HistoriCity: How Mughals conquered riverine Bangladesh

NBetimes 2 years after a nationwide resist social movement ousted east pakistan’s former leadership– amid violence that claimed nearly 1,400 lives– the country once again witnessed a dramatic political reversal, as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) returned to power after two decades. Landslide mandates after prolonged unrest are not unfamiliar in Bangladesh’s past. More than four centuries earlier, another sweeping transfer of authority reshaped the region: the Mughal conquest of undivided Bengal.The Mughal rule over the region, spanning roughly from 1574 to 1612, represents one of the most consequential episodes in the pre-colonial history of South Asia. What began as a military campaign against the Afghan Karrani dynasty culminated in the transformation of a modest riverside settlement– Dhaka– into one of the most prosperous provincial capitals of the early modern world.Bengal before the MughalsAs Richard Eaton points out in The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760, the Mughal conquest of Bengal did not occur at once. Though the imperial forces’ arrival in the Bengali capital in September 1574, seemed to signal a definitive triumph, the subjugation of the region was far from complete. The campaign had begun in 1537 during emperor Akbar’s time, and continued until 1612, unfolding over nearly three-quarters of a century.He goes on to characterise the region as a “frontier zone”, moving according to its “own dynamics: the Sanskritic frontier by the growth of Buddhist- or Brahman-ordered communities; the political frontier by the force of arms and the articulation and acceptance of the Muslim regime‘s legitimate authority; the agrarian frontier by the twin processes of riverine movement and colonisation; and the Islamic frontier by the gradual incorporation of indigenous communities into a Muslim-oriented devotional life”. This would be a reality the Mughals would confront repeatedly over four decades of campaigning.Also Read:HistoriCity: Public finance and taxes in early Indian historyBefore Mughal intervention, undivided Bengal was ruled by the Afghan Karrani dynasty, established by Taj Khan Karrani (r. 1564-1565), which consolidated its authority in the mid-sixteenth century after the decline of the Sur Empire. From their capital at Tanda, the Karrani sultans governed a prosperous kingdom along the Bay of Bengal, promoting extensive trade networks that connected the region to wider Asian markets. Bengal’s agricultural abundance, commercial importance, and distinct political identity made it both an appealing and formidable target for outside powers. Under Karrani rule, the region remained relatively stable, with sustained economic growth and cultural patronage.The Karrani’s had acknowledged Akbar’s authority, and regularly remitted money to his court. This arrangement, however, had unraveled after the death of Sultan Sulaiman Karrani in 1573; his son Daud Khan ascended the throne and thereafter had coins minted and the khutba read in his name, asserting his sovereignty. In a move that further sought to challenge Mughal authority, he besieged Zamaniya-- a frontier stronghold of Akbar. To do this he possessed formidable military resources: commanding an infantry which was 140,000 strong, a cavalry of 40,000, 20,000 artillery pieces, over 3,500 elephants and hundreds of war boats.The Mughal attack Preoccupied at the time with conquests in Gujarat and against the Rajputs, Akbar initially sought to deal with the situation remotely; in 1574 he instructed Mun‘im Khan, the governor of Jaunpur, to march against Daud. Khan advanced to Patna, but instead of engaging in a confrontation, opened a discussion and sought to settle a peace agreement. When the settlement fell through, Khan was ordered to attack Daud’s forces.Demoralised and reluctant to engage, the Afghan forces retreated as far as their capital at Tanda, which they surrendered without resistance. When Mun‘im Khan entered the city in triumph in September 1574, it marked the effective beginning of Mughal rule in Bengal.An Unfamiliar Terrain and the Strategy of WarThe Mughals employed terror tactics, reportedly erecting eight tall minarets filled with the skulls of their slain enemies as a grim warning. As Eaton points out, such extreme violence, however, was not the norm. Hampered by difficult jungle terrain that immobilized their cavalry and faced with troops weary of campaigning far from home, the Mughals more often relied on bribery, negotiation, strategic displays of power, and the deliberate encouragement of factional divisions among their opponents rather than sustained brute force.Further, as Atul Roy Chandra notes in A history of Mughal Navy and Naval Warfares “the cavalry, hitherto the mainstay of the Mughal army, proved practically useless in traversing the numerous rivers and streams of South-eastern Bengal… above all, the Mughals (in their initial stage of conquest in Bengal) were weak in war-boats, the only effective instrument of war in Bengal and weaker still in trained soldiers and they had to depend on the war-boats of their allies and vassal zamindars. Moreover, prolonged rains and floods in the rivers made it absolutely impossible for any military campaign without a strong fleet”.The Founding of Mughal DhakaTo steady the situation on the ground, in 1594 Akbar dispatched the Rajput chieftain and amongst his most trusted generals, Raja Man Singh of Amer (Jaipur) as the governor of Bengal, who proceeded to establish Rajmahal, located at the northwestern corner of the Ganges delta, as the capital of the region. Subsequently, Singh founded Dhaka as the centre of ongoing military operations in the east. Soon, as Eaton says, “it would be Bengal’s premier city”. This was a strategic decision for Dhaka, along with other sites that had constituted the city’s “ancient forts”.Also Read: HistoriCity| Bringing the Buddha home: The Piprahwa relicsUnder the Mughals, Dhaka transformed from a riveting settlement into a major maritime trading post and commercial city, known primarily for rice, cotton and silk cultivation. So renowned was this textile that in Central Asia fine muslin came to be known simply as Dāka which was a testament both to Bengal’s political integration with the north, and to its access to markets across and beyond the subcontinent. As Portuguese traveler Sebastien Manrique (1640), “most of the cloth is made of cotton and manufactured with a delicacy and propriety not met with elsewhere. The finest and richest muslins are produced in this country, from 50 to 60 yards long and 7 to 8 handbreadths wide, with borders of gold and silver or coloured silks. So fine, indeed, are these muslins that merchants place them in hollow bamboos, about two spans long, and thus secured, carry them throughout Carazane [Khurasan], Persia, Turkey, and many other countries.”(HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal.)