2. WHAT WAS MUGHAL
EMPIRE?
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE was an
imperial power in the Indian
subcontinent from about 1526 to 1757
(though it lingered for another
century). The Mughal emperors were
Muslims and direct descendants
of Genghis Khan through Chagatai
Khan and Timur. At the height of their
power in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries, they controlled most of the
3. THE GREAT MUGHALS
THE LATER MUGHALS
The great mughals were rulers of
mughal empire till Aurangzeb.
After him came the later mughals.
There are six great mughals.
5. BABU
R
The first of the Great Mughals was
Babur ("The Tiger"), who invaded
and conquered India in 1526. He
was also a diarist, an enthusiastic
hunter and lover of gardens.
He died in the Ram Bagh gardens in
Agra, and his tomb lies in gardens
bearing his name in Kabul,
Afghanistan.
6. HUMAYUN
Born in Kabul, Humayun was the
eldest of Babur's sons, and had
helped his father with the conquest
of India. He ascended the throne
at Agra on December 30 1530 at the
age of 23, but did not have the
skills to manage the immature
empire, Afghan warlords
In 1540 he lost his empire to Afghan
leader Sher Shah, but he hung in
and managed to get it back 16
7. AKBAR
The greatest of the Mughal Emperors,
Akbar, was born in exile and
ascended the throne at the age of 13
after his father's short restoration.
In many ways Akbar was the Indian
equivalent of Suleiman the
Magnificent (1494 - 1520 - 1566). He
conquered massive new territories
including much of Rajasthan, created
a long lasting civil and military
administrative system (called
8. Akbar was married to at least seven
wives, one of them a Rampur Hindu
princess from Jaipur. He was
enormously liberal for his time,
promoting religious tolerance (and
even his own hybrid Islamic / Hindu
/ Christian / Zoroastrian religion
called Din - i llahi), abolishing
slavery and forbidding forced sati.
Akbar died in Agra in 1605 and is
buried in Sikandra.
9. JAHANGIR
Jahangir was the eldest son of
Mughal Emperor Akbar and was
declared successor to his father from
an early age. Impatient for power,
however, he revolted in 1599 while
Akbar was engaged in the Deccan.
Jahangir was defeated, but ultimately
succeeded his father as Emperor in
1605. The first year of Jahangir's reign
saw a rebellion organized by his
eldest son Khusraw with the
assistance of the SikhGuru Arjun
Dev and others. The rebellion was
soon put down; Khusraw was brought
10. SHAH
JAHAN
Shah Jahan ("Ruler of the World")
inherited a near bankrupt empire from
his father Jahangir. He turned this
around, in the process becoming the
best remembered of the Mughal
builders, largely because of the Taj
Mahal.
Shah Jahan initially chose to rule, like
his predecessors, from the Red Fort
at Agra, and it was a few miles away
from here that he built the Taj
Mahal as a monument to his wife,
known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Ornament
of the Palace" or "Exalted of the
