The Magnificent Mughals....

Hi all...
India was till recently considered to be a land of princes....in fact when we gained independence nearly six decades ago...there were more than 540 princely states that had to be amalgamated in the union....however no other imperial house ever reached the ascedency or wielded power over India as did the house of taimur (तैमुर) or the mughals...but it is not just the power and imperial splendor that invokes awe for the mughals...I can't pin down a specific reason for it but mughals have acquired a special place in the hearts of the Indians...it is a name that invokes nostalgic romanticism still..The house of taimur was founded in 1526 by Babur after the second war of panipat (पानीपत) .....the mughal kings held sway over large swathes of India...in fact they were nothing less than supreme masters of India...atleast till the later half of the 17th century when the maratha power under the dynamic Shivaji (शिवाजी) asserted itself in the deccan....the rise of the maratha power aggravated the downfall of the mughal empire....matters were further worsened after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The later mughals neither had the expertise nor the resources to hold together the collosal empire which began crumbling soon after...the mughal princes managed to to be in power....though only as titular heads...and as mere pawns first in the hands of unscruplous nobels and then the british...the last mughal emperor Bhadur Shah Zafar II (please refer to the post titled...Zafar's Last Poem) was exiled from India in 1858 to Rangoon where he died in 1862.... However the history of mughals is so expansive and vast that it can't be covered in a single post...will talk about it in future posts...but as of now I will just list down the names of the mughal emperors.....

1. Zahiruddin Mohammed Babur (ज़हिरुद्दीन मोहम्मद बाबर) (1526-1530)
2. Nasiruddin Mohammed Humayun (नसीरुद्दीन मोहम्मद हुमायूँ) (Ist reign 1530-1540, IInd reign 1555-1556 ): also refer to the post King for a day.
3. Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar (जलालुद्दीन मोहम्मद अकबर) ( 1556-1605)
4. Nuruddin Mohammed Jahangir (नुरुद्दीन मोहम्मद जहाँगीर) ( 1605-1627)
5. Shahabuddin Mohammed Shah Jahan (शहाबुद्दीन मोहम्मद शाहजहाँ) (1627-1658)
6. Moinuddin Mohammed Aurangazeb Alamgir (मोईनुद्दीन मोहम्मद औरंगजेब अलामगीर) ( 1658-1707)
7. Bahadur Shah I ( बहादुर शाह प्रथम) (1707-1712)
8. Jahandar Shah (जहानदार शाह) (1712-1713)
9. Farukkhsiyar (फर्रुखसियार) (1713-1719)
10. Rafi-Ud-Darjat (रफी-उड़-दर्जत) (1719)
11. Rafi-Ud-Daulat (रफी-उड़-दौलत) (1719)
12. Nikusiyar (निकुसयार) (1719)
13. Mohammed Ibrahim (मोहम्मद इब्राहीम) (1720)
14. Mohammed Shah (मोहम्मद शाह) (1720-1748)
15. Ahmad Shah Bhadur (अहमद शाह बहादुर) ( 1748-1754)
16. Alamgir II (आलमगीर द्वितीय) (1754-1759)
17. Shah Jahan III (शाह जहाँ III) (1759)
18. Shah Alam II (शाह आलम II) (1759-1806)
19. Akbar Shah II ( अकबर शाह II) (1806-1837)
20.Bahadur Shah II (बहादुर शाह II) (1837-1857)

So these 20 names constituted the entire mughal empire....and covered 331 years.

Hope you liked the trivia...till the next post....
take care
Siddharth-The King of Me!!!