Political Ideas & Institutions of Mughal State

Abstract

The Mughal Period on a clearer basis extended from 1526-1540 and 1555-1712 (due to the interregnum of Sher Shah Suri 1540-1555). The Mughal Empire was an Islamic imperial power which ruled most of the India subcontinent from the early 16th to the mid-19th centuries. The Mughal Emperors were of Turko-Mongol descent, but developed a highly sophisticated mixed Persian culture. At the height of its power, around 1700, it controlled most of the Subcontinent - extending from present-day Bangladesh to Kashmir and part of what is now Afghanistan. To be mentioned in a more precised manner, the rule of Mughal Empire stretched from Mughal period, an exemplary period in its own particular ways. This period is sometimes considered to be the blue print of modern India. In the fifteenth century when the political condition of India had deteriorated and there was no powerful kingdom in the northern India. The last ruling dynasty was of the Lodhis with a weekend position. Such a situation invited invasions from the northwestern borders of India. Babur’s invasion and subsiquent were indeed its result. Babur invaded India in 1526, i.e. Battle of Panipat, in which Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodhi and thus established his empire over India. Expansion and annexation of India by Mughals and diplomatic absorption of the Rajputs, economic policies, religious policies and socio-economic policies, the sovereign, his power and duties are worth mentioning. Punjab to Bengal including Jaunpur and Bihar in the 16 century. Included Kabul in the north-west and Kashmir in the north, Sindh, Multan and Gujrat in the west, Malwa and Benar in the south and Orrissa and Bengal in the east at the time of Akbar’s death. It stretched from Kabul, Kandhar and Peshawar in the north and Kaveri in the south by the end of seventeenth century. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 130 million, over a territory of over 4 million km² (1.5 million mi²). The foundation for the Baburids empire (Mughal Period) was established around the early 1500s by the Timurid prince Babur, when he took control of the Doab and eastern regions of Khorasan controlling the fertile Sindh region and the lower valley of the Indus River. In 1526, when Babur defeated the last of the Delhi Sultans, Ibrahim Shah Lodhi, at the First Battle of Panipat, Babur was invited to invade the Delhi Sultanate by Rana Sanga, who thought that after defeating Ibrahim Lodhi, Babur would go back and he would become the Ruler of Delhi. To secure his newly founded kingdom, Babur then had to face the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga of Chittor, at the battle of Kanwah, 1527. These early military successes of the Turks, achieved by an army much smaller than its opponents, have been attributed to their cohesion, mobility. Every ruler contributed in his own particular way, which hold a great importance in adding glitters to the shining empire. Beginning from the very first ruler everyone did his best or tried do his best.