Who was the First Emperor of the Mughal Era in India?

The bold invasions of Central Asia by Babur at the age of only 43 resulted in the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic plain, which have formed the basis of the successors such as Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. 

His personal memoir, the Baburnama (or Tuzuk-i-Baburi), provides first-hand accounts of his ambitions, battles, gardens and even his daily luxuries. Those included melons and wine, translated into English by scholars such as Annette Beveridge in 1922.

Early Life and Lineage of Babur

Babur was born to nobles as the son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, the ruler of Fergana in 1494 when the heir to the throne was 11 years old in the context of fratricidal conflict in Timurid kingdoms. 

Six times conquering and losing Samarkand, the capital of Timur, by 1501, this caused his flight westward, and he occupied Kabul in 1504 as a springboard of Indian expeditions, mixing the traditions of Chagatai Turkic and Persian cultures. 

His family roots, his fifth generation on Timur (Tamerlane)’s paternal and Genghisid maternal sides, gave him a sense of nomadic warrior spirit and imperial ambition, a feeling that was reflected in his verse and his feelings about nature during conquest.

Major Conquests that formed the Mughal Rule

First Battle of Panipat (1526)

On April 21, 1526, the 12,000 men of Babur, equipped with 100 cannons, matchlocks and tulughma flanking formations. They wiped out the 100,000 men and elephants of Lodi with 15000 of them killed and enormous treasures including the skull of Ibrahim that served as a wine cup. 

With this technological advantage, the Lodi dynasty collapsed, and the capitals of the Mughal became Delhi and Agra.

Battle of Khanwa (1527)

As mentioned in the NCERT Class 12 Themes in Indian History Part II, on March 16, 1527, Babur met 80,000 Rajput in the presence of Rana Sanga, and Rana Sanga near Bayana. 

They promised his battle against drinking water, yet used wagons and canons to destroy the confederacy, killing 10,000 of them and claiming that Rana escaped. This avenged the legacy of Timur towards Rajput.

Later Victories

The 4,000 jauhar (mass self-immolation) of Rajput was witnessed in Chanderi (January 23, 1528) after defeat, and Ghaghra (May 6, 1529) conquered remnants of Afghans and Bengal sultanate by floating the river. These conquered the nexus of the empire.

When Babur first gave up Hindu practices such as jizya, he gave the jagirs to those loyal to him and constructed the first Mughal garden in Agra known as Ram Bagh. 

Not only wars, but also botany, fauna, and criticism of Indian weather (hot winds, dust storms), his Baburnama, written several weeks before his death on 26 December 1530 (aged 47), documents. 

Lying buried in Bagh-e-Babur of Kabul, his reign planted seeds of the Akbarian empire; cultural amalgamation gave birth to Indo-Persian art.

What is Baburnama? 

Autobiographical memoir in Chagatai Turkish by Babur, which records events of 1526-1530; earliest prose in Turki, much translated (e.g. Wheeler Thackston 1996). 

Why did Babur come to India? 

Motivated by the defeat of Samarkand, an invitation of Daulat Khan Lodi against Ibrahim, Punjab wealth; the five invasion in 1519 led to the battle of Panipat.

Who succeeded Babur? 

Son Humayun (1530-1556) almost lost the empire to Sher Shah Suri but he was restored in 1555.

The tolerance shown during his time of conquest is informative about the building of empires. 

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