Ahmed Shah was the founder of the Durani dynasty in Afghanistan. He was born in born 1724 and died in 1773, On the assassination of Nadir he proclaimed himself shah, and set about subduing the provinces surrounding his realm. Among his first acts was the securing of the famed Koh-i-noor diamond, which had fallen into the hands of his predecessor. He crossed the Indus in 1748, and his conquests in northern India culminated in the defeat of the Mahrattas at Panipat on the 6th of January 1761. Affairs in his own country necessitated his withdrawal from India, but he extended his empire vastly in other directions far beyond the limits of modern Afghanistan. He was succeeded by his son Timur. Research Ahmed Shah
Babur was the first Mogul Emperor of India. He was born in 1483 at Ferghana, Central Asia and died in 1530. He was born into a princely family of mixed Mongol and Turkishblood. Failure to recover his father's lands caused him to turn reluctantly south-east, for India seemed to present the last hope for his ambitions. Defeat of Ibrahim Lodi, the Afghan ruler of Delhi, at the battle of Panipat in 1526 initiated 200 years of strong Mogul rule in India. Having conquered much of northern India,
Babur ruled by force, lacking any civil administration. In addition to his military genius, he possessed a love of learning and wrote his own memoirs. Research Babur
The Maratha are a Hindu warrior people of western India who in the 17th and 18th centuries led a military revival against Muslimexpansion. The Maratha rose to prominence under the inspired leadership of Sivaji, who, after victories against the Moguls, established a Maratha kingdom in 1674. Their great age was the early 18th century when, after a temporary collapse, they benefited from Mogul decline to sweep over the north and central Deccan. They seemed poised for all-India mastery, but failure in 1761 of their bid to take Delhi (in the battle of Panipat) was followed by increasing internal disunity. Authority had passed from Sivaji's line to a Brahmin family based at Pune, who as hereditary peshwas struggled to hold the dissident chiefs together. Rivalry among these 'confederates', notably the Sindhia, Holkar, Bhonsla, and Gaekwar families, prevented a united stand against expanding British power. Research Maratha
Abbreviations
Research Ahmed Shah
