Document page
Pak Studies History IGCSEPDF 19
181 pagesrevision 46928
PDF 19
Page image rendered from the stored file at 110 dpi; it sharpens as you zoom. Outlines are placed from each region’s stored position on the page (596 × 842 pt).
readable
Source of this text: embedded text layer. The better of the embedded text and OCR is kept.
• The 1st armed invasion came from Persians when Nadir Shah Afshar attacked India in
1738-39 and because of the weak Mughal army, they captured the empire’s wealth. It was
only a successful plundering expedition.
• Nadir Shah Afshar came at the outskirts of Delhi defeated Muhammad Shah Rangilla’s
army in no time and cleverly took the crown jewel Koh-i-Noor from the emperor.
• In between 1747 and 1769, Afghans under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked
India for ten times. By 1749, he gained control of the Punjab and by 1756 he added Kashmir
and Multan to it.
• Mughal Empire was so weak that Shah Abdul Aziz has called Ahmad Shah Abdali to
protect from Marathas in 1761.
• Though they were able to attack India for no. of times, they could not consolidate their
victories and had to go back to Kabul.
• Mughal Empire reached to climax at the time of Aurangzeb.
• The empire was extended from Afghanistan in West to Assam in the East, and from
Kashmir in the North to Assam in the South.
• It was such a vast government that one emperor could not take control of the
administration.
• The vastness was the reason that Aurangzeb used Mansabdars to run the government at
distant places. But, Mansabdars used the soldiers they recruited for their own vested
interests.
• The far-off provinces i.e., Oudh, Bihar, Orissa, Deccan and Bengal declared
independence.
• Within 50 years after the death of Aurangzeb, Mughal Empire shrank to 100 miles in width
and 300 miles in length.
7. Mansabdari system
• ‘Mansab’ is an Arabic word which means ‘a post’, the one who holds it is called as
‘Masabdar’. Before Akbar there was no division of civil and military functions. The soldiers
had to fight a war as well as to do the duty of police.
• Akbar introduced this system in 1570 A.D.
• They were classified into 66 grades from (10)-lowest to (10,000)-highest and were to be
only appointed by a Royal decree though emperor can take advice.
• They had multiple responsibilities, firstly to maintain troops and other equipment such as
horses, camels, elephants, mules, crafts, etc.
• Secondly to act as a revenue personnel or judicial officer.
• They were paid a very handsome amount of money according to their ranks. But
sometimes they were also paid in Jagirs.
• The problem was that as soldiers were recruited by a mansabdar directly so they regarded
him as the real employer and so all loyalties were given to mansabdar instead of emperor.
Mansabar was already a powerful person in his territories with respect to manpower and
financial power. So he used the loyalties of these soldiers in gaining independence of distant
territories and ultimately led to weakness of Mughal empire.
Conclusively, it can be argued that spread of Marathan power was the main reason for the
decline of Mughal Empire because had Mughals able to befriend the Marathas, the process
of their decline could have been either avoided or slowed down.
6. Vastness of the Empire