Babur

Also called: Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"

Meaning

Babur (full name Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur) was a Turkic-Mongol ruler from Central Asia. He founded the Mughal Empire in India by defeating Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 [4]. He then defeated Rana Sanga of Mewar at Khanwa in 1527 [5], wrote his memoirs, the Baburnama, and died in 1530.

He matters because 1526 is a real turning point in Indian history. It ended the Delhi Sultanate and began more than 300 years of Mughal rule [4]. Babur also showed how gunpowder weapons could let a small army beat a much bigger one.

Explanation

Background: why Babur came to India

• Family: Babur came from two great conquerors.
• On his father's side, he descended from Timur [2].

• On his mother's side, he descended from Chingiz (Genghis) Khan [2].

• Birthplace: Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan [3].

• He lost his home base:
• He was thrown out of Samarkand, also in modern Uzbekistan.

• With no secure kingdom in Central Asia, he had to find new land.

• India looked like an opening:

• The Delhi Sultanate was growing weak.
• A weak enemy made India an easy target.

First Battle of Panipat, 1526

• When: April 1526. Most accounts give 20 or 21 April 1526 [4].
• Who: Babur against Ibrahim Lodi, the last Lodi Sultan of Delhi.
• Babur's army was smaller than Lodi's. He won through tactics and technology, not numbers [4].
• New weapons: He used gunpowder, field artillery and matchlock guns (early guns fired by a slow-burning match). These weapons were new to Indian warfare at the time.
• His method on the battlefield:
• He tied carts (arabas) together in a long line to make a wall [4].
• Behind this wall he placed cannon and matchlock men, so they could fire in safety [4].
• He used tulughma (a formation that splits the army into left, right and centre, with extra units that swing round the enemy's sides) to surround Lodi's bigger army [4].

• Lodi's soldiers and elephants got jammed together and could not move or charge properly [4].

• Results:

• It ended the Lodi dynasty and the Delhi Sultanate [4].
• It founded the Mughal Empire in India [4].

Battle of Khanwa, 1527

• After Panipat, Babur's biggest enemy was Rana Sanga of Mewar. Rana Sanga had united the Rajput clans into one front.
• Rana Sanga led a confederacy (a group of Indian kingdoms joined together). By one estimate he brought about 100,000 horses and 500 elephants [5][2].
• Babur defeated him at Khanwa in 1527 [5]. Once again he won while outnumbered [2].
• Why it mattered:
• Panipat removed the Afghan Sultanate.
• Khanwa removed the main Rajput power that could have pushed the Mughals out.

Results and the short reign

• Babur died in 1530, only four years after Panipat.
• He won the land but had little time to organise it. Building a proper government was left to the rulers after him.
• Why he stayed in India:
• He was homesick for Central Asia and called India a 'country of few charms'.
• But he also wrote that "Hindustan is a large country and has masses of gold and silver… There are countless artisans and workmen of every sort."
• India's wealth and skilled workers are the likely reason he stayed and built an empire here.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: His Indian reign lasted from 1526 to 1530. It is the first chapter of the Mughal period (1526–1707 in our syllabus).
• Dynasty: He was the founder of the Mughal dynasty. It was Timurid on his father's side [2].
• Places:
• Fergana (birthplace) [3] and Samarkand (lost home base), both in modern Uzbekistan.
• Panipat, battle of 1526 [4].

• Khanwa, battle of 1527 [5].

• Key people: Ibrahim Lodi (last Lodi Sultan) and Rana Sanga (ruler of Mewar, head of the Rajput confederacy) [5].

• How we know, mainly from the Baburnama:
• The Baburnama ('Babur's Memoirs') is his candid autobiography. He writes honestly, even about his own faults.
• It is written in Chagatai Turkic, a Central Asian literary language that is now extinct (no one speaks it any more) [6].
• It was composed over a long period, roughly 1493 to 1529 [6].
• It reads like a private diary. It gives a rare close-up view of Central Asia, Afghanistan and early Mughal India [6].
• What it contains: army reviews, the defeat of Rana Sanga at Khanwa (1527), and a famous natural history of India, with its rivers, trees, animals and seasons [6].

• Two sides of one man in the same book:

  • The cultured observer: a poet who notices architecture, lists birds in detail and writes closely about fruit trees.
  • The brutal conqueror: he slaughtered whole city populations, enslaved women and children and took pride in building 'towers of skulls'.

• Where copies are kept today:

• An English translation, Babur-nama (English): Memoirs of Babur, is held as a rare book on the Government of India's Indian Culture Portal (Ministry of Culture) [7].
• A copy of the Memoirs of Babur is also in the Library of Congress [3].

Don't confuse with

• First Battle of Panipat (1526) vs Second Battle of Panipat (1556): The first was Babur vs Ibrahim Lodi and founded Mughal rule [4]. The second was fought in Akbar's time against Hemu and restored Mughal power after Humayun's death.
• Battle of Khanwa (1527) vs Panipat (1526): At Panipat Babur defeated the Afghan Lodi Sultan. At Khanwa he defeated the Rajput confederacy under Rana Sanga of Mewar [5]. Do not swap the opponents.
• Baburnama vs Akbarnama: The Baburnama is an autobiography that Babur wrote himself in Chagatai Turkic [6]. The Akbarnama is a court history of Akbar's reign written in Persian by Abul Fazl.
• Babur vs Timur: Timur was Babur's ancestor [2]. Timur raided Delhi in 1398 but did not stay to rule. Babur came over a century later and set up a permanent empire.

Prelims Hooks

• Babur descended from Timur on his father's side and from Chingiz Khan on his mother's side [2]. He was born in Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan [3].
• First Battle of Panipat, 1526 (20/21 April): Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi. It ended the Lodi dynasty and the Delhi Sultanate [4].
• Panipat tactics: the tulughma formation, plus a wall of tied carts (arabas) that shielded artillery and matchlocks [4]. Trap: Babur's army was the smaller one [4].
• Battle of Khanwa, 1527: Babur defeated Rana Sanga of Mewar, who had united the Rajput clans [5].
• Baburnama: written by Babur himself in Chagatai Turkic, an extinct literary language, over roughly 1493–1529 [6]. Trap: it is not in Persian.
• Chronological order: Expulsion from Samarkand → Panipat (1526) → Khanwa (1527) → Babur's death (1530).

Mains Points

• Gunpowder changed Indian warfare and power politics.
• At Panipat a smaller army beat a larger one using field artillery, matchlocks, a cart wall and tulughma [4].

• This is the standard Indian example of the "gunpowder empire" idea: new military technology shifted the balance of power.

• 1526–27 was a real break, not just a change of ruler.

• Panipat ended the Delhi Sultanate and began the Mughal Empire [4].
• Khanwa then broke the Rajput confederacy under Rana Sanga [5].

• Together the two battles removed both the Afghan and the Rajput obstacles to Mughal rule. Because Babur died in 1530, building lasting institutions was left to later rulers.

• The Baburnama as a historical source has strengths and limits.

• Strength: it is a rare first-person diary by a ruler. It is rich on nature, cities and armies [6]. It also explains why he stayed: India's gold, silver and skilled artisans pulled him, even though he disliked the land.
• Limit: it is self-written. His pride in massacres and slave-taking sits next to his poetry and botany. Historians use it as evidence but read it as one man's version of events.

Related concepts

• First Battle of Panipat
• Tulughma
• Battle of Chanderi
• Battle of Ghaghra
• Baburnama
• Charbagh

Read more

• Babur and the foundation (1526–1530)