The Saga of Mughal Battles

The Saga of Mughal Battles

Taj With Guide

Mughal emperor Babur was not a much-acclaimed crusader at his home turf and in fact he is more remembered as a loser of Ferghana who had come all the way to India leading a small army in pursuit of riches, the riches which he had only heard. Leading a small army of just 10,000 warriors he wrote a saga of victory against the might of Rajput warrior Rana Sangha.

What were the reasons for the grand success of the invading Mughals? The answer to this question is not a simple one. On one hand, the Mughal army in comparison was better motivated. At times even religion was used to motivate them and the struggle was branded as a holy war.

Mughals also brought new technology to India. The gun powder invented in China in the 7th century changed the way of the battles which were to be fought in India. Since ages, the Indian armies revolved around the concept of battle elephants. These huge mammals well dressed in armour broke havoc in the opposing camps while earlier the invading armies were terrified to see hundreds of battle-ready elephants on their adversary. While you come for Taj Mahal Tour your Agra tour guide will narrate to you the success stories of Mughal battles along with the architecture of the Mughal buildings.

This time when the guns of Babur boomed on the battlefield of Panipat, the elephants in the army of Ibrahim Lodhi got terrified by the noise of the booming guns and started running hither and thither from the battlefield thus disarraying all the conceived battle plans.

Another one single point which differentiated the Mughal armies from the opponents was the use of Mughal Kamaan a form of “Mongolian composite bow”. The Mughal horseman while riding their horses were versatile archers. Their Mughal Kamaan was good enough to hurl a barrage of deadly arrows on their opponents. In fact, Rana Sangha the opponent of Babur, Hemu the opponent of Akbar and Jaimal Fatta were all consumed by the deadly blow of archers. You will hear the tales of Mughal arches from the Agra Tour Guide during your Delhi Agra Tour. The Mughal horse-riding archers were as deadly as modern army personnel donning an assault rifle. Mongolian Bow is even today a prized possession. Though large matchlocks were used the matchlock was cumbersome equipment taking a lot of time to load and they were not very accurate either.

Sword making was a very guarded profession and steel from Damishk (Damascus) was used to make. The swords were used for close quartered fights by the Mughal infantrymen. During your One Day Delhi Tour, you can visit the National Museum and have a look at the various swords of the Mughals. There was various kind of swords in use, most often they used “shamsheer” which is a typical curved sword. In contrast to the large pieces of artillery, they also used small guns called “Zamburroas’ very effectively against the enemies.


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