Mughal Empire in the 17th Century and After

 Crisis of the Empire and the Later Mughals

• Administrative and military efficiency of the Mughal Empire led to great economic and commercial prosperity.
• Mughal emperors and their mansabdars spent a great deal of their income on salaries and goods. Nobles appointed as governors (subadars) often controlled the offices of revenue and military administration (diwani and faujdari).
• Peasant and zamindari rebellions
• Wealthier peasantry and artisanal groups, the merchants and bankers profited in this economic world.
• Authority of the Mughal emperor slowly declined, his servants emerged as powerful centres of power in the regions.
• the ruler of Iran, Nadir Shah, sacked and plundered the city of Delhi in 1739 and took away immense amounts of wealth.
• Ahmad Shah Abdali successor of Nadir Shah, who invaded north India five times between 1748 and 1761.
• Different groups of nobles: Iranis and Turanis (nobles of Turkish descent).

Emergence of New States

• States that were old Mughal provinces like Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad.
• States that had enjoyed considerable independence. Watan Jagris & Rajput state
• The last group included states under the control of Marathas, Sikhs and others like the Jats.

Old Mughal Provinces

Hyderabad

• Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, the founder of Hyderabad state (1724-1748). First with the governorship of Awadh, later given charge of the Deccan.
• Appointed mansabdars and granted jagirs.
• Struggle against the Marathas & independent Telugu warrior chiefs (nayakas), His ambitions to control the rich textile-producing areas of the Coromandel coast.

Awadh

• Burhan-ul-Mulk Sa‘adat Khan, subadar of Awadh in 1722.
• Controlling the rich alluvial Ganga plain and the main trade route between north India and Bengal.
• Held combined offices of subadari, diwani & faujdari.
• Burhan-ul-Mulk tried to decrease Mughal influence in the Awadh region by reducing the number of office holders (jagirdars) appointed by the Mughals. He also reduced the size of jagirs.
• Allow new social groups, like moneylenders and bankers.

Bengal

• Murshid Quli Khan who was appointed as the naib, deputy governor. Under the rule of Alivardi Khan (r. 1740-1756).
• Very quickly seized all the power that went with that office.
• Common features among States
• Larger states were established by erstwhile Mughal nobles.
• Their method of tax collection differed, practice of ijaradari, thoroughly disapproved of by the Mughals.
• Emerging relationship with rich bankers and merchants.

The Watan Jagris & Rajput state

• Rajput kings, particularly belonging to Amber & Jodhpur considerable autonomy in their watan jagirs.
• These influential Rajput families claimed the subadari of the rich provinces of Gujarat and Malwa.
• These offices were renewed by Emperor Jahandar Shah in 1713, tried to extend their territories.
• Nagaur - conquered and annexed, Amber seized large portions of Bundi.
• Maratha campaigns into Rajasthan

Seizing Independence

The Sikhs

• Regional state-building in the Punjab.
• Guru Gobind Singh against the Rajput and Mughal rulers.
• Khalsa rose in revolt against the Mughal authority under Banda Bahadur’s leadership, declared their sovereign rule by striking coins in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and established their own administration between the Sutlej and the Jamuna.
• Banda Bahadur was captured in 1715 and executed in 1716.
• Sikhs organized themselves into a number of bands called jathas, and later on misls.
• Their combined forces were known as the grand army (dal khalsa).
• System of rakhi - offering protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of 20 per cent of the produce.
• Khalsa declared their sovereign rule by striking their own coin again in 1765.
• Sikh territories in the late eighteenth century externded from Indus to Jamuna.
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh, reunited these groups and established his capital at Lahore in 1799.

The Marathas

• Shivaji (1627-1680) - powerful warrior families (deshmukhs).
• After Shivaji’s death, Family of Chitpavan Brahmanas who served Shivaji’s successors as Peshwa (or principal minister).
• 1720 - Malwa and Gujarat were seized, by 1730 - overlord of the entire Deccan peninsula.
• Levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in entire region. New trade routes emerged.
• Silk produced in the Chanderi region now found a new outlet in Poona
• After raiding Delhi in 1737 the frontiers of Maratha domination expanded rapidly: into Rajasthan and the Punjab in the north; into Bengal and Orissa in the east; and into Karnataka and the Tamil and Telugu countries in the south.
• Made other rulers hostile towards Marathas, So, they not support Maratha in third battle of Panipat.

The Jats

• Late seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries. Churaman, dominating the region between the two imperial cities of Delhi and Agra.
• Prosperous agriculturists & Important trade center dominate by them.
• Suraj Mal the kingdom of Bharatpur emerged as a strong state.
• Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, took refuge there. His son Jawahir Shah had 30,000 troops of his own and hired another 20,000 Maratha and 15,000 Sikh troops to fight the Mughals.

Mughal Society

• Abul Fazl explain divide provinces called subas, governed by a subadar & financial officer or diwan. military paymaster (bakhshi), minister in charge of religious and charitable patronage (sadr), military commanders (faujdars) and the town police commander (kotwal).
• Panch (Panchayat) - Panch was responsible for collection and maintenance of accounts at the village level.
• Salaried class, and received grants called Madad-i-Mash.
• Link between the village and the town.
• Men wore just a langota and the women a sari.
• Diet - wheat chapatis with pulses and vegetables.
• Zamindars and nobles led an ostentatious life.
• Nobles were Mansabdars who received jagirs or land grants as payment according to their ranks
• Abul Fazal in his Ain-i-Akbari enlists the castes that were entitled to be zamindars.
• 15% of the nobility consisted of Rajputs. (During Akbar, Raja Man Singh, Raja Todar Mal and Raja Birbal).
• Shaji, father of Shivaji, served Shah Jahan for some time.
• Enrichment of culture, Caste System & Bhakti Movement Raising.
• Hindu women had only limited right of inheritance. Widow remarriage was not permitted among upper caste women.
• Discouraged the practise of sati.
• Muslim brides were entitled to receive mehr (money mandatorily paid by the groom).

Economy

• Forest-based agricultural economy. Agriculture was the chief activity.
• Ain-i-Akbari lists the various crops cultivated during the Rabi and Kharif seasons.
• Crops – Chilli, Tobacco, Maize, Groundnut & Indigo.
• Sericulture, silk to world trade.
• Pay land tax, Zabt System (introduced by Todal Mal): money revenue rates were now fixed on each unit of area according to the crops cultivated. The schedules containing these rates for different localities applicable year after year were called dasturs.
• Urban - craft industry. Cotton textile industry employed large numbers of people as cotton carders, spinners, dyers, printers and washers.
• Iron, Copper, diamond mining and gun making. Kharkhanas were workshops

Trade and Commerce

• Banjaras - Specialised traders who carried goods in a large bulk over long distances.
• Bengal - chief exporting centre of rice, sugar, muslin, silk and food grains.
• Coromandel coast - textile production.
• Lahore - handicraft production.
• Movement of goods was facilitated by letters of credit called hundi.
• The traders from all religious communities: Hindus, Muslims and Jains. The Bohra Muslims of Gujarat, Marwaris of Rajasthan, Chettiars on Coromandel coast, and Muslims of Malabar were prominent trading communities.
• Europeans controlled trade with the West Asia and European countries, and restricted the involvement of Indian traders. Europeans imported spices, indigo, Bengal silk, muslin, calico and chintz. In return, India obtained large quantities of silver and gold. Mughal silver coinage fuelled the demand for silver.
• Huge army, was not a naval power.

Religion

• Puranic traditions, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the centuries of Vaishnavism. Tulsidas (Ramcharitmanas) a great proponent of Rama cult.
• Object of bhakti (devotion) was Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu.
• Religious figures like Vallabhacharya and his son Vitthalnath propagated a religion of grace; and Surdas, an adherent to this sect, wrote Sur-Saravali in the local language. Eknath and Tukaram were Bhakti poets from Maharashtra. The Dasakuta movement, a bhakti movement in Karnataka.
• Bhakti movement was Kabir.

Sikhism

• Monotheistic movement.
• Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhs, contained the sayings of Muslim saint Shaikh Farid and of Bhakti poets such as Namdev, Kabir, Sain and Ravidas. Guru Nanak believed in one God who was formless and omnipresent.

Sufis

• Sufism or Muslim mysticism. creating religious harmony.
• Accepted by orthodox theologians as long as it fulfilled the obligations of the shariah

Christianity

• Christian missionaries like Roberto De Nobili, Francis Xavier.
• Catholics - early missionary.
• In 1706 at Tranquebar and Ziegenbalg translated the New Testament of the Bible into Tamil in 1714.

Science and Technology

• Akbar’s court poet Faizi translated Bhaskaracharya’s famous work on mathematics, Lilavati.
• Water-lift based on pin-drum gearing.
• Gear-wheels, cooling water using saltpeter.
• First known person in the world to have devised the ‘ship's camel’,
• India’s inability to make cast iron even in the seventeenth century.’

Architecture

• Massive structures decorated with bulbous domes, splendorous minarets, cupolas in the four corners, elaborate designs, and pietra dura (pictorial mosaic work).
• Humayun’s tomb enclosed with gardens, built by Indian, designed by Persian.
• The Agra fort built with red sandstone is a specimen where Rajput architectural styles were also incorporated.
• Magnificent gateway to Fatehpur Sikri, the Buland Darwaza, built by Akbar with red sandstone and marble is considered to be a perfect architectural achievement.
• Mausoleum - started by Akbar and completed by Jahangir include Buddhist architectural elements.
• Tomb of Itimad-ud-daula, father of Nur jahan, completely with white Marbel.
• Shah Jahan regin - Taj Mahal, Red Fort in Delhi.
• Aurangzeb’s reign - Badshahi mosque.
• The Shalimar Gardens of Jahangir and Shah Jahan are show pieces of Indian horticulture.
• Bridge over the Gomati river at Jaunpur.

• Mughal architecture influenced even temple construction - Govind Dev at Vrindavan near Mathura, Bir Singh’s temple of Chaturbhuj at Orchchaa.

Paintings

• Mughal miniatures.
• The masters of miniature painting, Abdu’s Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali.
• The primary objective of painting was to illustrate literary works.
• Daswant and Basawan were famous painters of Akbar’s court.
• European painting was introduced in Akbar’s court by Portuguese priests.
• During Jahangir’s time portrait painting and the painting of animals had developed.
• Great Dutch painter Rembrandt was influenced by Mughal miniatures.

Music and Dance

• Ain-i-Akbari, Tansen of Gwalior, credited with composing of many ragas, was patronised by Akbar along with 35 other musicians.
• Aurangzeb was against music, number of books on Indian classica music were written during his regime. His queens, princes and nobles continued to patronise music.
• Later Mughal Muhammad Shah was instrumental in inspiring important developments in the field of music.

Literature

• Regional Language – Persian & Sanskrit. development of Urdu as common language.
• Babur’s autobiography written in Chaghatai Turkish was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan.
• Abul Fazl, to write a history of his reign. Abul Fazl wrote a three-volume history of Akbar’s reign, titled Akbar Nama. The first volume dealt with Akbar’s ancestors and the second volume recorded the events of Akbar’s reign. The third volume is the Ain-I-Akbari. It deals with Akbar’s administration
• Padshah Nama, a biography of Shah Jahan.
• Alamgir Nama, reign of the first decade of Aurangzeb.
• Mahabharata was translated supervision of Abul Faizi, brother of Abul Fazal.
• Translation of Upanishads by Dara Shukoh, entitled Sirr-I-Akbar (the Great Secret), is a landmark.
• Rajavalipataka, a kavya, written by Prajna bhatta which completed the history of Kashmir belonged to reign of Akbar.
• Tajika Neelakanthi, an astrological treatise. Shah Jahan’s court poet Jaganatha Panditha wrote the monumental Rasagangadhara.
• Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan composed Bhakti poetry (Tulsidas who wrote in Awadhi) with a blend of Persian ideas of life and human relations in the Brij form of Hindi.
• Marathi literature (Eknath, Tukaram, Ramdas and Mukteshwar) had an upsurge. Eknath questioned the superiority of Sanskrit over other languages.
• Krishnadevaraya, the Vijayanagar ruler, through his Amuktamalyada (an epic poem on the Tamil woman poet, Andal)
• Ramayana and Mahabharata were composed in Malayalam.
• Bhakti poetry by Shankara Deva, Assamese literary, Chaitanya cult (Bengali literature - love of Krishna and Radha in poetic verses). Saivite and Vaishnavite of Tamil literature.
• Kumaraguruparar literary work Meenakshiammai Pillai, Neethineri Vilakkam.
• Thayumanava formulated a sanmarga, bridge between Saivite sects.
• Christian missionaries like Roberto de Nobili and Constantine Joseph Beschi contributed much to Tamil language.
• Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs compiled by Guru Arjun.

Contemporary

• Ottoman Turkey, Sultan Suleyman 1520 – 1566. seizing Hungary and besieging Austria.
• Suleyman also reconstructed the Ottoman navy. Its domination over the eastern Mediterranean brought the navy into competition with Spain.
• title of “al-Qanuni” (the “lawgiver”)
• Aimed to standardise administrative procedures throughout the expanding domains of the empire and specifically to protect the peasantry from forced labour and extraordinary taxes.
• reign of Suleyman Qanuni was remembered as a period of ideal governance.