Mughal

“ There was but one point regarding which he had doubts, and that was whether the proud Muhammadan nobles to whom, in the days of the glories of the Mughal empire, great estates had been granted in Bengal, would tamely submit to a system which would give to the Western invaders all the actual power, and to the chief of their own class and religion only the outer show. ”

“ ONE of the most interesting topics that engages the attention of the student of Indian history and economics is the nature of relationship between the sovereign and the actual tiller of the land in mediaeval India. Being at once a subject thoroughly historical and antiquarian, a study of Mughal land revenue system entails the necessary culling of statistics and information from State archives and official returns of the Mughal sovereigns of India, a comprehensive mastery over fact and a laborious assimilation of divergent statements and variant readings. ”

“ Beg is the characteristic affix of the Mughal's name, as Khān is of the Pathān's. Among the Mahommedans of S. India the Moguls or Mughals constitute a strongly marked caste. [They are also clearly distinguished in the Punjab and N.W.P.] In the quotation from Baber below, the name still retains its original application. The passage illustrates the tone in which Baber always speaks of his kindred of the Steppe, much as Lord Clyde used sometimes to speak of "confounded Scotchmen."
In Port. writers Mogol or Mogor is often used for "Hindostān," or the territory of the Great Mogul. ”

“ The one great distinction of Mughal from Hindu art is not so much racial as social; the former is an art of courts and connoisseurs, owing much to individual patronage; the latter belongs as much to the folk as to the kings.
The alluring arts of the East are well worth one’s study, well deserving of one’s enthusiasm. Perhaps the illustrations of some of the antiques of Persia and of India here reproduced from photographs of some of the fine examples to be found will awaken an interest in the subject in some who chance upon them. ”

“ In 1614 an edict proscribed Christianity. A portion of the peasants who were converts were so oppressed, that they revolted (1637) . The result was an act of terrible cruelty,—the massacre of all Christians; so that none remained openly to profess the Christian faith.
III. INDIA. THE MUGHAL EMPIRE.—In the latter half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth centuries, the most of India was ruled by distinct Mohammedan dynasties. The dominion of the Afghan dynasty at Delhi was thus greatly reduced. In 1525 the Mughal (Mogul) Empire was founded by Babar, a descendant of Tamerlane. ”

“ Fortunately for the Mughal, more fortunately still for the people of India, that abler general, though a man of great ability, had inherited views not differing in any one degree from those of the Afghán chiefs who had preceded him in the art of establishing a dynasty. The conciliation of the millions of Hindustán did not enter into his system. He, too, was content to govern by camps located in the districts he had conquered. The consequence was that when he died other men rose to compete for the empire. ”

“ He lost his Afghan dominions, and gained but little by his invasions of the Dekhan, which were carried on by his rebellious son and successor, Aurungzeb; but in another direction he did more to perpetuate the glory of the Mughal dynasty than any other emperor of his line. Amongst other handsome buildings, he erected the most beautiful the world has ever possessed. ”

“ Hence a study of the land revenue system of a country is a necessity if a clear understanding of the significance of a nation's history is desired. Much more so is the case with regard to the Mughal land revenue policy, since a government though alien to a soil with deep-rooted custom and hoary principles of administration has turned out to evolve a unique type of revenue administration which was borrowed wholesale by the contemporary and later-day Hindu kingdoms in India which were outside the pale of Mughal control, and was groped back to by the early British administrators of India. ”

“ Just as much as the great Mughal Emperors of old found it best to have Hindus for the posts of treasurer, accountant, adviser, etc., so the frontier chief of to-day has his Hindu vassal always with him, to keep his accounts, write his petitions, and transact most of his written and judicial business. The majority of the shopkeepers also are Hindus. ”

“ Everything is a matter of distinction and imperial favour, while the son of a nobleman may enjoy a greater Mansab or none at all. Everything is ephemeral in such a society.
Under the Mughals, the Sarkar is the territorial unit while the Mahal is a revenue division; or, to put it in another way, the Mahal is the fiscal unit while the Parganah is a fixed historical division. All the revenue documents of the Mughal times have, as their avowed objects, the extension of cultivation on the one hand, and the improving of the crops on the other ”

“ It is related that when the Mughal general Asaf Khān first made an expedition into the north of the Central Provinces he found the famous Gond-Rājpūt queen Durgāvati of the Garha-Mandla dynasty governing with success a large and [74] prosperous state in this locality. He thought a country ruled by a woman should fall an easy prey to the Muhammadan arms, and to show his contempt for her power he sent her a golden spindle. The queen retorted by a present of a gold cotton-cleaner’s bow, and this so enraged the Mughal that he proceeded to attack the Gond kingdom. ”

“ Daud Khan's party arrived near fort Rohira on the 27th and burnt and totally ruined about 50 villages. A body of Mughal skirmishers entered four populous villages hidden among the hills, which had never before been visited by an enemy; the invaders soon received reinforcements, overcame the opposition, occupied the villages, razed them to the ground, and brought away many of the peasants and their cattle and other property as spoils of war. After a day's halt here, the Mughals marched towards Rajgarh on the 30th, burning the villages on the way. ”

“ According to their own story23 their ancestor was a member of the Bhāt caste, who became a disciple of Nānak, the Sikh apostle, and with him attended a feast given by the Mughal Emperor Humayun. Here he ate the flesh of a cow or buffalo, and in consequence became a Muhammadan and was circumcised. He was employed as a musician at the Mughal court, and his sons [172] joined the Chārans and became the bards of the Banjāra caste. “The Dhāris,” Mr. Cumberlege continues, “are both musicians and mendicants; they sing in praise of their own and the Chāran ancestors and of the old kings of Delhi ”

“ The Yusufzais not only repulsed the first attack of the Mughals, but when reinforcements, sent by Akbar under his special favourite, Rájá Bírbal, joined the attacking party, they too were driven back with a loss of 8,000 men, amongst whom was the Rájá.3 It was the severest defeat the Mughal troops had ever experienced. To repair it, the Emperor despatched his best commander, Rájá Todar Mall, supported by Rájá Mán Singh, of Jaipur. These generals manoeuvred with great caution, supporting their advance by stockades, and eventually completely defeated the tribes in the Khaibar Pass. ”

“ The nobles and landowners of the districts known as the Southern Maráthá country, comprising the territories of Belgáon, Jamkhandí, Kolápur, Míráj, Múdhal, Dhárwár, Sanglí, and Satárah had been alienated by the action of the Inám Commission — a commission instituted to search out titles to property obtained during the decadence of the Mughal Empire. ”

“ Some will urge that though in the days of Mughal and Pathan we had not sovereign power, we had at least a sufficiency of food and clothing. When the river is not flowing, it may be possible to bank up little pools in its bed to hold water enough for our needs, conveniently at hand for each. ”

“ In 1689 the footing in the country which had been won with such determination was suddenly lost. The Company fell out with Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor at Delhi, and the latter issued orders that the English should be driven from his dominions and all their property seized. ”

“ On the frontier the dominance of Pathāns and Biloches and the general prevalence of Muhammadan feelings and ideas placed recent Indian origin at a discount, and led the leading families who belonged to neither of these two races to claim connection not with the Kshatriyas of the Sanskrit classics but with the Mughal conquerors of India or the Qureshi cousins of the Prophet; in so much that even admittedly Rājpūt tribes of famous ancestry, such as the Khokha, have begun to follow the example. ”

“ And about a.d. 1338, when Khwájah Jahán was sent against the emperor’s nephew Karshásp and the Rája of Kampila8 who had sheltered him, Malik Mukbil succeeded to the post of governor. On one occasion between Baroda and Dabhoi Malik Mukbil, who was escorting treasure and a caravan of merchants to Dehli, was plundered by some bands of the Amíráni Sadah or Captains of Hundreds freelances and freebooters, most of them New Musalmáns or Mughal converts, and the rest Turk and Afghán adventurers. This success emboldened these banditti and for several years they caused loss and confusion in Gujarát. ”

“ This vast number of armed men, more especially the latter, formed the infantry of the Mughal Government, and were continued under the zamīndārs, who were anxious to have as many armed men as possible to support them in their depredations. And these establishments formed no charge, as they lived on lands which the zamīndār did not bring to account.” The Pāiks are thus a small caste formed from military service like the Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa, and are no doubt recruited from all sections of the population. ”

“ The power of the Muhammadans in India was not yet concentrated in the hands of the great Mughals; there were Moslem kingdoms in the North of India and in the Deccan, but the South had not yet felt the heavy hand of Musalman conquerors, and the Hindu Rájá of Vijayanagar or Narsingha was the most powerful potentate in the South of India. The monarchs and chieftains whom the Portuguese first encountered were Hindus. Muhammadan merchants indeed controlled the commerce of their dominions, but they had no share in the government ”

“ Hamburg: 1859.
5 Mahmud of Ghazni, the first Muhammadan invader of India, reigned from A.D. 997 to A.D. 1030. His dynasty lasted until 1183. The Ghori dynasty lasted from A.D. 1192 to 1289. The Khilzi dynasty, from 1289 to 1321. The dynasty founded by Tuglak Shah, from 1321 to 1393. Then followed the inroad of Timur and subsequent anarchy; and the Afghan Lodi dynasty lasted from 1450 to the invasion of Baber in 1526.
6 “Mogul” is the old form. Dowson and Thomas have “Mughal”; Blochmann and Hunter, “Mughul.”
7 Jauhar wrote his “Tazkiratu-l Wákiat” thirty years after the death of Humayun. ”

“ From 650 to 1000 A.D. India was divided among numerous independent kingdoms. There was no central power but Bengal and the Deccan were more prominent than previously.
6. After 1000 A.D. the conquests of Mohammedan invaders became important and the Hindu states of northern and central India collapsed or grew weak. But the Hindus held out in Rajputana, Orissa, and above all in Vijayanagar.
7. In 1526 came the invasion of the Mughals, who founded an Empire which at its zenith (1556-1707) included all India except the extreme south. ”

“ Are Driven Out, 1536.As soon as Humáyún departed, the country rose against the Mughals, and his old nobles requested the king to join them. Bahádur joined them, and, defeating the Mughals at Kaníj near Mahmúdábád, expelled them from Gujarát. ”

“ The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. beauty is probably a reference to the buildings raised and repaired by Abdul Karím against Jehángír’s coming, among which the chief seems to have been the palace now known by the name of Báz Bahádur. The tower of 170 steps is Mehmúd Khilji’s Tower of Victory, erected in a.d. 1443, the Khán Jehán being Mehmúd’s father, the great minister Khán Jehán Aâzam Humáyún.
The Maráthás, a.d. 1720–1820.In a.d. 1658 a Rája Shívráj was commandant of Mándu.158 No reference has been traced to any imperial visit to Mándu during Aurangzíb’s reign. ”

“ The air in the Mogul’s empire is cold, and the soil barren. Their commodities are aloes, musk, rhubarb, borax, silk and cotton, indigo, & c. The religion Paganism, the government arbitrary, and the Great Mogul is heir to every man’s estate, which he disposes of at his pleasure; the throne he sits upon is the richest in the world. In the peninsula within the Ganges, the air is very hot, and the soil exceeding fruitful; and the longest day is thirteen hours and a half, and the shortest eleven and a half. ”

“ It is a good rule in travelling, as in rhetoric, to keep the best to the last, and wind up with a climax. But it would be hard to find a climax in India after seeing the old Mogul capitals, whose palaces and tombs outshine the Alhambra; after climbing the Himalayas, and making a pilgrimage to the holy city. And yet one feels a crescendo of interest in approaching the capital. India has three capitals—Delhi, where once reigned the Great Mogul, and which is still the centre of the Mohammedan faith; Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoos; and Calcutta, the capital of the modern British Empire. ”

“ In no country have these miseries been greater than in India. In no country has the recurrence been more frequent, and the claimants more numerous. From the death of Akbar to the British conquest of Dehli—a period of two hundred years—there has been only one undisputed succession to the throne of the Moghal Empire, and even that exceptional instance arose from its not being worth a contest ”