A Short History of the Mughal Empire (I.B.Tauris Short Histories)

by Fisher, H, Michael

  The most costly component of Babur’s forces was his gunpowder division that he paid directly. Babur entered India with innovative musketry and artillery technology, which he continued to develop. This weaponry gave him an advantage over his Hindustani opponents who lacked access to this military science. For a decade before Panipat, Babur had been employing expensive Ottoman-trained gunpowder experts, most prominently Master Ali-Quli and Mustafa Rumi Khan (they and their expertise came from Rum, meaning Constantinople, the second Rome, so the title ‘Rumi Khan’ indicated his distinctive role and was awarded sequentially to many such artillery commanders). Babur proved especially tolerant and solicitous of these rare professional gunners, noting that Master Ali-Quli ‘was difficult to get along with.’ For instance, when the experimental casting of a huge cannon seemed to fail, Babur had to cajole: ‘Master Ali-Quli went into a strange depression and was about to throw himself into the mold of molten bronze, but I soothed him, gave him a robe of honor, and got him out of his black mood.’10 Some immigrant artillerymen settled in India—Master Ali-Quli’s son serving Babur and then Humayun.

  Babur noted the power but also the limitations of his cannon. They provided awe-inspiring long-range covering fire when crossing a river or besieging a citadel. But they were underpowered to batter breaches in major city walls, except under ideal circumstances (like firing down from a height). The cannon barrels needed long cooling between shots lest they crack, so 16 firings per day was a good rate. Further, the cannon were dangerously unreliable. Babur noted while testing one newly-cast weapon: ‘Although the shot went far, the mortar shattered and pieces of it wounded some people. Eight of them died.’11 As these Ottoman experts empirically developed the science of metal casting in India, they made ever larger cannons that could fire ever bigger rocks or expensive metal cannonballs. But, even cast in two pieces (the barrel and a separate powder chamber) and pulled by elephants, these increasingly heavy cannon were difficult to transport: Babur needed to widen roads by cutting ‘the jungles so that the carts and artillery might pass without difficulty.’12

  Further, cannon, muskets and their masters were direct and continuing costs for Babur, unlike cavalrymen under commanders to whom he could assign lands for their income or infantry whom he could hire and dismiss as needed; cavalry and infantry could also be given license to loot conquered lands. But gunpowder-using soldiers moved slower and were too valuable to let loose in the countryside. Hence, after only two years in India, ‘To meet the requirements for the army’s weapons, artillery, and gunpowder … [Lodi Sultan] Ibrahim’s treasuries in Delhi and Agra ran dry.’13 So Babur had to demand his governors send him more revenues from their assigned territories.

  Others in India also coveted this gunpowder technology. The military science that Babur brought merged with that imported across the Indian Ocean into the Deccan by west Asian experts and the Portuguese.14 Wealthy Indian rulers began to procure muskets and cannon, escalating levels of violence in warfare. Indian peasant-warriors acquired muskets, forming an armed military labor pool that the Mughals could never contain. However, for the next two centuries, Ottoman and Christian European immigrants largely monopolized the making and firing of large cannon—while Indian commanders directed their deployment and Indian laborers transported and loaded them.

  Lacking enough Central Asians to control and manage the lands Babur had so rapidly conquered, he began to recruit Indians for his army and administration. A high proportion of those who joined Babur’s forces were Indian Muslims—mostly Shaikhzadas (descendants of earlier Indian converts to Islam) and settled Indo-Afghans. Babur and his successors kept Central Asian-style bow-armed cavalry at the core of their military, but bows were ruined by India’s monsoons and horses did not thrive. Far cheaper and more available were Hindustani infantrymen whom Babur’s commanders could hire as needed from the abundant military labor market, often as entire military labor gangs under the direct command of their own sardar (‘headman’). Babur’s high-ranked officers (whom he named in his autobiography) were all Muslim, but many of their unnamed subordinate officers and soldiers were not.

  Joining Babur’s administration were many Hindu scribal families that had served the Delhi Sultanate. They were experienced and informed experts, working in the locality where they had extensive roots, who might provide Babur’s governors with the requisite records and advice about past and appropriate revenues paid by each newly conquered city and region. When Babur summoned these military governors for his campaigns, such Indian officials administered the territories he had conquered. In addition, thousands of Indians artisans and servants found employment under Babur, his courtiers and his commanders.

  Babur sought spiritual support for himself and his regime from Sufi pirs, including Indian-based orders. He continued until the end of his life to pay reverence to Naqshbandis, as had Timur. Some Naqshbandis joined Babur in India as prominent courtiers. Further, in 1528, when afflicted with a debilitating bowel inflammation that even prevented him from offering namaz (prayer), Babur sought again the intercession of long dead Naqshbandi Pir Khwaja ‘Ubaidullah Ahrar. When Babur recovered, he vowed to versify the pir’s Risala-i Walidiyya as a 243-line poem; Babur even attributed liberation from his lingering desire for wine to this poetic act of devotion.15

  Additionally, Babur began occasionally to honor India-based Chishti, Shattari and Suhrawardi pirs. He renewed many of the revenue grants given by Delhi Sultans to these pirs, other religious worthies and institutions. Each Sufi order had its own distinctive practice of mystical devotion and widespread network of shrines and disciples across much of north and central India. Gaining the support of these revered men and institutions provided Babur (and, even more so, his successors) with wider legitimacy among Muslim and also non-Muslim Indians of many social and economic classes. Conversely, these pirs were often rivals of each other and the Naqshbandis. Various pirs vied for Babur’s financial and political support.

  During Babur’s four years before his death, he remained personally ambivalent about settling in Hindustan, but he displayed a remarkable openness to new experiences there. He inquisitively explored selected aspects of his new domain, fascinating for their unexpectedness. He devoted many pages of his autobiography to describing in meticulous detail the nature and utility of distinctive Hindustani animals, plants, monumental buildings and systems of weights and measures. Significantly, he wrote relatively little about India’s diverse people or their cultures, except for critiquing the shocking near nakedness of peasant men and women and the full nakedness of some sacred sculptures (he ordered some nude statues in Gwalior destroyed for prudish rather than religious reasons). Strikingly, given their high proportion of the population, Babur in his Baburnama names relatively few non-Muslims, with the exception of his opponents and a few Hindu royal families.

  Indeed, while living in India, Babur sought to create pleasurable refuges in the Central Asian style that would isolate him and his household from India’s physical discomforts, especially its hot, dry winds and dust. As he explored his new realm, Babur constantly sought promising sites where he could construct water-cooled gardens, step-wells and bathhouses. He was surprised and pleased by how abundant, inexpensive and skillful were the thousands of Indian stone-masons and other artisans and workmen whom he employed (but did not name except collectively by their professions). Babur assembled his court and commanders around him in these gardens. They also reflected his efforts to control the Indian environment. But Babur also recognized the distance between the people of Hindustan from himself and his courtiers, noting that the complex of walled gardens they built for themselves outside of Agra was called ‘Kabul’ by locals.16

  Babur retained close interest in the actual Kabul region. He established a direct communications relay, with a string of watchtowers, caravanserai (walled compounds for travelers to secure protection, water, storage and sleep), and post-stations equipped with horses and messengers along the entire way. Only after two years in Hindu
stan did Babur order his sister, wives and their household staff to immigrate from Kabul to join him.

  Babur expressed his mixed feelings about living in and ruling Hindustan. He wrote: ‘The one nice aspect of Hindustan is that it is a large country with lots of gold and money.’17 A poem in his 1528 collection candidly reveals his sense of moral failure for remaining in seductive Hindustan:

  I deeply desired the riches of this Indian land.

  What is the profit since this land enslaves me.

  … Excuse me my friend for this my insufficiency.18

  While Babur repeatedly complained about India’s discomforts, this same poetry collection includes a contrasting celebration of its seasonal pleasures:

  Winter, although a time of the brazier and the fire,

  Yet this winter in India is very amiable.

  A season of pleasure and pure wine.

  If wine is not permissible, yet ma‘jun [drug-confection] is also fine.19

  Other seasons also had their attractions:

  The weather turns very nice during the monsoon. Sometimes it rains ten, fifteen, or twenty times a day; torrents are formed in an instant, and water flows in places that normally have no water. During the rainy season, the weather is unusually good when the rain ceases, so good in fact that it could not be more temperate or pleasant.20

  But Babur continually longed for the more congenial climate of Central Asia.

  An inevitable problem for any patrimonial state, including the Mughal Empire, is succession. Babur needed sons as his deputies during his lifetime, but knew first-hand that they could become deadly rivals, especially after his death. Babur thus tried to settle his legacy by his posthumous allocation of his territories among his sons: Humayun, the eldest, was to receive Hindustan and the status of Padshah, and Kamran was to continue to hold Kabul, with territorial provisions for his two youngest sons, Hindal and Askari, as well. Babur also directed them to support each other according to Central Asian principles of corporate sovereignty.

  As Babur repeatedly sickened in Hindustan, some courtiers briefly conspired for the succession by another Timurid nobleman, Mir Muhammad Mahdi Khwaja, current husband of Babur’s only full sister, Khanzada Begum. In the end, however, Babur’s main commanders respected his will and the authority of the direct patrilineal Timurid line. But no succession was secure for any of Babur’s sons (or later descendants).

  As Babur seriously ailed in 1529, he called Hindal to his side. Instead, Humayun rushed from Badakhshan without authorization. Further, while passing through Kabul, Humayun ordered Hindal to take his place in distant Badakhshan. Overruling Humanyun’s order, Babur again summoned Hindal. Gulbadan recorded both Babur’s annoyance at Humayun’s willful actions (until his mother interceded) but also Babur’s personal affection for him. Gulbadan further recalled how, when Humayun himself sickened to near death, Babur ritually transferred that illness to himself. While Humayun recovered, Babur died in Agra in 1530, after directing that his body be returned to Kabul for burial, where it lies today. Despite Babur’s testament, but following Timurid practice, his four sons would fight desperately for supremacy. His successor, Humayun, proved unable to sustain the Mughal Empire his father had initiated.

  Tomb of the Emperor Babur, Kabul, ca. 184421

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  EMPEROR HUMAYUN AND INDIANS, 1530–40, 1555–6

  I have rarely, even in dreams, seen [Emperor Humayun’s] like for innate talent. However, since he allowed in his retinue … self-seeking individuals, evil, vile and profligate men … he had contracted some bad habits … that ha[ve] occasioned talk on the part of the people …

  Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat about his cousin, Humayun1

  Following Humayun’s enthronement as Mughal Padshah and ruler of Hindustan in 1530, he failed to stabilize his regime. When Humayun acceded at 22, he was largely unfamiliar with India; he spent 80 per cent of his life outside it. He had accompanied Babur’s initial conquest of Hindustan in 1526 but, after a year fighting there, returned to Central Asia. Only just before Babur’s death had Humayun rushed back to Hindustan. As emperor, Humayun had some early military successes but he did not secure the consistent loyalties of his father’s powerful Central Asian commanders or his three half-brothers. Nor did he mobilize sufficient financial and manpower resources from India to rule there. After a tumultuous decade of growing opposition, particularly from resurgent Indo-Afghan forces, Humayun fled India. He did not return for 15 years, when he reinvaded Hindustan to restart the Mughal Empire, just months before his own death.

  HUMAYUN’S SUCCESSION AND COURT CULTURE

  As dying Babur had decreed, Humayun succeeded as Mughal Emperor in north India. But also following Babur’s authoritative testament and Central Asian custom, the males of the imperial family shared sovereignty. Newly enthroned Emperor Humayun reconfirmed the authority given to his three half-brothers by Babur. Then, Humayun repeatedly and graciously forgave their bloody betrayals.

  Each half-brother had dynastic ambitions of his own, at times claiming independent sovereignty. Humayun’s eldest half-brother, Mirza Kamran, largely ruled (or sought to regain) Kabul, where Babur had posted him. During periods of ascendancy, Kamran extended his rule over Qandahar, other parts of Central Asia and the Punjab; but he also spent years as a refugee. Their younger and lower-ranked half-brothers, Mirza Hindal and Mirza Askari, each shifted over the decades among serving Humayun, serving Kamran, and asserting his own independence. Eventually, Kamran’s forces killed Hindal then Humayun exiled Askari and Kamran.

  Further, Babur had entrusted their cousin and adoptive brother, Mirza Sulaiman, with Badakhshan. Mirza Sulaiman sometimes accepted overlordship by Humayun or Kamran, but sometimes asserted his autonomy against Babur’s sons. He outlived them all.

  Gulbadan—half-sister of Humayun, Kamran and Askari and full-sister of Hindal—described in rich detail in her book, Humayunnama, the lives of the often contending male and female members of their clan.2 Her account reveals how the family’s leading women provided political and emotional bonds and arranged marriages. These women guided the education of children, teaching them their appropriate roles and deportment. They also supported the ambitions of their favorite male and female relatives. At times, they interceded with the patriarch for advancement or forgiveness on behalf of their close male kin. Gulbadan’s book also highlights how relationships were often cross-cutting: cousins married each other; widows and divorcees remarried; wives occasionally favored their natal kin against their husbands; higher-ranked wives became foster-mothers of their co-wives’ children; slaves and concubines and their sons by the patriarch rose in power; lower-ranked women became milk-nurses and their own biological children formed foster kinship and emotional bonds with the patriarch’s sons they attended, often with lasting influence.

  Effectively administering an empire the size of Hindustan required practical policies and techniques unfamiliar to Humayun. Instead, he sought to locate himself symbolically within the cosmic order, reflecting his own mystical claims to be the millennial sovereign.3 He constructed his court as a microcosm of the universe, centered on his own sacred self. He draped a veil over his turban and face, sheltering his courtiers from his divine splendor, occasionally ritually raising his veil to reveal his effulgence. He identified each weekday with an astral body, himself wearing self-designed robes of the conforming color while conducting the corresponding imperial functions. For instance, on Tuesday, identified with the astrological planet Mars, Humayun wore red garments, sat ‘on the throne of wrath and vengeance,’ and directed the sentencing of each criminal and war-captive to imaginative punishments, guided by Humayun’s own inspired insight into the otherwise hidden essence of the prisoner and his alleged deeds.4 Humayun ordered his tents to be symbolically made in twelve sections, each representing a zodiac sign. Humayun’s model, which stressed mystical powers, evidently resonated with the transcendent doctrines of his favored Shattari Sufi order, which specialized in interpreting and channeling
cosmic forces through yogic practices. Thus, he used various novel rituals to create an imperial cult as his regime’s core.

  Additionally, Humayun innovated with administrative structures. He issued various mundane rules and ordinances, which he ordered compiled by his courtier and historian Khwandamir into the Qanun-i Humayuni (‘Laws of Humayun’).5 But additionally, he devised elaborate organizational schemes. In one, Humayun arranged his court and administration into three divisions of the Order of the Arrow, each with 12 sections, each signified by an arrow of diminishing purity: from his own arrow of unadulterated gold down to those of his lowly gatekeepers having the most amalgam.6 In another scheme, he divided the branches of his administration according to the prime natural elements: fire (the military), air (his household), water (irrigation) and earth (buildings and lands). Each branch’s officials were to wear robes of the corresponding color. But his imaginative rituals failed to prove his authority to his brothers, Central Asian commanders, new Indian Muslim and non-Muslim subordinates, or many Hindustani subjects. In particular, leading Central Asians still asserted their own right to a share in governance and resisted Humayun’s efforts to centralize authority in himself. Indeed, Humayun faced repeated rebellions throughout his reign.

  Like Babur, Humayun presented himself as the imperial font of repeated gracious forgiveness for those rebels he deemed worthy and who submissively begged for pardon. Some defeated opponents were beneath his notice and were summarily executed. But others attracted his mercy because they were relatives, noblemen, women, children, or performed especially persuasive forms of submission (like approaching him bearing a shroud or hanging their sword from their neck). Thus, he recovered their (nominal and often temporary) support but lowered the moral hazard of opposing him since, if defeated, they could again expect forgiveness.