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| Mogul Dynasty, Indian subcontinent slideshare.net |
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| Mogul Dynasty, Indian subcontinent. wordpress.com |
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| raid on Delhi by Iranian ruler Nadir Shahen.wikipedia.org |
Emperor Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia (1736–47) and the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Persia, invaded the Mogul Empire, eventually plundered Delhi in March 1739. His army had not only easily defeated the Moguls at the battle at Karnal but also captured Delhi. His army went on a killing binge. Nadir asked his soldiers to carry out the notorious ''qatl-e-aam'' (killing of common people). In a short span of six hours in one day - 22 March 1739, about 20,000 to 30,000 Indian men, women and children were butchered by merciless Afsharid troops A worst massacre in the city of Delhi, Further, some 10,000 women and children were taken slaves, according to a representative of the Dutch East India
Company in Delhi. In the wake of this worst plundering and raid on Delhi and Nader Shah's big victory against the weak and crumbling Moguls, the Dynasty lost its name and dignity in the far east in South Asia. The British East India Company that had been in India for decades was waiting for a chance to move in to get rid of the last Mogul descendants for good. ....................
Yet another blow to the Mogul supremacy was the raid by Nadir Shaw of Iran who plundered Delhi and other places besides taking away the diamond-studded golden peacock throne, koh-i-noor and Darya-i-Noor ( meaning "Mountain of Light" and "Sea of Light," respectively) diamonds and other innumerable treasures. Literally, Nadir Shah made the Moguls bleed and weakened their regal power and influence.
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| The imperial Diwan of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah en.wikipedia.org |
Above image: Nasir-ud-Din Muḥammad Shah (7 August 1702 – 16 April 1748) was Mughal emperor from 1719 to 1748, was the son of Khujista Akhtar, (the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I). He ascended the throne at the young age of 17 with help from Sayyid brothers. Being ungrateful, he later got rid of them with the help of Asaf Jah I. Syed Hussain Ali Khan was murdered at Fatehpur Sikri in 1720 and Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha was poisoned in 1722 .................
The empire later became fragmented, and the Governors or Nawabs appointed by the Moguls as ''Agents'' became independent rulers of respective regions. The wily British who had been in the subcontinent, gobbling kingdom after kingdom became a powerful force to reckon with and it was no better chance for them to reduce Mogul' s power to just a ruler of a small place with annual dole from the English company. Having acquired most parts of India except areas around Delhi during the 1857 rebellion, British East India Company took over the Delhi administration and asked the last Mogul ruler to leave his palace and made him live elsewhere as an ordinary Indian. Thus EIC and later the Crown removed the regal powers from the Nawabs and Maharajahs and made them lead a fairly comfortable lives with dole and fancy titles to cool their ego. The last Mogul ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar's ill treatment by the British and killing of his young legal heirs in daylight right before the public on the outskirts of Delhi added yet another dark chapter in British India history.
At what point of time Mogul opulence and dignity had begun to decline? In 1650s, it was the heyday for the Mogul kings. Their wealth was far more than any of the European kings, as a matter of fact, European ruler's opulence was nothing before them. The empire started developing cracks when Aurangzeb arrived on the political scene. He imprisoned his father and murdered three of his brothers. His fanaticism and arrogance further widened the cracks in the ruling class.
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| Mogul heir-apparent Dara Shikoh murdered by Aurangzeb. sikhiwiki.org |
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| The Bibi Ka Maqbaraen, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.wikipedia.org |
The Bibi Ka Maqbara built in memory of his chief wife Dilras Banu Begum (posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani) in Aurangabad, was commissioned in 1660 by Aurangzeb. Often referred to as ''poor man's Taj'', he could not afford to spend a large sum on this structure due to severe budgetary constraints. This resulted in a poor copy of the Taj Mahal.
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| 1658- 1707 Trecherous and religious bigot, Emperor Aurangzeb /www.slideshare.ne |
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| penguin.co.in |
Thus in the Mogul Empire, fratricides frequently took place due to wars of succession. Ruler Shah Jahan had his eldest brother Khusrau Mirza killed in 1622. Shah Jahan also had his brother Shahriyar killed in 1628. Shah Jahan's son, Dara Shikoh was assassinated by four of his brother Aurangzeb's henchmen in front of his terrified son on the night of 30 August 1659 (9 September Gregorian).
So the ascendancy of treacherous Aurangzeb tolled the slow death of the Mogul rule in India. Subsequently they were hard-pressed for money to maintain a huge army and in the later period their army was not strong enough as it used to be in the past. Nadir Shah's plundering and looting of Delhi accelerated the down fall of a great empire.
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| .picturequotes.com |
Murad Ali Baig's book "is about a gap in Indian history. It covers details about great emperors like Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb; The escalating rivalry between Emperor Shah Jahan's sons Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb over the throne had driven a wedge in the royal family but also changed the course of history of the nation, according to Author Murad Ali Baig. Their heyday saw the sunset when the British banished the last Mogul ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar to Burma in his old age. They also without remorse killed three of his legal heirs after the 1857 great Rebellion.
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