The Mughal Empire

Title: The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India)Author: John F Richards Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1994 (First published 1993) ISBN: 81-85618-14-3

The world famous Cambridge history series are renowned for their accuracy, impartiality, authority and comprehensiveness. Numerous such series exists for histories of many parts of the world. This volume deals with the Mughal empire during the period 1526-1720, from the conquest of Babur to the ascent of Muhammad Shah in 1720 which symbolized the crumbling up of the empire. The author is a professor of history at the Duke University who has presented the subject in a capable and interesting way. Several maps given at appropriate places accentuate the assimilation by the reader. The greatest problem with studies of the medieval Islamic states in India are the biases exhibited by the scholars depending upon their religious or political affiliations. Historians like P N Oak tend to favour the Hindu nationalist style, while Irfan Habib approaches issues with a Muslim mindset and historians like Romila Thapar and K N Panikker follows the marxist way of pseudo-secularism. John F Richards presents a refreshingly impartial method.

The mughal state was a theocratic one. “Indo-Muslim rulers appealed regularly to Muslim militancy in the jihad against the idolatrous Hindus of the subcontinent. They relied heavily upon the support of the Islamic religious establishment for legitimacy and political backing. In return, the state supplied money and administrative support for the essential institutions of organized Islam” (p.2). The rise and effective administration was helped in no small measure by the wide adoption of paper and gunpowder. Paper made its appearance in the eleventh century while gunpowder became available by the mid-sixteenth century. Even the emperor Akbar used the weapon of jihad against the Rajput princes. He was troubled by the authority of Udai Singh, Rana of Mewar. “Akbar, at this early period, was still enthusiastically devoted to the cause of Islam and sought to impress the superiority of his faith over the most prestigious warriors in Brahminical Hinduism” (p.25). After a long siege of Mewar, the royal forces conquered the fort and slaughtered about 25,000 ordinary persons, inhabitants of the town and peasants from the surrounding areas on the grounds that they have actively helped in the resistance. After this brutal massacre, Akbar made a thanks-giving visit to the shrine of Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti at Ajmer. Akbar was thought to possess mild epilepsy, chronic depression (p.34) and dyslexia which made him physically unable to read.

Akbar was very particular on complete submission by his officers. A curious example is given for a case of unitended disobedience: “the King ordered him to be seized, dragged to the palace which he had told him to go to, bound prostrate on an inflated bag of ox-hide, and launched upon the river. The officer was being carried hither and thither in the middle of the river at the mercy of the current. He was weeping, imploring pardon with miserable cries, and trying to move the King to mercy. As he was carried past the royal pavilion, the King gave orders for him to be rescued from the river, entered in the inventories as royal property, exposed for sale in all the bazars and finally auctioned as a slave” (p.44). The royal budget for the year 1595-96 is reproduced from a reference work. We see that 89.92 million silver rupees out of a total of 99.01 million (91%) was earmarked for military purposes while 4.7% was set apart for the imperial household and the emperor’s pleasures, with the remaining 4.3% for public works. At the time of Jahangir too, the percentages remained more or less the same. A sum of 8.2% of the imperial revenue were allocated for the salaries of the four princes including Khurram (later, Shah Jahan). In fact, 73 members of the inner nobility amassed a staggering 37.6% of the revenue.

War of succession was one of the reasons why the empire floundered in the reign of later monarchs. Fratricide was an accepted practice. Even incestual policies were adopted with the full support of the ulema. “Nur Jahan arranged a marriage between Shahryar, Jahangir’s youngest son, aged sixteen, to her daughter, Ladili Begum” (p.113). Aurangzeb hastened the collapse of the empire with his begoted ways. India has never seen a more fanatical ruler than him. “Auranzeb’s edict of 1669 ordered that all temples recently built or repaired contrary to the Sharia be torn down. Throughout the empire many, although not all, such temples were ruined by official action. The emperor’s special targets were the renowned stone temples in the holy cities of Mathura and Varanasi. The great Kesav Rai temple at Mathura was pulled down. The golden bejewelled idols were taken to Agra and buried under the steps of Jahan Ara’s mosque. A new mosque was erected on the site of the razed temple” (p.175). The people were even denied the opportunity to present their cases to the emperor. When Aurangzeb re-introduced Jiziya in 1679, thousands of Hindus assembled at Delhi to petition the emperor for the repeal of the law. He found it difficult to move to the Jama Masjid for prayers due to the crowd. What happened next is hard to believe. This emperor, who was enjoined by the Sharia to protect the lives of his subjects ordered war elephants to be brought out and trampled upon the hapless people. Several people were killed in the melee (p.177).

Shivaji emerged as the fountainhead of Maratha resistance in the latter half of the 17^th century. Himself not a Kshatriya, Shivaji found it difficult to assume the title of ‘Chhatrapati’ due to the brahminical beliefs immersed in millenia of superstition which won’t accept individual merit unless that person belongs to twice-born castes. Richards describes the process by which Shivaji was made a Kshatriya. “Many months of preparation preceded the ceremony. Shivaji immersed himself in a period of intense prayer and worship at a number of temples and shrines. In the meantime, Brahmin advisers persuaded Gagga Bhatta of Varanasi, the foremost Hindu theologian of his day, to declare that Shivaji was not a mere Shudra of the Maratha caste, but a lapsed Kshatriya, a Rajput, whose ancestors could be traced back to the solar line of the Ranas of Mewar. Gagga Bhatta travelled to the Maratha capital where he first purified Shivaji and then invested him with the sacred thread and Vedic verses of the twice-born castes”. (p.213)

The Maratha empire didn’t witness men of the calibre of Shivaji ascending the throne after his death at the age of 53. His son Shambhaji was a careless, pleasure-seeking fellow. The Mughal empire easily caught up with him and brought him to Aurangzeb. His death was gruesome, as depicted thus, “Shambhaji and his Brahmin chief minister were brought to the imperial encampment beside the Bhima river. Shambhaji, although a monarch, was not treated with the dignity permitted the Bijapur and Golconda rulers. Dressed as buffoons he and his minister were presented to Aurangzeb who knelt in thanksgiving prayer. During interrogation by Mughal officers, Shambhaji sealed his fate by insulting both the emperor and the Prophet. A panel of ulema sentenced him to death for having slain and captured good Muslims. After a fortnight of torture, Shambhaji and his companion were hacked to death and the pieces thrown to the dogs” (p.223)

An impressive book by all standards. Richards has narrated the history of nearly two centuries as if it was a folk tale from ancient India. Even the economic details mentioned, along with tables and statistics are presented without losing the reader’s interest. This book is only a part of the Cambridge history of India series, and we eagerly await the appearance of more volumes in this series. A must-read for all enthusiasts of Indian history.

Rating: 4 Star