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THE MUGHALS
On April 20, 1526, Babur, the first Mughal emperor, defeated and killed Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, head of the Lodi dynasty that had held power in northern India since 1451. For most of the next three centuries, the Mughals wielded enormous political power in India and ushered in a period of tremendous economic prosperity and artistic creativity. Their culturally diverse court included Muslim elites as well as many Rajputs, who were Hindu kings and noblemen. Mughal rule came to an end in 1858, when the British exiled the last emperor from India.
The pinnacle of Mughal power and wealth occurred under the father-to-son lineage of emperors Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), Jahangir (reigned 1605-27), and Shah Jahan (reigned 1627-58), who were keen patrons of the arts. Under Akbar, finely illustrated manuscripts were the focus of production in his royal workshops, but under his son and grandson compilations of paintings and calligraphy displayed in albums were the favored medium of artistic expression.
Source :
Imperial Mughal albums from The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Image :
Mughal Empire in 1658
Approximate borders of the empire in the last year of Shah Jahan's reign
Mughal's history is my favourite bit of history.. waiting for the links and pictures you'll be putting up on Mughals here :)
The atelier for miniature paintings was started by 2 painters that Humayun the 2nd Mughal had brought back from the city of Herat when he came back at the head of Persian army to claim his patrimony in Hindustan. The painters were Abdus Samad and another whose name escapes me now for the moment. 3rd Mughal Akbar commissioned the ughal miniatures to illustrate the Babar-Nama, and later many were commissioned by Akbar. Miniature paintings of his time were in their infancy in India and hence the paintings of Akbar were very wooden in expression. It was in the reign of his son, Jahangir that Mughal Miniature reached their zenith. Jahangir commissioned many paintings of varying subjects including allegorical paintings.
Little is known about the Mughal history post Aurangzeb till Bahadur Shah Zafar. I hope more light is thrown on that era
One big Error in the Map. Pakistan and Bangladesh did not Exist that time
And Iran was Persia, Sri Lanka was just Lanka.
Mughal Empire's prosperity was a big bubble! Most of the states earnings went in maintaining the lifestyles of the royal household and the nobility! The common man lived in abject poverty!
Yes, the wealth was amassed through exploitation of the working poor
Have a heart . Right today modern economics judges and evaluates countries by GDP alone and not by the distribution. The disparity i wealth is acute in all countries.By a king's rights they accumulated moneys unlike the "RAJA" of today.the poor have always been exploited -no matter who the ruler was.Let us not find fault with Mughals on this score
I am a practicing Marxist. The terminolgies of Marxism does not apply to Hisotorical situations even according to Historical materialism..exploitation is not used as a bad word there..it is used a s tools of economic development and extraction of surplus vvalue for investment..only when Marxism becomes the tool under Communist Party, in contmeporary world agaonst Capitalism it attains the power of a political tool and I shall not swerve from using it today...a historical epoch should be judged with the value standards of their times..The hundred years bewteen Akbar and Shajahan was one of the golden periods of India and India was far more prosperous, Indian people were enjoying a good standard of life compared to anypart of the world in those days, enjoyed comparitive peace without war and they had for the first time a staute based law system...I can go on with evidence and economics and statistics..