Page:A Brief History of the Indian Peoples.djvu/136

 Bábar, 1482-1530.—When, therefore, Bábar the Mughal invaded India in 1526, he found it divided among a number of local Muhammadan kings and Hindu princes. An Afghán Sultan of the house of Lodi, with his capital at Agra, ruled over what little was left of the historical kingdom of Delhi. Bábar, literally 'the Lion,' born in 1482, was the sixth in descent from Timúr the Tartar. At the early age of twelve, he succeeded his father in the petty kingdom of Ferghána on the Jaxartes (1494); and, after romantic adventures, conquered Samarkand, the capital of Tamerlane's line, in 1497. Overpowered by a rebellion, and driven out of the valley of the Oxus, Bábar seized the kingdom of Kábul in 1504. During twenty-two years he grew in strength on the Afghán side of the Indian passes, till in 1526 he burst through them into the Punjab, and defeated the Delhi sovereign, Ibráhím Lodi at Pánípat. This was the first of three great battles which, within modern times, have decided the fate of India on that same plain of Pánípat, viz. in 1526, 1556, and 1761. Having entered Delhi, Bábar received the allegiance of the Muhammadans, but was speedily attacked by the Rájputs of Chitor. Those clans had brought all Ajmere, Mewár, and Málwá under their rule, and now threatened to found a Hindu empire. In 1527, Bábar defeated them at Fatehpur Síkri, near Agra, after a battle memorable for its perils, and for Bábar's vow in his extremity never again to touch wine. He rapidly extended his power as far as Múltán in the Southern Punjab, and Behar in the eastern valley of the Ganges. Bábar died at Agra in 1530, leaving an empire which stretched from the river Amu in Central Asia to the borders of the Gangetic delta in Lower Bengal.

Humáyún, Emperor, 1530-1556.—His son, Humáyún, suc-