The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c3: Preface
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c3
- Language
- English
Preface
v4.c3.1
THIS VOLUME was planned by Sir Wolseley Haig, whose serious illness unfortunately disabled him from editorial work on any of the material which he had received, and even from revising finally all the chapters to which his name is attached. Thus while Chapters III, IV and V were completed by him in final form and appear as he left them, Chapters IX, XII and XV have been re-written from his full notes.
v4.c3.2
In the preceding volume the history terminated, in the case of Delhi at 1526, and in the case of the other Muslim kingdoms of northern and southern India and of the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar at later dates between 1565 and 1600 which marked their extinction or definite stages in their history. The narrative is carried on here to the accession of Shāh ‘Ālam II, during whose nominal rule Delhi was to be included in British territory. As the volume deals primarily with Mughul India references to the European powers which obtained a footing in the country are incidental, and fuller accounts of their progress or varying fortunes will be found in Volumes V and VI.
v4.c3.3
Disappointed of his hopes to recover the seat of his ancestors in Central Asia Bābur had already raided India, when he was invited to penetrate farther, and succeeded in founding a new empire there owing to the mutual distrust of each other which characterised the Afghān chiefs in northern India, and to the superiority of his small but trained force. His son Humāyūn, whose character shows alternate energy and sloth, bravery and indecision, conquered areas and lost them during ten years, till he was driven into exile by Sher Shāh, the single Afghān ruler in India who could hold Afghāns together, and who had had practical experience of administration in lower grades. Sher Shāh’s early death and the incompetence of his successors led to Humāyūn’s return, but an accident cut short his life after a few months.
v4.c3.4
Akbar, succeeding as a boy to a much smaller area than his grandfather had held, left at his death an empire extending from Qandahār to the Bay of Bengal and from the Hindu Kush to the Deccan; and apart from mere territorial acquisition he had realised as none of his predecessors had done that successful government is bound up with consent by the governed as well as with domination by the ruler. His methods of administration remained the ideal throughout the Mughul period, though neglected or distorted, and some of them still survive. Political success too often feeds egotism, and in Akbar’s case illiteracy withheld restraint so that his religious speculations bred derision.
v4.c3.5
At his death reaction was certain and under Jahāngīr, whose temperament was artistic rather than practical and in whom generosity degenerated into self-indulgence, administration declined. For a time there was a revival under Shāh Jahān, whose success in India led him to attempt the traditional enterprise of his line for the recovery of Central Asia. But a century of life in India had produced Mughul princes disinclined for the rigours and solitudes to be endured north of the Hindu Kush and the effort failed.
v4.c3.6
Succession to Bābur and his descendants had not taken place without jealousy or open dispute, and Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān had each rebelled in his father's lifetime. The serious illness of Shāh Jahān kindled the smouldering envy of his four sons and war ensued from which Aurangzīb emerged successful, having killed or exiled his three brothers, and made his father a prisoner in the fort of Āgra, to survive there for eighteen years. Aurangzīb's reign falls into two periods. From 1658 to 1681 he remained in northern India, where his narrow-minded efficiency and religious intolerance caused the alienation of the warlike frontier tribes and destroyed the loyalty of the Rājputs to the empire which had been won by Akbar and maintained by Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān. Having, as he believed, subdued these discordant elements, he left for southern India to extinguish the remaining Muslim powers there and to quell the rising activities of the Marāthās. Success in the former enterprise increased his difficulties in the latter and after ceaseless strife his life ended with the limits of the empire extended, but its resources squandered and its army ruined, while in the north the Sikhs and Jāts were also showing rebellious tendencies.
v4.c3.7
Aurangzīb's dying efforts to prevent his sons from repeating the fratricidal war for which he had set them an example failed. His son Shāh ‘Ālam Bahādur defeated his brothers, but was old and tired and reigned only a few years. The Delhi empire now becomes the subject of contests between nobles who set up puppet rulers, establish a new hereditary rule of succession to public office, and carve out principalities for themselves which are independent of the emperor in all but name, and of which Hyderābād, Bengal, Oudh and Rohilkhand are the chief. The Marāthās, first enlisted by the Deccan kingdoms to oppose Jahāngīr's invading army, and gradually turning into a compact nation in their homeland, later engage in guerrilla expeditions beyond its limits. The Nizām of Hyderābād, to protect himself, diverts them against Delhi, and the Nawāb of Oudh rashly invites their assistance against his rival the Nawāb of Farrukhābād and thus brings them into the Dūāb. Weakened by the shattering raid of Nādir Shāh the Delhi empire cannot withstand them and they advance far into the Punjab. With a stable and effective administration at home their activities outside the Deccan are chiefly predatory till their military officers in Gujarāt, Mālwā and Nāgpur assume independence.
v4.c3.8
The story is ended in this volume by the temporary union of the disintegrating Muslim powers with the Afghān invader Ahmad Shāh Abdālī, who delivers a shattering blow to Marāthā pretentions at Pānīpat, while the Rājputs, who have also suffered, hold aloof, and Shāh ‘Ālam II succeeds to a shrunken territory, hemmed in by Hindu states on three sides and the new Rohilla and Oudh rulers on the other.
v4.c3.9
For the first time in Indian history the politics of Burma and India clash, largely owing to acts of piracy committed by Arakanese and refugees from Portuguese settlements. Chapter XVII also describes the separate dynasties which held power in Burma till Alaungpaya founded the latest.
v4.c3.10
For the revenue system of the Mughuls more information is available than was the case with their predecessors. Its importance justifies the allotment of a separate chapter, XVI. As in Volume III, the monuments are the subject of a chapter, XVIII, with numerous illustrations, including references to the buildings of Bījāpur, Khāndesh, Sind and the Rājputs dating from the Mughul period. Permission to reproduce Figs. 24 and 25 has been generously given by the authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Fig. 67 by the Archaeological Survey of India, which retains the copyright. Prints for the other plates were obtained from the following sources: Messrs Johnston and Hoffman, Calcutta: Figs. 7, 17, 37, 45, 46, 57, 61, 63, 83. Messrs Plâte, Ltd., Colombo: Figs. 18, 36, 44, 60, 62, 85. Messrs Bourne and Shepherd, Calcutta: Figs. 38, 43, 47, 52, 73, 86.
v4.c3.11
Sir Wolseley Haig’s scheme of transliteration in Volume III has been mainly followed though *hamza* has been more sparingly marked in words such as *ta’rīkh* and *Sha’n*, which are pronounced in India to-day as *tārīkh* and *Shān*. Names of places are usually spelt as in the *Imperial Gazetteer of India*, for which special enquiries were made to ascertain the correct modern vernacular form. That form was transliterated according to a uniform plan except in cases where official or English literary usage had established a corruption, such as Calcutta, Bombay or Cawnpore. The index contains a number of alternative forms, sometimes not used in the book, for names often spelt differently or for names newly identified in it.
v4.c3.12
Personal names cause greater difficulty. Those of Hindus are usually derived from Sanskrit, but in the modern vernaculars have assumed differing forms, so that a single Sanskrit name may have even more spellings in its modern dress than “Philip” has in the languages of Europe, and a still larger number of pronunciations. While names of Muslims are more regular an additional complication arises from the use of titles, especially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when we find a series of individuals each with the title of Khān Jahān or Fīrūz Jang, or on the other hand an individual bearing different titles in succession. In the text an attempt has been made to reduce confusion by using the appellation held for the longest period, while the index includes other titles and cross-references to them.
v4.c3.13
In rendering official designations into English it is desirable to avoid terms which have a specialised sense in European countries. This applies particularly to the term *jāgīr*, which appears as “assignment”. Many writers have translated it by “fief”, which is not appropriate for several reasons. The system is explained at pp. 455–456, and the reason for discarding the term “fief” is that the “assignment” of an official was always liable to change, was not hereditary, and was not necessarily within the area of the official’s jurisdiction. The largest administrative division of the empire (*sūba*) has been called a province, and the officer in charge (*sipāh sālār* or *sūbadār*) a viceroy. The term “commandant” represents the officer in executive charge of a smaller area (*Faujdār*) or of a fort (*qila‘dār*).
v4.c3.14
One of the maps has been adapted from a map in Volume III, and three are taken with small changes from maps in the *Cambridge Shorter History of India*. Map V has been redrawn, by permission of Messrs Longmans, from the map facing p. 152, *History of Burma*, by G. E. Harvey. Map VI has been specially prepared to show the more important places mentioned in the book.
v4.c3.15
The index is not exhaustive of all references to well-known places such as Āgra which are frequently mentioned, but it includes indications of important items concerning them.
v4.c3.16
Dates of the Hijra year have been converted into the Christian era by using New Style from 1583, when Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Christian calendar, though Britain did not adopt the new reckoning till 1752.
v4.c3.17
Acknowledgments are due to all the contributors to this volume for their readiness to co-operate in obliterating the differences which arise when the same series of events has to be dealt with by a number of writers and in all other matters connected with the book. Special assistance outside his own chapter has been received from Mr W. H. Moreland, C.S.I., C.I.E., and Sir Jadunath Sarkar undertook at very short notice Chapter XIII, which Sir Wolseley Haig had intended to write. I am also indebted to Sir Verney Lovett, K.C.S.I., for instructive criticism, and to Mr C. E. A. W. Oldham, C.S.I., Mr Ghulam Yazdani, Director of Archaeology, Hyderābād State, and to the late S. Ahmad Hasan, C.I.E., for throwing light on a number of obscurities. During the printing of the volume the University Press has given invaluable help to reconcile discrepancies and avoid blemishes.
v4.c3.18
*January* 1937