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Kerala Plus Two History Notes Chapter 8 Kings and Chronicles
1. The rulers of the Mughal Empire believed in the Divine Right of kings. They considered themselves as persons appointed by God to rule over the people. They continued stressing this aspect through histories of dynasties.
The Mughal rulers entrusted this job to the Palace Artists. Modem historians who write in English call these books Chronicles. This chapter tries to know more about the Mughal Empire by looking carefully into these chronicles.
2. The Mughal Empire was created by annexing many regional Princely States. It was done through conquests, and treaties between the Mughals and the local rulers. The first 6 rules of the Mughal Dynasty are called Great Mughals. Their rule lasted 200 years.
3. The most important among the Chronicles are Akbar- nama and Badhsha-nama (A King’s Story). In each manuscript, there are roughly 150 pictures. They depict mostly wars, resistances, hunting, palace construction and scenes from the capital.
4. As the Mughals believed in the Divine Rights of Kings, they propagated the story of Alanqua, the Mongol Queen, to establish their theory.
5. The capital was the heart of the Mughal Empire. It was here that the Durbar was held. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Mughals changed their capitals often. The capital of Babur was Agra which he captured from the Lodhis.
6. The Chronicles show that the Mughal rule was entered on the emperor. He was the centre and focal point of all the administration. He had the supreme power in administration, judiciary and military matters. The others in the country simply followed disorders.
7. Another pillar of the Mughal Empire was it bureaucracy. Historians call them the ‘Nobles’. They were the backbone to the Mughal rule. Because of their influence in the administration some historians call the Mughal administration as “Administration by the Nobles”, which was another form of Oligarchy.
8. The Mughal Empire was divided into many provinces. They were known as Subas. The rule in the province was a miniature of the central administration. Just like the Centre, the Provinces too had ministers and lower officials to help them.
9. At the end of the 15th century, as a sea-route to India was discovered, Portuguese merchants came in large numbers and established a series of trade centres along the coast. The Christian groups that came to India in the 16th century had three main aims: trade, empire-building and propagation of their faith.
Time Line
Some Important Memoirs
- 1530: Manuscript of Babur-nama in Turkish.
- 1587: Gulbadan Begum begins to write Humayun-nama.
- 1589: Babumama is translated into Persian.
- 1589-1602: AbulFazf writes Akbamama
- 1605-1622: Jahangir writes his memoir Jahangimama
- 1639-1647: Lahori prepares two volumes of Badshahnama
- 1650: Mohammed Varis writes the Chronicles of the rule of Shah Jahan.
- 1658: Muhammed Kasim writes the history of the first 10 years of the rule of Aurangzeb named Alamgirnama.