Babur was born in the year 1483 to Umar Shaikh
Mirza and Kutlugh Nigar Khanum. He comes from the Barlas tribe of Mongol origin
but they are Turkish in language and customs through living for a long time in
Turkish regions. From his father’s side Babur was the 5th in
succession from Taimur and 13th
on the mother’s line to Chenghiz Khan. They come from the clan of Chagatai
which was originally Mongol but was later got influenced by the Turkish
culture.
Babur’s real name was Zahiruddin Mohammed but
he later acquired the nickname Babur. His father Umar Shaikh Mirza ruled the
kingdom of Fergana to the North of the Hindukush mountain ranges. They are
called Timurids as the dynasty was established by Timur. Timur’s father spent
his whole life trying to conquer Samarkhand ( Uzbekistan) which was earlier Timur’s capital. Babur
followed his father’s footsteps.
For 10 years Babur sought to recover Samarkand
and occupied it twice before losing it twice. His opponent was Mohammed
Shaibani Khan the ruler of Uzbegs and a descendant of Chenghiz Khan. He
defeated Babur and Babur lost both the Principalities of Samarkand & Fergana.
His 3rd and last unsuccessful attempt on Samarkand also failed and made
him concentrate more on the East on Sindh and India.
There was a fierce fight between the Timurids
and the Uzbeks and Shaibani Khan had killed many princes related to Babur. There
were also internecine wars between the Timurid’s themselves for ascendancy.
When Babur made his first raid into Punjab in
1519 all the territory of that province was under Ibrahim Lodi and it was being
governed by his vassal Daulat Khan Lodi who resented Ibrahim Lodi. Till 1524
Babur raided the Punjab but could not annex it. Babur’s help was sought by Alam
Khan Ibrahim Lodi’s uncle as well as Daulat Khan Lodi to subdue Ibrahim Lodi.
Before arriving at Panipat Babur had to defeat
other Afghan princes. Finally Babur confronted Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in the
year 1526 about 80 Km from Delhi. Babar had only 12000 troops while Ibrahim
Lodi had 100,000 men and 100 war elephants. But Babur had acquired new
artillery and muskets from the Ottoman Turks and Ibrahim Lodi had none. So the
artillery barrages have demoralized and defeated the enemy. Many of Ibrahim
Lodis soldiers were killed by the trampling of his terrified elephants due to
the sound of gunfire. Ibrahim Lodi was killed in the battle. Babar took Delhi
in 3 days’ time.
Babur may have defeated Ibrahim Lodi, but
powerful foes surrounded him in India. All down the Ganges river were many formidable
Afghan chiefs and to the South were the Kingdoms of Malwa and Gujarat.
Rana Sanga managed to unite all the Rajputs
under him and they were a formidable enemy. Rana Sanga now advanced with an
army of 100,000 horses and 500 elephants. Rajput valour was also known to
Babur’s forces and they got discouraged. To lift their sagging morale Babar has
proclaimed abstinence from drink broke his drinking cups and emptied out all
his wine on the ground and prayed God to give him victory.
Rana Sanga was a very fierce warrior. He is respected
by all the Rajput chiefs and is at home in battle and his valour and
fearlessness was well known. His entire body was criss crossed with 56 scars
which he had acquired in his other battles. He also became blind in one eye and
had also lost a hand in other battles. When he led the army into the battle of
Khanwa he was sitting on his war elephant. Obviously when his elephants
panicked on account of gunfire from Babar’s guns he too must have been thrown
down from the elephant. He was killed in
the battle.
The battle took place at Khanwa about 60 Km
from Agra in 1527 AD. Babur’s artillery played havoc with the elephants of Rana
Sanga. On top of that Sardar Silhadi of Raisen who was sent to Babar’s camp for
negotiations before the battle walked over to Baber’s side. Either way the battle
was not easy to win for Babur and was much tougher than Panipat. As waves of
Rajputs attacked, they were mowed down by the muskets of Babur’s men. The
Rajputs despite having a big numerical superiority could therefore do nothing
but mount attack after attack and get mowed down. The chaos was further
heightened by the panic of the elephants.
On top of that Sikandar Lodi whom the Afgans
proclaimed as the new Sultan after Ibrahim Lodi’s death has also joined Rana
Sangha with a contingent of horsemen. Khanzada Hasan Khan, the ruler of Mewat, another
Afghan chief also joined Rana Sanga with his troops. Babur declared the Afghans
who joined Rana Sangha as kafirs.
So this was actually a Rajput Afghan alliance
fighting Babur. As you can see religion was never a factor in this battle. The
Rajputs opposed Babar, but so did the Afghans. Moreover the Afghans were
declared as kafirs by Babur because they joined the Rajputs. In Babur’s home
territory too it was the Muslim Uzbegs who fiercely opposed him and gave him no
peace.
After Khanwa, Babar took the Rajput fort of
Chanderi to bring down Rajput resistance and turned East to take care of the
Afghan chiefs along the river Ganges. They grouped under Mohammed Lodi but were
defeated at the battle of Ghagra in the year 1529, the artillery again playing
a key role.
Now what actually happened for the Indian
troops at these battles was that they were simply outmatched on technology.
Indians knew about guns before the arrival of Babur but they used them only for
defending the forts and not for battle attack. So they had no answer to Babar’s
artillery and lost the battles before they began.
Babur did not have time to consolidate the
Empire he won. In fact it was not yet an empire but merely a conglomeration of
many kingdoms whose kings were subdued by Babur without any façade of unity. In
1530 Humayun, Babar’s favourite son fell ill and his condition became serious.
Babur then prayed and offered his life to God in exchange of Humayun’s. After that Humayun recovered
and Babur fell ill and died in the same year.
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