Question

How did Babur establish the Mughal Empire?

Answer 1

1. Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur, born in AD 1483 and a descendant of Timur on his father’s side and Genghis Khan on his mother’s, began his career in Central Asia, succeeding his father at age eleven, briefly capturing and losing Samarkand, and then seizing Kabul in 1504, which became his power base.
2. Taking advantage of the political fragmentation of northern India and an invitation from Daulat Khan Lodhi, Babur marched into Hindustan and decisively defeated the Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, after which he assumed control of Delhi and Punjab and proclaimed himself the “Emperor of Hindustan,” thereby laying the foundation of the Mughal state.
3. To secure and expand this new foothold, he fought and defeated the powerful Rajput confederacy under Rana Sanga at the Battle of Khanwa, and captured strategic strongholds such as Mewat and Gwalior, actions that removed major rivals and consolidated Mughal authority in central and northern India.
4. After these military victories Babur chose to remain and strengthen administration and control over the territories he had won, setting the institutional and territorial base from which the Mughal Empire later to endure for over three centuries, would grow under his successors.