Achievements of Babur

 

Zahir al-din Muhammad Babur famously known as Babur was born on 15^th February 1483. His father was Umar Sheikh Mirza was the leader of Ferghana, his mother Qutlaq Nigar Khanum was the daughter of Moghuli King Yunus Khan. He was the founder of largest Mughal dynasty of northern India. Babur was a decendent of timur and Mongol conqurer Genghis khan. Babur was a military military explorer, a soldier of distinction, and a poet and diarist of genius, as well as a statesman.

 

Early life of Babur

The Mongol descendants in western Central Asia had intermarried with Turkic and Persian inhabitants and adapted into the native principles. They were mainly influenced by Persia and they used Farsi as their official court language. They had changed to Islam. Most preferred the mystic Sufism-infused style of Sunni Islam.

Babur came from the Barlas clan of Mongol origin, but isolated members of the tribe considered themselves Turks in language and customs through long residence in Turkish regions. Babur was called a Mughal, he get most of his support from Turks and the empire he founded was Turkish in character. His family had become members of the Chagatai clan, by which name they're known. He was fifth in male succession from Timur and 13th through the feminine line from Genghis Khan. Babur’s father, Umar Shaikh Mirza, ruled the small principality of Fergana to the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range. Because there was no fixed law of succession among the Turks, every prince of the Timurids, the dynasty founded by Timur—considered it his right to rule the entire of Timur’s dominions.
In 1494, the Emir of Ferghana died suddenly and 11 years old Babur succeeded his father's throne. His seat was anything but secure, however, with numerous uncles and cousins plotting to exchange him.
For 10 years (1494–1504) Babur sought to recover Samarkand and twice occupied it briefly in 1497 and 1501. 1497, he had conquered the famous Silk Road oasis city of Samarkand. While he was thus engaged, however, his uncles and other nobles rose in rebellion back in Andijan. When Babur turned to defend his base, he once again lost control of Samarkand.The determined young emir had regained both cities by 1501, but the Uzbek ruler Shaibani Khan challenged him over Samarkand and dealt Babur's forces a crushing defeat. This marked the end of Babur's rule over his Father throne.

For almost three years the homeless Babur wandered Central Asia, trying to attract followers to help him retake his father's throne. In 1504 his small army turned to the southeast, marching over the snow-bound Hindu Kush Mountains into Afghanistan. Babur was 21 years old when he conquered Kabul and established a base for his new kingdom. when he conquered Kabul he first commissioned a beautiful Garden.

Here Babur allied himself with the rulers of Herat and Persia and try to take back Fergana in 1510 to 1511. Once again the Uzbeks utterly defeated Babur’s army, driving them back to Afghanistan. After that Babur began to look south.

In 1519 Babar made his first raid into India in Punjab, a region on which Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi is ruling. Babur failed to conquer it, Dawlat Khan Lodi was the governor of Punjab. Till 1524 Babur invaded Punjab 3 times but was unable to conquer it.

Conquest of India

Setting out in November 1525, Babur met Ibrahim at Panipat, 80 km north of Delhi, on April 21, 1526. Babur’s army was estimated at no more than 12,000, but they were experienced followers, expert at cavalry strategies, and were aided by new artillery acquired from the Ottoman Turks. Ibrahim’s army was said to number 100,000 with 100 elephants. Babur won the battle by coolness under fire, his use of artillery, and effective Turkish wheeling tactics on a divided, dispirited enemy. Ibrahim was killed in combat. Babur captured Delhi throne after three days and reached Agra on May 4. He first ordered to lay out a garden now known as Ram Bagh near Yamuna River.

Babur have small force, troubled by the cruel weather and located 1300km away from their base at Kabul. They were surrounded by powerful rivals. At the Ganga River valley were militant Afghan chiefs, in disorder but with a formidable military potential. To the south were the kingdoms of Malwa and Gujrat, both with wide-range of possessions, while in Rajasthan Rana Sanga of Mewar was head of a influential alliance frightening the whole Muslim position in northern India. The main problem Babur was that his own followers, pain from the heat and depressed by the hostile surroundings. They wanted to return home as Timur had done before them. By employing threats, criticisms, promises, and requests, brightly defined in his memoirs, Babur diverted them.

He then dealt with Rana Sanga fight with Babur when he find that he is not withdrawing from India. He assembled a large army with an estimated 100,000 horses and 500 elephants. Most of Babur neighbours were allied to Rana Sanga. He sought divine favor by avoiding alcohol, breaking the wine bowls and pouring the wine down a well. His followers answered both to that act and his stirring appeals and stood their ground at Khanua, 60 km west of Agra, on March 16, 1527. Babur used his usual strategies—a fence of wagons for his center, with gaps for the artillery and for cavalry sallies, and wheeling cavalry charges on the wings. The artillery rushed the elephants, and the flank charges confused the Rajputs (ruling warrior caste), after 10 hours, broke, never to rally under a single leader again.

Babur now had to deal with the rebellious Afghans to the east, who had seized Lucknow while he was dealing Rana Sanga. Other Afghans had grouped with Sultan Ibrahim’s brother Mahmud Lodi, who had occupied Bihar. There were also Rajput chiefs still disobeying him, principally the ruler of Chanderi. After capturing that fortress in January 1528, Babur turned to the east. Crossing the Ganges, he drove the Afghan captor of Lucknow into Bengal. He then turned on Mahmud Lodi, whose army was scattered in Babur’s third great victory, that of the Ghaghara, where that river joins the Ganges, on May 6, 1529. Artillery was again decisive, helped by the skillful management of boats.

Establishment of the Mughal Empire

Babur’s territories were now secure from Kandahar to the borders of Bengal, with a southern limit marked by the Rajput desert and the forts of Ranthambhor, Gwalior, and Chanderi. There was no settled administration only a congeries of quarreling chiefs. An empire had been gained but still had to be pacified and organized. It was thus a unjustified legacy that Babur passed on to his son Humayun. 

In 1530, when Humayun became deathly ill, Babur is said to have offered his life to God in exchange for Humayun’s, walking seven times around the bed to complete the vow. Humayun improved and Babur’s condition weakened, and Babur died the same year.

Babur Legacy

Babur is rightly considered the founder of the Mughal Empire, even though the work of consolidating the empire was performed by his grandson Akbar. Babur provided the irresistible leadership that inspired the next two generations. The Mughal Empire lasted until 1847, at which point it finally fell to the colonial British Raj.

Babur was a military explorer of genius and an empire builder of good fortune, with an engaging personality. He was also a gifted Turki poet, which would have won him distinction apart from his political career, as well as a lover of nature who constructed gardens wherever he went and complemented beautiful spots by holding convivial parties. The prose memoirs, the ‘Babur-nameh’ have become a renowned autobiography. They were translated from Turki into Persion in Akbar’s reign in 1589 and were translated into English, Memoirs of Babur, in two volumes, and were first published in 1921–22.