THE MOGHUL EMPERORS

      A predominantly Hindu country, India was ruled for many centuries by Muslim dynasties.  The third major Islamic invasion began in 1526 when Babur, descendant of the Mongols Timur and Gengis Khan, defeated the Rajput armies and occupied Delhi and Agra.  Babur became the first emperor of the Moghul dynasty, which in the course of two centuries unified most of India under one rule and achieved great splendour.  Babur’s son Humayun lost the conquered territories and spent most of his life in exile.  Towards the end he regained Delhi and Lahore, but fell to his death from the steps of his library in 1556, leaving as heir his son Akbar.

Under the faithful guidance of general Bairam Khan, young Akbar consolidated the Northern territories.  The impetuous youth loved dangerous sports, like riding, fighting elephants and hunting with ferocious cheetas.  As an adult he used his impressive hunting expeditions to keep his subjects from rebelling.  With decisive military campaigns he expanded the empire to Bengal and the Deccan.  Remembered is his siege of Chittor fort, where he employed the fighting technique of the sabat, a moving wall of mud and wood to protect the advancing soldiers.  Akbar solidified his multinational empire by making alliances with the Rajput kings.  First he married the daughter of the raja of Amber, then called other Rajputs to his court as advisors.  Later he would take other Hindu wives until his harem numbered over 300.  At 25, still without a male heir, he took a pilgrimage on foot to Sikri to visit Muslim holy man Salim Chisti.  He prophesized the birth of 3 sons.  When this happened, Akbar decided to build a city over the holy man’s village, added the word denoting victory to its name and transferred his capital there from Agra.

      FATEHPUR SIKRI was built in 14 years, from 1570 to 1584.  In the magnificent red sandstone buildings the Moghul court saw its golden age.  Miniature painters and poets were at work, the official biographer Abul Fazl was instructed to record every detail of the beautiful life.  Religious theological discussions were held regularly with representatives of every faith.  The Catholic contingent, headed by Father Aquaviva, even hoped to convert the emperor.  Eventually, in 1582, Akbar promulgated his own religion, the Din-I-IIahi, a monotheistic cult based around himself.  After only 14 years Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned forever, maybe because the water supply proved inadequate.  Today the magnificent ghost town remains as a memento of its illuminated creator, Akbar the Great. 

      Disregarding the opposition of the orthodox Ulamas, Akbar exercised great religious tolerance towards his Hindu subjects; he abolished the hated jizya tax, discriminatory against non-muslims, instituted a land reform and equitable taxation. 

      At Akbar’s death in 1605 his son Jahangir took the throne. He married a Persian princess, a widow of 30, daughter of his chief minister, and called her Nur Jahan, light of the world.  She effectively ruled from the harem and introduced Persian culture and mores to the Moghul court.  Her brother Asaf Kahn’s daughter married her favorite son Shajahan.  Later, when a younger son became her favorite, Shajahan rebelled against his father, the weak Jahangir, who was addicted to alcohol and opium.

      Shortly after becoming emperor in 1627, Shajahan lost his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the chosen of the palace, who died in childbirth.  She was generous and wise, a great love united her to her husband; in 19 years of marriage, 1612 to 1631, she gave him 14 children.  Shajahan, heartbroken, decided to build the most spectacular tomb to his wife’s memory, the TAJ MAHAL.  Erected in 22 years, from 1632 to 1653, by 20,000 laborers, the Taj remains the jewel of Moghul architecture.  A great builder, Shajahan also constructed a new capital in Delhi in 1648.  To avoid the kind of rebellion he himself had started against his father, Shajahan had kept his favorite son Dara Shakoh close to him in court and had showered him with honors.  This had provoked the envy of his three brothers.  The most cunning and shrewd of them, Aurangzeb, used the pretext of his father’s illness to march on Agra, defeat his brother, imprison his own father and proclaim himself emperor in 1658.  Shajahan spent the last 8 years of his life as a prisoner in the Red Fort, overlooking his wife’s tomb, tended by his older daughter Nadira.

      Aurangzeb stopped the lavish building, reversed his grandfather’s policy of tolerance towards the Hindus, prohibited alcohol and music in the court. Finally the resentment of the orthodox Muslims was avenged.  The last of the great Moghuls, Aurangzeb expanded the empire to include practically all of India, except the very tip.  After his death in 1707 the decline began.