Babur

Etymology

                              He was born as Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muḥammad (Persian: ظهیرالدین محمد‎), but was more commonly known by his nickname, Bābur (بابر). He had the royal titles Padshah and al-ṣultānu 'l-ʿazam wa 'l-ḫāqān al-mukkarram pādshāh-e ġāzī.^[4] Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muḥammad ("Defender of the faith") was an Arabic name and difficult to pronounce for the Central Asian Turko-Mongols, therefore the name Babur was adopted.^[5] According to Babur's cousin, Mirzā Muḥammad Haydar:

[...] at that time the Chaghatái (successors of Chagatai Khan who was son of Genghis Khan) were very rude and uncultured (bázári), and not refined (buzurg) as they are now; thus they found Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad difficult to pronounce, and for this reason gave him the name of Bábar. In the public prayers (khutba) and in royal mandates he is always styled 'Zahir-ud-Din Bábar Muhammad,' but he is best known as Bábar Pádisháh.^[6]

According to Stephen Frederic Dale, the name Babur is derived from the Persian word babr, meaning "tiger", a word that repeatedly appears in Firdawsī's Shāhnāma^[7] and had also been borrowed by the Turkic languages of Central Asia.^[8][9] This thesis is supported by the explanation that the Turko-Mongol name Timur underwent a similar evolution, from the Sanskrit word cimara ("iron") via a modified version *čimr to the final Turkicized version timür, with -ür replacing -r due to need to provide vocalic support between m and r. The choice of vowel would nominally be restricted to one of the four front vowels (e,i, ö, ü per the Ottoman vowel harmony rule), hence babr → babür, although the rule is routinely violated for words of Persian or Arabic derivation.^[10]

Contradicting these views, W.M. Thackston argues that the name cannot be taken from babr and instead must be derived from a word that has evolved out of the Indo-European word for beaver, pointing to the fact that the name is pronounced bāh-bor^[11] in both Persian and Turkic, similar to the Russian word for beaver (бобр – bobr).

Babur: The Founder of Mughal

Babur

                        

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur (14 February 1483 – 26 December 1530; sometimes also spelt Baber or Babar) was a conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynastyin the Indian Subcontinent and became the first Mughal emperor. He was a direct descendant of Timur, from the Barlas clan, through his father, and also a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. Culturally, he was greatly influenced by thePersian culture and this affected both his own actions and those of his successors, giving rise to a significant expansion of thePersianate ethos in the Indian subcontinent.^[2][3]

Maharana Pratap

Legacy

Most important of Pratap Singh's legacy was in the military field – after Haldighati, he increasingly experimented and perfected guerrilla warfare and light horse tactics. His innovative military strategy- use of scorched earth, evacuation of entire populations along potential routes of enemy march, poisoning of wells, use of mountain forts in Aravallis, repeated plunder and devastation of enemy territories along with harassing raids on enemy baggage, communications and supply lines- helped him recapture most of Mewar by time of his death and enabled him to successfully tackled vastly stronger armies of Akbar. Harassing warfare perfected by Pratap Singh would in due course was adopted by Malik Ambar of Ahmednagar ^{[23][page needed]} who taught and deployed local Marathas to fight invading Mughal armies, thus preparing them for future warfare against Mughals.

Maharana Pratap

Final days

 Pratap died of injuries sustained in a hunting accident ^[14] at Chavand, which served as his capital,^[15][16] on 19 ^[17] January 1597, aged fifty-seven.^[18] A chhatri, commemorating Pratap's funeral, exists at Chavand and is an important tourist attraction.^[19] It is recorded in historical annals that as he lay dying, Pratap made his son and successor, Amar Singh, swear to maintain eternal conflict against the Mughals.^[20] Amar Singh fought 17 wars with the Mughals. Since other Rajput states in Rajasthan had submitted to Akbar, Mewar was fighting alone. In due course Mewar kingdom was depleted financially and in man-power. After much convincing from his core commanders Amar Singh conditionally accepted Mughals as rulers. The subsequent treaty between Amar Singh and Mughal King Jahangir had some obligations that fort of Chittor would not be repaired and Mewar would have to keep a contingent of 1000 horsed in the Mughal service.^[21] Besides Amar Singh would not have to be present at any of the Mughal Darbars.^[22] At Amar Singh's laying down of arms many members of Maharana Pratap's family of Sisodias, band of loyal Rajputs became disillusioned by the surrender and left Rajasthan. This group included Rathores, Deora Chauhans, Pariharas, Tanwars, Kacchwaha and Jhalas. They are called Rors and settled mostly in Haryana, with some in Uttar Pradesh.

Maharana Pratap

Aftermath

Maharana Pratap retreated into the hilly wilderness of the Aravallis and continued his struggle. His one attempt at open confrontation having thus failed, Pratap resumed the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Using the hills as his base, Pratap continued small raids and skirmishes.

During Pratap's exile, he received much assistance from Bhamashah, a trusted general and aide of Pratap, who along with his brother Tarachand looted Mughal territory of Malwaand offered this large loot to Pratap to carry on his fight against Mughal.^[9] Bhamashah was promoted to post of Prime Minister after this by Pratap.^[9]

With the large booty at his disposal, Pratap organized another attack and Battle of Dewar followed in which army of Mewar was victorious and Pratap was able to claim back much of the lost territories of Mewar and freed much of Rajasthan from the Mughal rule .^[9] The Bhil tribals of the Aravalli hills provided Pratap with their support during times of war and their expertise in living off the forests during times of peace.^[10]

Maharana Pratap

Battle of Haldighati

                                              On June 21, 1576 (June 18 by other calculations), the two armies met at Haldighati, near the town of Gogunda.

Pratap's army had a contingent of Afghan warriors led by his commander, Hakim Khan Sur. A small army of the Bhils, whom the Rana had befriended, also joined the battle against the Mughals. On the other hand, the Mughal forces led by Raja Man Singh boasted of numerical superiority, which vastly outnumbered the Rajputs.

At first, the Rajputs by their sheer bravery of orchestrating a full frontal attack took the Mughals by surprise. However, the numerical superiority of the Mughals and the efficiency of their artillery soon began to tell. Seeing that the battle was favoring the opponents and with the huge amount of death of soldiers on the Rajput side, Pratap's generals prevailed upon him to flee the field so as to be able to fight another day. Myths indicate that to facilitate Pratap's escape, one of his lieutenants, a member of the Jhala clan, donned Pratap's distinctive garments and took his place in the battlefield. He was soon killed. Meanwhile, Pratap was able to successfully evade captivity and escape to the hills.

It is said that Shakti Singh, Pratap's brother, who was fighting from side of Mughals, came to Pratap's side at this time and gave him his horse Chetak,who had three legs, to escape. He also killed two Afghan horse riders, who had followed Pratap to the spot.^[7][8]

The battle of Haldighati has commanded a lasting presence in Rajasthani folklore, and the persona of Pratap Singh, is celebrated in a folk song “O Neele Ghode raa Aswaar” [1](O Rider of the Blue Horse)

Maharana Pratap

Conflict

                               

Nearly all of Pratap's fellow Rajput chiefs had meanwhile entered into the vassalage of the Mughals. Even Pratap's own brothers, Shakti Singh andSagar Singh, served Akbar. Indeed, many Rajput chiefs, such as Raja Man Singh of Amber (later known as Maharaja of Jaipur) served as army commanders in Akbar's armies and as members of his council. Akbar sent a total of six diplomatic missions to Pratap, seeking to negotiate the same sort of peaceful alliance that he had concluded with the other Rajput chiefs. Each time, however, Pratap politely refused to accept Akbar's suzerainty, arguing that the Sisodia Rajputs had never accepted any foreign ruler as their overlord, nor will he. It is worth noting that both these rulers' grandfathers, Rana Sanga andBabur, had previously fought against each other. Thus the enmity was not only political, but was also a bit personal.