Babur & Humayun: Mughal Foundations

PT8.1.1 · Mughal Empire · Babur & Humayun

Babur: Background and the Road to India

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur (1483–1530 CE) was born on 14 February 1483 at Andijan in the Fergana Valley (present-day Uzbekistan). His lineage gave him a claim to the greatest empires of the known world: on his father's side he descended from Timur (Tamerlane); on his mother's side from Genghis Khan. Yet at twelve he inherited only the small principality of Fergana, and spent the next two decades in a gruelling contest for survival — losing and recapturing Samarkand twice, finally losing Fergana, and retreating to Kabul in 1504, which became his base for the next two decades.

From Kabul, Babur made five invasions of India between 1519 and 1526 CE, probing the northwest frontier and building alliances with disaffected Afghan nobles. The invitation to invade decisively came from three parties simultaneously: Daulat Khan Lodi (governor of Punjab, in rebellion against Ibrahim Lodi), Alam Khan Lodi (Ibrahim's uncle, a rival claimant), and Rana Sanga of Mewar (who expected to use Babur to defeat Ibrahim, then drive Babur back). None of these calculations proved correct.

Babur's Five Invasions of India (1519–1526)

First Battle of Panipat — 21 April 1526

The First Battle of Panipat was fought on 21 April 1526 between Babur's forces (estimated 12,000 men) and Ibrahim Lodi's army (estimated 100,000 men with 1,000 war elephants). The numerical disparity was enormous, but Babur's two tactical advantages were decisive.

The first was gunpowder artillery — Babur deployed field cannon (using Ottoman gunners Ustad Ali Quli and Mustafa) and matchlock firearms. These were almost entirely unknown in India in organised battlefield use. The cannon fire, particularly, terrified Ibrahim's war elephants, which stampeded backwards into their own infantry, creating chaos in the Lodi ranks. This was arguably the first major use of cannon in a pitched Indian battlefield and marked the beginning of the gunpowder era in Indian military history.

The second was the tulughma (or "flanking") tactic — a Central Asian cavalry manoeuvre inherited from Timurid-Mongol warfare. Babur divided his forces into a centre (qulb), left wing (jaranghol), right wing (baranghol), and advance guard (harawwal), with additional flanking divisions. As Ibrahim's massed army advanced frontally, Babur's cavalry wings wheeled outward to attack the Lodi flanks and rear simultaneously, encircling the larger force. Combined with the artillery disruption of the elephants at the front, the Lodi army was trapped, compressed, and destroyed.

Ibrahim Lodi was killed in the battle — the only Delhi Sultan to die fighting on the battlefield. His death ended the Lodi Sultanate and the 136-year history of the Delhi Sultanate as a continuous polity.

Battle of Khanwa — 17 March 1527

After Panipat, Babur faced a far more dangerous enemy: Rana Sanga (Sangram Singh) of Mewar, the most powerful Rajput ruler of the age, who had assembled a coalition of Rajput chiefs and Afghan nobles (including some Lodi remnants) that reputedly numbered over 100,000 men. Rana Sanga had originally invited Babur to defeat Ibrahim Lodi, expecting Babur to withdraw afterward as Timur had done in 1398. Instead, Babur had stayed and made himself Sultan of Delhi.

Many of Babur's own officers, far from Central Asia and facing a formidable Rajput army, wanted to retreat to Kabul. Babur responded with a famous speech, renouncing wine publicly, declaring jihad (giving his soldiers the motivation of holy war against "infidels"), smashing his wine vessels, and giving away his gold wine-cups to the poor — a calculated act of psychological leadership. The Battle of Khanwa was fought on 16–17 March 1527 near Fatehpur Sikri (Agra district). Once again, artillery and tulughma prevailed: Rana Sanga's army was decisively defeated.

Babur's Major Battles in India

By 1529, Babur had established Mughal control over the Indo-Gangetic plain from Kabul to Bihar. He died on 26 December 1530 at Agra, aged 47. His body was later moved to Bagh-e-Babur (Babur's Garden), Kabul — his final resting place, as per his own wish. He is NOT buried in India.

Baburnama — The World's First Modern Autobiography

The Baburnama (also called Tuzuk-i-Baburi) is Babur's autobiography, composed in the Chagatai Turkish language (the Eastern Turkic literary language of Central Asia). It is considered not only the primary historical source for Babur's life and campaigns but also one of the great works of world literature — the first true autobiography in the Islamic world and arguably the first modern autobiography anywhere in the world, predating Montaigne and Cellini.

The Baburnama covers Babur's life from age 12 (his inheritance of Fergana, c. 1494) to the year 1529, with some gaps in the manuscript. It is remarkable for its candour, literary quality, precise observations of nature (Babur was a trained botanist and wrote detailed botanical and zoological descriptions of India), and military analysis. It was translated into Persian by Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana (Akbar's minister, one of the Navratnas) as the Baburnama in Persian, and later into English by Annette Beveridge.

Humayun: Accession and Early Challenges (1530–1540)

Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun (1508–1556 CE) succeeded Babur in December 1530 at the age of 22. He inherited an empire that was barely consolidated — the Mughal hold over India rested on military superiority alone, without administrative infrastructure. Humayun faced three immediate challenges: his brothers (Kamran, Askari, Hindal — each holding large territories and armies in semi-independence), the Afghan chiefs who still controlled much of eastern India, and the rising power of Sher Khan Sur in Bihar and Bengal.

Humayun's early campaigns showed both ambition and poor strategic judgment. He took Kalinjar (1531) and raided Gujarat (1535, taking advantage of Bahadur Shah of Gujarat's conflict with the Portuguese), but failed to permanently secure either territory. Meanwhile, Sher Khan Sur was systematically building his power in Bihar and Bengal, defeating the Bengal Sultan Mahmud Shah and accumulating treasure that allowed him to build a powerful professional army.

Defeats to Sher Shah Suri: Chausa and Kannauj (1539–1540)

The decisive confrontation came in two battles that rank among the most significant reversals in Indian history.

Battle of Chausa — 26 June 1539

After a prolonged standoff on the banks of the Son river near Chausa (Bihar), Sher Khan launched a surprise night attack on Humayun's camp. Humayun escaped by swimming the Ganges, reportedly helped by a water-carrier named Nizam (who was rewarded by being made Emperor for a day — a detail UPSC has used in questions). This defeat was crushing — Humayun lost his artillery, his treasury, and much of his army. Sher Khan took the title Sher Shah after Chausa.

Battle of Kannauj (Bilgram) — 17 May 1540

Less than a year later, Humayun assembled a fresh army and met Sher Shah again at Kannauj (Bilgram) on the Ganges. Despite superior numbers this time, Humayun's army was again defeated — this time decisively and permanently. Humayun fled westward, beginning a fifteen-year exile. The Mughal Empire ceased to exist in India for fifteen years (1540–1555), replaced by the Sur Empire of Sher Shah.

Exile: Sindh, Rajputana and Safavid Iran (1540–1544)

Humayun's exile was a decade of extraordinary hardship and wandering. He fled through Sindh, was refused refuge by his own brother Kamran (who controlled Kabul and Punjab), and eventually crossed into Persia (Safavid Iran) in 1544, reaching the court of Shah Tahmasp I at Qazvin.

Shah Tahmasp received Humayun warmly but extracted a price: Humayun was required to convert nominally to Shia Islam and agree to introduce the Shia call to prayer (azan) in Kandahar if the Safavids helped him recover it. Humayun nominally complied. Shah Tahmasp provided him with a Safavid army of 12,000 men. With this force, Humayun retook Kandahar in 1545 and then Kabul in 1545, finally reuniting with his infant son Akbar (born in 1542 at Amarkot to Hamida Banu Begum during the exile).

Return, Reconquest and Death (1554–1556)

After Sher Shah's death in 1545 (killed by a gunpowder accident at Kalinjar), the Sur Empire fragmented under his successors (Islam Shah, then rapid succession of weak rulers). Humayun invaded India in 1554–55, advancing through Punjab. He defeated the last significant Sur claimant, Sikandar Sur, at the Second Battle of Sirhind on 22 June 1555, and retook Delhi and Agra. After fifteen years, the Mughal Empire was restored.

But Humayun had only six months to enjoy his restoration. On 26 January 1556, he fell down the steep stairs of his library at Sher Mandal, the octagonal tower at Purana Qila (Delhi), after hearing the call to prayer and rushing to kneel — catching his foot on his robe. He died from his injuries two days later, on 27 January 1556. He was 47 years old. His thirteen-year-old son Akbar, at Kalanaur in Punjab being tutored by Bairam Khan, was proclaimed Emperor.