mughal history in a nutshell

mughal history in a nutshell

babar was a warrior. he ruled in central asia which had widespread plains. he enjoyed it but his enemies did not. he was thrown out. wandering he found kabul to be a ripe fruit and he captured it. but soon he got tired of it and longed for plains. india beckoned him. so, he came here and defeated the king of dilli and ascended the throne. he was challenged by a rajput who thought they were closer to dilli than the prince from kabul. the forces met and babar was about to be defeated. he, however, suddenly remembered that his religion had banned liquor. so, he broke his pitcher of liquor. his soldiers did likewise. it made the battle ground slushy and rajput horses slipped and so did their riders. babar won. babar got the plains he longed for but it was too hot. so, he went back to kabul to be buried there.

soon after his son hamayun followed him after a petty afghan outsmated him. but hamayun lost his way and ended up in iran. the king there liked him especially because he changed his beliefs and helped him get dilli back. but the heat played spoils again and he fell from his horse and died. the only thing he left behind was his tomb, a nice picnic spot in dilli.

akbar succeeded hamayun. he was a confused person so far as religion was concerned. his father left him in charge of a hindu king. his father was sunni when he left and a shia when he came back. this was a terrible thing to happen to akbar. so he invented a religion of his own. it was even more confusing and won few adherents. on top of it he was illiterate. so, he gathered learned people about him who would kowtow to him to give him feeling of importance. he befriended man singh, grandson of rana sangha whose horses had betrayed him. akbar gave him ten thousand horses and called him dus hazari. he was grateful for it and as a token of his gratitude fought against rana partap, a neighbouring king. unfortunately, the horse of rana partap won the day. man singh was so disheartened that he never went back. apart from this akbar did not have much fun, there being no wars. the only excitement came when his son salim rose against him but rebellion was shortlived. salim did not succeed and yet he succeeded akbar.

when salim became king, first thing he did was to imprison and blind his son khusro to escape any rebellion from him. the maneuver did not succeed because other son khurram challenged him to keep up the family tradition. salim was content to be the king and never tried to become ruler. he left that to his queen nur jahan. it did not go well and she could not get her son in law to succeed salim. the rebellion of khurram did not succeed but, keeping up family tradition, he succeeded salim.

having become king, khurram was content with what he had (which included his seven wives). he liked one so much that he made her pregnant thirteen times. unfortunately, the figure thirteen proved unlucky for her and she died in childbirth. khurram was desolate as he missed setting up a world record. this desolation led to diversion to other hobby  and had the unfortunate effect of having another building. he married her sister but whether it resulted in pregnancies is not recorded.  apart from having wives, his other hobby was to build buildings. they survived him even when his son aurangzeb followed the family tradition and rebelled against his father. even though khurram had taken precautions to send all his sons, except one, to distant places. but the one who was with him was more interested in translating than ruling or rebellling. in the circumstances, his brother aurangzeb was forced to keep up the family tradition by rebelling. he succeeded and thus  he succeeded his father though he was a little impatient and did not wait till his father died of a disease or an accident. he imprisoned him.

once for all, he broke the family tradition by imprisoning his sons also and never allowing them to come near the throne. aurangzeb was a simple man. apart from hating his father, his sons, he also hated music, and he hated building new buildings. he put a distance between his father and himself by choosing to reside in delhi, and not agra. not having much to do except killing a guru now or then, he became bored with delhi and went away to deccan, never to return. just what he achieved in deccan has never been revealed.

the sons of aurangzeb succeeded him but did not succeed as rulers having no idea what it was all about. and so the rest of mughal history is not worth recording except for one visit by nadir shah who took away certain valuables from delhi, the last mughal was named bahadur shah though he was not bahadur at all. he reluctantly became the symbol when army rebelled against british. he survived the unsuccessful rebellion, though his sons did not, and had to be content with a tomb in faraway burma.