Mughal Rule in Andhra Pradesh

The Mughal Rule

Aurangazeb, the Mughal emperor, invaded Golconda in A.D.1687 and annexed it to the Mughal empire. When this was done, Golconda became part of the Deccan Subha and a Nazim was appointed as an agent of the Mughal emperor. Thus, for about a period of 35 years it was ruled by Nazims, the last one being Mubariz Khan.

The period between A.D.1687 and A.D.1724 saw several sea changes. Aurangazeb died in A.D.1707. The administrative machinery of the Mughal imperial regime began to crumble and the central authority manned by successive feeble rulers gradually lost control over the provinces. In Deccan, situated far away from the capital, the state of affairs was still worse. This anarchy contributed much in giving a new turn to Indian history. It enabled two foreign mercantile companies to consolidate themselves as political powers capable of subsequently playing decisive roles in shaping the destiny of the nation. They were the East India Company of England and the Compagnie de Inde Orientale of France. These trading companies had their headquarters at Madras and Pondicherry respectively and both had trade centres at Machilipatnam. They were waiting for suitable opportunities to expand their areas of control and so, did not hesitate to take sides in the local skirmishes.

The Mughal documents preserved in Andhra Pradesh State Archives are the official records of the Regional Headquarters of the Mughal Empire at Aurangabad. In 1916 Maulavi Muhibbuddin, Accountant General of Hyderabad discovered the records which were lying in the ‘Ark fort at Aurangabad. He reported to Sri Syed Khurshid Ali who was the then superintendent of Daftar-i-Diwani. Immediately, they were shifted to Daftar-i-Diwani in Hyderabad. All the papers relating to the reigns of Shahjahan (1626- 1658 A.D.) and Aurangzeb (1658 –1707 A.D.). The Mughal documents pertaining to the period of Shahjahan, in numbered about 5,000, whereas the documents of Aurangzeb reign more than 1,50,000. These documents show a graphic picture on various aspects of the Mughal mansabdari and Jagirdari system and administrative organization, military, revenue, social and diplomatic affairs of the Mughal Deccan etc..

The catalogues of Mughal documents of English summaries covering the periods of 1628-1668 has been compiled and published by Andhra Pradesh State Archives. Shahjahani catalogue “Mughal Archives” was first brought out in 1977. Again, eight volumes of Mughal Catalogues containing more than 26,000 documents of Ist to 9th regal year of Aurangzeb reign have been catalogued and published. Persian was the official language of the Mughal Empire and all the papers are in Persian, mainly in the shikasta script.