ABSTRACT

Through military victories, bureaucratic innovation, and cultural synthesis, the Mughal dynasty (1526–1858) built a vast, fabulously wealthy and ethnically diverse empire that eventually encompassed almost the entire Indian subcontinent and then, even after its decline, significantly shaped subsequent British colonial rule. 1 The dynasty’s founder, Emperor Babur, conquered much of north India. His grandson, Emperor Akbar, and Akbar’s three successors largely expanded their domain, despite repeated regional, as well as intra-dynastic, rebellions. At the peak in the late seventeenth century under Akbar’s great-grandson, Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, the empire included over 1,250,000 square miles and some 100–200 million people. Even after its centralised control collapsed, the Mughal Empire continued for centuries as a powerful symbol and a precursor for British colonialism.