

CIVIL S ERVICES(PRELIMS) S PECIAL

Humayun was blessed with a son, Akbar,
at Amarkot.
26. Amarkots Hindu chief Rana
Prasad promised Humayun help to
conquer Thatta and Bhakker.
27. Humayun, however, could not
conquer Bhakker, nor could he secure
asylum. He, thus, left India and threw
himself on the generosity of Shah
Tahmashp of Persia.
28. Shah of Persia helped Humayun
with a force of 14,000 men on his
promising to confirm to Shia creed, to
have the Shahs name proclaimed in his
Khutba and to cede Kandhar to him on
his success.
29. With Persian help Humayun
captured Kandhar and Kabul in 1545 but
refused to cede Kandhar to Persia.
30. Civil war among the Suris, after
the death of Sher Shah Suri, gave
Humayun an excellent opportunity to
reclaim the throne of Delhi. In February
1555, he captured Lahore, and after a few
months captured Delhi and Agra also.
31. On January 24, 1556, Humayun
died following an accidental fall from the
staircase of his library in Delhi.
32. On February 14, 1556, at the age
of 13, Akbar was proclaimed as the
successor of Humayun.
33. At the time when Akbar ascended
to the thrown, the country had ceased to
enjoy the benefits of reforms of Sher Shah
Suri, through the follies and quarrels of
his successors, and was also effected by a
terrible famine.
34. At the time when Humayun died,
Potuguese were in possession of Goa and
Diu. The Suris were still in occupation of
the Sher Shahs dominion. From Agra to
Malwa, and the confines of Jaunpur,
owned the sovereignty of Adil Shah.
Delhi to the smaller Rohtas on the road to
Kabul was in hands of Shah Sikander.
The borders of the hills to the boundaries
of Gujarat belonged to Ibrahim Khan.
Sind and Multan had become
independent from the imperial control.
Orissa, Malwa, Gujarat and the local
chieftains of Gondwana had also became
independent. South of the Vindhyas lay
the extensive Vijayanagar empire and the
Muslim Sultanates of Khandesh, Berar,
Bidar, Ahmadnagar and Golkunda
expressed no interest in northern politics.
35. Hemu, general and minister of

Adil Shah Suri opposed the Mughals

soon after accession of Akbar.
36. Hemu occupied Agra and Delhi
by defeating Tardi Beg, the Mughal
governor of Delhi.
37. Hemu assumed the title of Raja
Vikramjit or Vikramaditya after his
victory in Delhi.
38. Akbar, alongwith his trusted
guardian Bairam Khan, challenged Hemu
at Panipat, resulting in the second battle
of Panipat. A chance arrow hit in the eye
resulted in Hemu falling unconscious,
which led to his soldiers dispersing in
confusion. The battle marked the real
beginning of the Mughal rule in India and
set it on the path of expansion.
39. Sikander Suri surrendered to
Akbar in 1557 and was granted a fief in
the eastern province. He was later
expelled by Akbar and died as a fugitive.
40. Ibrahim Suri, after wandering
from place to place, found asylum in
Orissa, where he was killed about 10 years
later. With his death there remained no
one from the Suri clan to challenge
Akbars claim to sovereignty.
Sher Shah Suri
41. Sher Shah Suri effected the
revival of Afghan power and established a
glorious, though short, regime in India by
ousting the newly established Mughal
authority.
42. Originally, Sher Shahs name was
Farid. His grandfather, Ibrahim, was an
Afghan of Suri tribe and lived near
Peshawar. His fathers name was Hassan.
43. Farid was conferred the title of
Sher Khan by Bahar Khan Lohani,
independent ruler of Bihar, for having
shown gallantry by killing a tiger singlehanded.
44. Sher Shah joined the Baburs
camp in April 1527 and remained in it till
June 1528. In return for his services, Babur
restored the jagir of Sasaram to him.
45. The war against allied troops of
Bengal Sultan and the Lohanis of
Surajgarh, on the banks of Kiul river was
a turning-point in the career of Sher Shah.
It made him the undisputed ruler of Bihar.
46. The victory in battle with the
Mughal forces led by Humayun, at
Chaunsa near Buxar, led to Sher Shah
becoming de facto ruler of the territories
ruled by the Mughals.
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47. On May 17, 1540, in the Battle of

Kannauj, Sher Shahs forces gave a
crushing defeat to Humayuns forces and
the sovereignity of India once again
passed to the Afghans.
48. Sher Shah died on May 22, 1545
from an accidental explosion of gunpowder.
49. Sher Shah divided his empire
into 47 units (sarkars), each of which was
sub-divided into several paraganas.
50. The paragana had one Amin, one
Shiqdar, one treasurer, one Hindi text
writer and one Perisan writer to keep
accounts.
51. Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran and Munsifi-Munsifan supervised the works of the
paragana officers.
52. Sher Shahs land revenue reforms
have unique importance in the administrative history of India. They served as the
model for future agrarian systems.
53. Sher Shah settled the land revenue
directly with the cultivators, the State
demand being fixed at one-fourth or onethird of the average produce, payable in
either kind or cash.
54. For actual collection of revenue
the services of officers like Amins,
Muqadams, Shiqdars, Qanungos and the
Patwaris were taken.
55. The rights of tenants were
recognised and the liabilities of each were
clearly defined in the kabuliyat (deed of
agreement) and the patta (title-deed).
56. Sher Shah connected the important places by a chain of excellent roads.
The longest of these was the Grand Trunk
Road, which still survives and extended
from Sonargaon in East Bengal to the
Indus. One road ran from Agra to
Burhanpur, another from Agra to Jodhpur
and a fourth from Lahore to Multan.
57. Sarais or rest-houses were set-up
at different places along the roads. These
also served the purpose of post-houses.
58. Sher Shah re-organised the army,
borrowing largely the main principles of
Ala-ud-din Khiljis military system.
59. After Sher Shahs death, his son
Jalal Khan was proclaimed king under
the title of Sultan Islam Shah, commonly
known as Salim Shah.
60. Salim Shah was a strong and
efficient ruler but he died young in
November 1554 and disorder soon
followed.