Nadir Shah's invasion

History glossary

Also called: Battle of Karnal · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Nadir Shah's invasion was the attack on north India in 1739 by Nadir Shah, the ruler of Persia (Iran). He defeated the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah at the Battle of Karnal, sacked Delhi and carried away huge wealth, including the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond. The invasion was short, but it showed everyone how weak the Mughal centre had become, and it sped up the break-up of the empire [2].

Explanation

Background: an empire already weak inside

  • Aurangzeb died in 1707. By 1719, when Muhammad Shah came to the throne, the empire had already begun to break up, pushed along by dynastic war and factional fights at court [2].
  • Empty treasury. Aurangzeb's long wars had used up the money.
  • Putting down many rebellions emptied the imperial treasury [1][2].

  • The last 25 years of his reign were spent fighting in the Deccan, and he still failed to crush the Marathas [1].

  • Nobles out of control. Later emperors found it increasingly hard to keep a check on their powerful mansabdars [2]. Mansabdars were nobles who got a rank, and pay or revenue rights, in return for supplying horsemen.

  • A weak ruler. Muhammad Shah was fond of ease and luxury [2]. He did not lead the state firmly.
  • A weak frontier. The north-west passes, through Kabul and Punjab, were not well guarded. Punjab lay on the road between Delhi and Kabul, so an invader could march straight towards the capital.
  • The pull of wealth. Delhi was still the richest city in the region. It held a century and more of stored Mughal treasure.

The sequence of events (1738–1739)

  • Nadir Shah had made himself master of Persia. Most accounts say his stated reason for the attack was that the Mughals sheltered Afghan rebels who had fled from him.
  • He came through Kabul and the Khyber Pass into Punjab and met little real resistance.
  • Battle of Karnal (1739): at Karnal, north of Delhi (in present-day Haryana), the Mughal army was defeated very quickly.
  • The Mughal nobles did not fight as one force. Their rivalries weakened the army.

  • Muhammad Shah submitted to Nadir Shah.

  • Sack of Delhi: Nadir Shah entered Delhi. A rumour of his death led to an attack on his soldiers. In return, he ordered a general massacre of the city's people. Accounts agree that many thousands were killed, but the numbers they give differ widely.

  • Plunder: for weeks the treasury, the nobles and the rich citizens were stripped of their wealth.
  • Return: Nadir Shah left Delhi, taking the wealth with him. He left Muhammad Shah on the throne as emperor, and the Mughals had to give up their lands west of the Indus to Persia.

What was taken

  • The Peacock Throne, the jewelled throne made for Shah Jahan.
  • The Koh-i-noor diamond.
  • Huge amounts of gold, silver, jewels and coin from the treasury and from the nobles. Accounts give different values for the total.

Results

  • The empire's prestige was destroyed. The emperor had been beaten in open battle and his capital looted. Provincial governors and regional powers saw that Delhi could no longer protect itself, let alone them.
  • The treasury was ruined. It was already empty, and now the stored treasure was gone too.
  • The north-west was exposed. The loss of the lands beyond the Indus left Punjab open to later raids, especially those of the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali.
  • The break-up sped up. The invasion was short, but it sped up the break-up of the empire [2]. After Muhammad Shah's death in 1748, the Marathas overran almost all of north India, and Mughal rule shrank to a small area around Delhi [2].

Time, place and evidence

  • When: 1739 [2], in the reign of Muhammad Shah (came to the throne in 1719 [2], died in 1748 [2]).
  • Dynasty affected: the later Mughals, in the period after Aurangzeb.
  • Places: Kabul and the Khyber Pass, which were the route in; Punjab; Karnal (north of Delhi, in present Haryana), where the battle was fought; Delhi, where the sack took place.
  • Key people:
  • Nadir Shah, ruler of Persia and the invader.
  • Muhammad Shah, the Mughal emperor.

  • The Mughal nobles, whose quarrels weakened the defence.

  • How we know:

  • Contemporary Persian chronicles, from both the Mughal side and Nadir Shah's side.
  • Accounts by observers in Delhi.
  • Later histories built on these sources.
  • The sources disagree on the number of people killed and the value of the loot, so treat any exact figure as approximate.
  • Modern textbook treatment includes NCERT Class 8, Part 1, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map".

Don't confuse with

  • Ahmad Shah Abdali (Durrani): he was an Afghan ruler who invaded India several times after 1748 and defeated the Marathas at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761). Nadir Shah was the Persian ruler who invaded once, in 1739.
  • Battle of Karnal vs Battles of Panipat: Karnal (1739) was Nadir Shah against Muhammad Shah. The three Panipat battles were 1526 (Babur), 1556 (Akbar's forces against Hemu) and 1761 (Abdali against the Marathas). Both places are in present Haryana, so the two are easy to mix up.
  • Timur's sack of Delhi (1398): this was an earlier Central Asian sack of Delhi, under the Tughlaq Sultanate. Nadir Shah's sack (1739) happened under the later Mughals.
  • Muhammad Shah vs Muhammad bin Tughlaq: Muhammad Shah was the later Mughal emperor (1719–1748) defeated at Karnal. Muhammad bin Tughlaq was a 14th-century Delhi sultan.

Prelims Hooks

  • Nadir Shah (ruler of Persia) invaded north India in 1739 [2].
  • Battle of Karnal (1739): Nadir Shah defeated the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.
  • Nadir Shah took the Peacock Throne (made for Shah Jahan) and the Koh-i-noor diamond from Delhi.
  • Muhammad Shah ruled from 1719 to 1748 [2]. He was "fond of ease and luxury" [2]. Nadir Shah left him on the throne after the sack.
  • Order of events: Aurangzeb's death (1707) → Muhammad Shah's accession (1719) → Nadir Shah's invasion (1739) → Muhammad Shah's death (1748) → Third Battle of Panipat (1761).
  • Trap: the invader of 1739 was Nadir Shah (Persian), not Ahmad Shah Abdali (Afghan).

Mains Points

  • A symptom, not a cause: Nadir Shah did not destroy a healthy empire. He exposed one that was already hollow inside.
  • The treasury had been emptied by Aurangzeb's wars [1][2].
  • Nobles could not be controlled [2], and the jagir crisis had set them against each other [1].
  • The court was split by faction fights [2].

  • The invasion then sped up a break-up that had already begun [2]. Use this point in "external shock vs internal decay" questions, and argue that the structural causes came first.

  • Consequences for the political map: the sack of Delhi destroyed Mughal prestige and money. Provincial rulers (Awadh, Bengal, Hyderabad) then acted more freely. The Marathas moved into north India after 1748 [2], and the north-west was left open to Abdali's raids. Mughal decline and the rise of regional states were one process.

  • Wider pattern of north-west invasions: like Timur in 1398 and Abdali after 1748, Nadir Shah came through the north-west passes and Punjab. Each time, a weak centre at Delhi and an unguarded frontier invited the attack. This shows how defending Punjab was tied to the survival of whichever power held Delhi.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1India — Aurangzeb, Mughal Empire, Subcontinentbritannica.com · tier 3
  2. 2Mughal Dynasty | Declinebritannica.com · tier 3