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Hello at its zenith the Mughal Empire stretch from Gujarat in the east to Bengal in the west from Lahore in the north

I'm addressing the south it covered the whole of present-day northern India Pakistan Afghanistan and Bangladesh

It became famous for the Taj Mahal the Koenua and the peacock throne in

1631 a Dutch naturalist Johannes Delight published his account of the vast empire

quote the nobles living indescribable luxury and extravagance caring only to indulge themselves whilst they can in every kind of pleasure

Their greatest magnificence is in their women's quarters for they marry three or four wives or sometimes more

But were they really the opulent despots of European imagination if so how did they maintain such a vast territory and to what extent was the success of the British Raj a

Legacy of the Mughal rule with me to discuss the Mughal Empire is Sanjay

Subramaniam professor of Indian history and culture at Oxford University

Susan strong curator in the Asian Department of the Victorian Albert Museum and Chandrika call lecturer in Imperial history at St Andrew's University

Sanjay the official date of the Empire are from 1526 to 1857 and throughout those 330 years a single lineage of

19 emperors rule the first of these was Babur can you tell us a little about him Babur was

a descendant of Timur of Tamer Lane and

of Tenghis Khan so he actually came from a lineage of

two great conquerors he spent the greater part of his life actually looking for a kingdom and

Started out from Central Asia spent a number of years wandering around and then eventually came to Kabul settled in Kabul for a while

And then in 1526 managed to conquer North India from an existent sultanate and

Live to rule that

Sultanate for about three years. So it was a very brief

period so far as he was concerned in India

...