Mughal dynasty


The Mughal dynasty was made up of the members of the imperial House of Babur, also known as the Gurkanis. The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. The founder of dynasty, Babur was a direct descendant of Asian conqueror Timur the Great on his father's side and Mongol emperor Genghis Khan on his mother's side as well as Babur's ancestors had also affiliations with Genghisids through marriages and common ancestry. The term "Mughal" is itself corrupted form of "Mongol" in Arabic and Persian languages, as it emphasised the Mongol origins of the Mughal dynasty. The Mughal dynasty ruled the Mughal Empire from c. 1526 to 1857.
During much of the Empire's history, the emperor was the absolute regent, head of state, head of government and head of military while during declining era much of the power shifted to Grand Vizier and empire was divided into many regional kingdoms and princely states. But even in declining era, the Mughal Emperor, however, continued to be the highest manifestation of sovereignty on Indian subcontinent. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the Maratha, Rajput, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial acknowledgements of the emperor as the sovereign of South Asia. The imperial family was deposed from power and the empire was abolished on 27 September 1857 during War of Independence. The British Raj was declared the following year.
The last emperor Bahadur Shah II was exiled to Rangoon in British-controlled Burma, after convicting him on several charges. The number of people living in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh claimed to be descendants of Mughal dynasty.

History

The Mughal empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid prince from what today is Uzbekistan. After lost of his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur firstly established himself in Kabul and ultimately moved towards Indian subcontinent. Mughal dynasty briefly interrupted for 16 years by Sur Emperors during Humayun's reign. The Mughal imperial structure was founded by Akbar the Great around the 1580s which lasted until the 1740s, until shortly after the Battle of Karnal. During reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, the dynasty was reached at its zenith in terms of geographical extent, economy, military and cultural influence.
Around 1700, the dynasty was ruling the wealthiest empire of world also with the largest military on earth. Mughals had approximately 24 percent share of world's economy and military of one million soldiers. At that time Mughals ruled almost whole of the South Asia with 160 million subjects, the 23 percent of world's population. Dynasty's power was rapidly dwindled during 18th century with internal dynastic conflicts, incompatible monarchs, foreign invasions from Persians and Afghans as well as revolts from Marathas, Sikh, Rajputs and regional Nawabs. The power of last emperor was limited only to the Walled city of Delhi.
Many of the Mughals had significant Indian Rajput and Persian ancestry through marriage alliances as they were born to Rajput and Persian princess. Mughals played a great role in the flourishing of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. Mughals were also great patrons of art, culture, literature and architecture. Mughal painting, architecture, culture, clothing, cuisine and Urdu language; all were flourished during Mughal era. Mughals were not only guardians of art and culture but they also took interest in these fields personally. Emperor Babur, Aurangzeb and Shah Alam II were great calligraphers, Jahangir was a great painter, Shah Jahan was a great architect while Bahadur Shah II was a great poet of Urdu.

Succession to the Throne

The Mughal dynasty operated under several basic premises: that the Emperor governed the empire's entire territory with complete sovereignty, that only one person at a time could be the Emperor, and that every male member of the dynastic was hypothetically eligible to become Emperor even that heir-apparent was appointed several times in dynastic history. The certain processes through which imperial princes rose to the Peacock Throne, however, were very specific to the Mughal Empire. To go into greater detail about these processes, the history of succession between Emperors can be divided into two eras: Era of Imperial successions and Era of Regent successions.