The Later Mughal Emperors: India’s Decline (1707–1857)

The Later Mughal Emperors: India’s Long Decline (1707–1857)

When the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb died in 1707, he left behind the largest and richest empire India had ever known — and an exhausted one. Over the next 150 years, eleven emperors would sit on the throne in Delhi, and almost none of them would command the authority their ancestors had taken for granted. Historians group these rulers together as the “Later Mughals,” and their story is really the story of an empire’s slow unraveling: fratricidal wars of succession, kingmaker nobles who crowned and un-crowned emperors at will, breakaway governors who turned their provinces into private kingdoms, a catastrophic Persian invasion, and — waiting patiently in the wings the whole time — the British East India Company.

By the time the last of these eleven rulers, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was exiled from Delhi in 1858, the Mughal Empire that had once stretched from Kabul to the Deccan had shrunk, in practical terms, to the walls of the Red Fort.

An Empire in Twilight: Why the Mughals Declined After Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb’s own 49-year reign had already strained the empire nearly to breaking point. His decades-long wars in the Deccan drained the treasury and the army alike, and his religious and political policies alienated allies the Mughals had once relied on. His death in 1707 removed the last strong hand from the tiller — and in the 52 years that followed, eight emperors occupied the Delhi throne, none of them capable of steering the empire through its accumulating crises.

Provinces that had once answered to Delhi began governing themselves in all but name. In the Deccan, the noble Nizam-ul-Mulk carved out an independent state. In Bengal, Murshid Quli Khan did the same, and in Awadh (Oudh), Saadat Khan followed suit. The Afghan Rohilla chiefs established their own power base in Rohilkhand. Meanwhile the Marathas, having taken Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Malwa, and Gujarat, made the city of Pune their political capital and a genuine rival center of power.

Even so, the empire’s reputation and reach were substantial enough that its collapse took decades rather than years. That changed after 1737, when the Maratha general Bajirao I raided all the way to Delhi’s gates, and especially after 1739, when the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah sacked the Mughal capital itself. European trading companies were by now also maneuvering directly in Indian court politics. After 1740, the empire’s decline was no longer something historians can debate — it was plain for contemporaries to see.

Bahadur Shah I (1707–1712): The Last Mughal Worth Remembering

From Prince Muazzam to Emperor

Born Qutb-ud-Din Muhammad Muazzam on October 14, 1643, in Burhanpur, Bahadur Shah I was Aurangzeb’s second son. His mother, Nawab Bai, was the daughter of Raja Raju of Rajouri. Aurangzeb appointed him his representative in the Deccan and central India as early as 1663, and in 1683–84 Muazzam led a military campaign against the Marathas near the Portuguese-held territory of Goa, though he had to withdraw when the Portuguese failed to support him. In 1699, Aurangzeb named him governor (subedar) of Kabul.

Succession among Mughal princes was rarely peaceful. Aurangzeb’s most ambitious son, Akbar, had rebelled against his father and died in exile years before Aurangzeb himself passed away. That left just three surviving sons at Aurangzeb’s death on March 3, 1707, in Ahmadnagar: Muhammad Muazzam (the eldest, and governor of Peshawar), Muhammad Azam, and Muhammad Kam Bakhsh. Muazzam raced from Peshawar toward Agra and had himself crowned as “Bahadur Shah” on April 22, 1707, at a place called Pul-e-Shah north of Lahore.

A War of Succession

Bahadur Shah still had to fight his way to unchallenged power. He had already secured the backing of Budh Singh Hada of Bundi and Vijay Singh Kachhwaha of Amber, giving him substantial Rajput support. He met his brother Azam in battle at Jajau, near Samugarh, on June 12, 1707; Azam was killed there along with his sons Bidar Bakht and Wala Jah. Bahadur Shah then turned on his youngest brother, Kam Bakhsh, defeating him near Hyderabad on January 13, 1709; Kam Bakhsh died shortly afterward.

A Reign of Concessions

Once enthroned, Bahadur Shah rewarded his supporters with new titles and high office: Munim Khan became wazir (chief minister), Aurangzeb’s former wazir Asad Khan was made wakil-e-mutlaq (a senior advisory post), and Asad Khan’s son Zulfiqar Khan became mir bakhshi (paymaster-general and head of the military administration).

Bahadur Shah was 63 years old at his accession and, by most accounts, not up to the physical demands of active rule. He was so absorbed in leisure and so inattentive to state affairs that he earned the nickname “Shah-e-Bekhabar” — the emperor who didn’t know what was going on. His weakness opened the door to court intrigue, and the nobility split into two rival camps: the Irani faction, largely Shia and led by Asad Khan and his son Zulfiqar Khan, and the Turani faction, largely Sunni and led by nobles including Chin Qilich Khan (who would later found the independent state of Hyderabad as Nizam-ul-Mulk) and Firoz Ghaziuddin Jang.

An Uneasy Peace with the Rajputs

Bahadur Shah pursued reconciliation with the Rajputs. He defeated Ajit Singh, the Rajput ruler of Marwar, but then granted him a mansab (a rank denoting the troops a noble was obligated to maintain) of 3,500 and the title “Maharaja.” The peace didn’t last: the moment Bahadur Shah headed south to the Deccan, Ajit Singh, Durgadas, and Jai Singh Kachhwaha declared independence under the leadership of Amar Singh, the Rana of Mewar, forming a Rajput confederacy. Rather than fight a drawn-out war, Bahadur Shah chose to negotiate, ultimately recognizing their autonomy.

Conflict With the Sikhs

Bahadur Shah also found himself at war with the Sikhs. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Sikh Guru, had founded the Khalsa order in 1699 and had actually supported Bahadur Shah during the war of succession — but in 1708 the Guru was assassinated in Nanded, stabbed by an attacker. No successor Guru was named.

In his place, Banda Singh Bahadur rose as a powerful Sikh military leader who rallied Sikhs across Punjab and captured Kaithal, Samana, Shahabad, Ambala, Kunjpura, and Sadhaura. He defeated and killed Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor of Sirhind, declared himself “Sacha Padshah” (“the true king”), struck his own coinage, and moved toward establishing an independent Sikh state. Bahadur Shah laid siege to Sadhaura on June 26, 1710, forcing Banda to retreat to the fortress of Lohgarh — built by Guru Gobind Singh in the Himalayan foothills northeast of Ambala. After a hard-fought siege, Bahadur Shah recovered Sirhind in 1711. Despite his generally conciliatory instincts, he never won the Sikhs over, and Banda Singh Bahadur continued to trouble the Mughal state.

Alliances With the Bundelas and Jats

Bahadur Shah reconciled with the Bundela chief Chhatrasal, who became a loyal Mughal vassal, and cultivated a friendship with the Jat leader Churaman, who assisted Mughal forces in campaigns against Banda Singh Bahadur.

An Inconsistent Maratha Policy

Bahadur Shah’s Maratha policy was less coherent. He freed Shahu, grandson of Shivaji, who had been held at the Mughal court since 1689, made him ruler of Satara, and allowed him to return to Maharashtra. Shahu was a capable administrator who initially accepted Mughal overlordship — but once he appointed Balaji Vishwanath, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune, as his Peshwa (chief minister), Balaji’s son Bajirao I resumed raids into Mughal territory. Bahadur Shah had granted the Marathas “Sardeshmukhi” rights (a share of Deccan revenue) but withheld the right to collect “Chauth” (a further quarter-share tax) — a distinction that would matter greatly to his successors.

Bahadur Shah also made a lasting administrative error: he gave Zulfiqar Khan, already mir bakhshi, the governorship of the Deccan as well, concentrating two of the empire’s most powerful offices in one noble’s hands. Under his reign the office of wazir grew more prestigious, intensifying competition for the post. He suspended (though did not formally abolish) the jizya tax on non-Muslim subjects, and no temples were destroyed during his reign. He also revived royal patronage of music. In 1711, a Dutch mission led by Joan Josua Ketelaar arrived at the Mughal court; a Portuguese woman in the delegation, Juliana, played a significant diplomatic role and was honored with the title “Bibi Fidwi.”

Death and Legacy

Bahadur Shah I died on February 27, 1712, while overseeing the reconstruction of the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. He is buried in the Moti Masjid near the dargah of the 13th-century Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki in Mehrauli, Delhi, alongside two later emperors, Shah Alam II and Akbar Shah II. The historian Sidney Owen wrote that he was “the last king for whom some good could be said” — after him, the empire’s political collapse and the growing powerlessness of its emperors became impossible to disguise. In many ways, Bahadur Shah’s reign was the last real echo of Mughal grandeur.

Jahandar Shah (1712–1713): A Reign Ruled From the Wings

Four Brothers, One Throne

Bahadur Shah’s death triggered a war among his four sons — Jahandar Shah, Azim-ush-Shan, Rafi-ush-Shan, and Jahan Shah — beginning on March 14, 1712. The fighting was so intense and so shameless that Bahadur Shah’s body went unburied for a month. Azim-ush-Shan fought alone against his three allied brothers. In the end, with the backing of Zulfiqar Khan, leader of the Irani faction, Jahandar Shah prevailed and was crowned at Lahore on March 29, 1712, at age 51.

The Real Power Behind the Throne

Jahandar Shah rewarded Zulfiqar Khan with the post of wazir and a mansab of 10,000. Zulfiqar’s father, Asad Khan, kept his post as wakil-e-mutlaq with a mansab of 12,000 and was made governor of Gujarat; Zulfiqar himself retained the governorship of the Deccan as well.

An Emperor and His Favorite Dancer

Jahandar Shah proved an incapable, pleasure-seeking ruler. He bestowed the title “Imtiaz Mahal” on a court dancer, Lal Kunwar, and permitted her to travel with royal insignia — the imperial standard and ceremonial drums normally reserved for the sovereign. Contemporary chroniclers were unsparing: the historian Khafi Khan wrote that the new reign was a golden age for minstrels, singers, dancers, and performers, while the historian Iradat Khan simply called Jahandar Shah a “debauched fool.” Real administrative power rested with Zulfiqar Khan, who delegated day-to-day governance to his confidant, Subhag Chand.

Jahandar Shah pursued a friendly Rajput policy: Jai Singh of Amber was made governor of Malwa and given the title “Mirza Raja,” while Ajit Singh of Marwar received the title “Maharaja” and was made ruler of Gujarat. Zulfiqar Khan cultivated ties with Churaman Jat and Chhatrasal Bundela but continued a hard line against Banda Singh Bahadur. He also tried to shore up imperial finances by capping the growth of land grants (jagirs) and official appointments. The jizya tax was formally abolished under Jahandar Shah, but he also encouraged the “ijara” system — essentially revenue farming, in which contractors paid the state a fixed sum in exchange for the right to collect taxes. This gave the treasury predictable income, but it also let contractors squeeze peasants for whatever they could get, deepening rural hardship.

Downfall

Zulfiqar Khan’s efforts to expand the power of the wazir’s office alarmed the rest of the nobility, who began plotting against him. Farrukhsiyar, son of the slain Azim-ush-Shan, left Patna in 1712 alongside two brothers who would become famous — and feared — as Mughal kingmakers: Hussain Ali Khan, governor of Patna, and Abdullah Khan, deputy governor of Allahabad. Together they defeated Jahandar Shah’s army at the Battle of Samugarh, near Agra, on January 10, 1713. Jahandar Shah fled to Delhi hoping for shelter from Asad Khan, Zulfiqar’s father — but Asad Khan instead had him imprisoned in the Delhi fort. On February 12, 1713, Asad Khan and Zulfiqar Khan had Jahandar Shah killed.

Jahandar Shah was the first Timurid emperor to prove utterly unfit to rule — undone by a base and cruel character, weakness of will, and cowardice. Iradat Khan’s verdict on his reign became famous: it was, he wrote, a time when “the owl lived in the falcon’s nest, and the crow had taken the cuckoo’s place.”

Farrukhsiyar (1713–1719): Puppet of the Kingmakers

Farrukhsiyar — full name Abul Muzaffar Muin-ud-Din Muhammad Shah Farrukhsiyar — ruled from 1713 to 1719. Avenging his father Azim-ush-Shan’s death, he defeated and killed Jahandar Shah with the Sayyid brothers’ help, entered Delhi on February 12, 1713, and proclaimed himself emperor at the Red Fort. He never escaped his benefactors’ shadow: Sayyid Abdullah Khan Barha was made wazir with a mansab of 7,000 and the governorship of Multan, while his brother Hussain Ali Khan Barha became mir bakhshi with an equal mansab and the governorship of Bihar.

Victory Over the Sikhs, at a Brutal Cost

Farrukhsiyar’s reign saw the Mughals finally defeat Banda Singh Bahadur, the Sikh leader who had troubled the empire since 1708. After a prolonged siege, Banda was captured in December 1715 and executed in Delhi on June 9, 1716. The killing was carried out with deliberate cruelty, and it left lasting bitterness toward Mughal rule among Sikhs.

The English Embassy and the “Magna Carta” of Trade

In 1715, a British mission led by John Surman set out for India, reaching Farrukhsiyar’s court in 1717. The emperor happened to be suffering from a dangerous illness at the time, and a physician traveling with the delegation, Dr. William Hamilton, treated him successfully. In gratitude, Farrukhsiyar granted the East India Company sweeping trading privileges, including duty-free trade through Bengal. Historians still refer to this 1717 farman (royal decree) as the “Magna Carta of the East India Company,” since it laid much of the legal groundwork for the Company’s later commercial — and eventually political — expansion in India.

Falling Out With His Makers

Farrukhsiyar soon tired of the Sayyid brothers’ control and began plotting against them, but they proved the shrewder players. They secured Maratha support by granting the Marathas the right to collect Sardeshmukhi and Chauth in the Deccan — revenue rights earlier Mughal emperors had withheld. When Farrukhsiyar moved against Hussain Ali, the Sayyid brothers, backed by Maratha troops, seized him on February 28, 1719, and placed Rafi-ud-Darajat on the throne instead. Farrukhsiyar was killed on April 29, 1719.

Aftermath: Kingmakers at Their Peak

After Farrukhsiyar, the Sayyid brothers installed two young emperors in quick succession — Rafi-ud-Darajat and Rafi-ud-Daula — both of whom died within months. At this point the brothers’ power was unrivaled; no Mughal noble could escape their influence. Finally, in 1719, they placed a young prince named Roshan Akhtar on the throne. He would rule as Muhammad Shah.

Muhammad Shah “Rangila” (1719–1748): The Pleasure-Loving Emperor Who Watched an Empire Slip Away

A Reluctant King Under the Kingmakers’ Shadow

Muhammad Shah, born Roshan Akhtar, was the 14th Mughal emperor and reigned from 1719 to 1748. He was an ineffective ruler who spent much of his time on animal fights, courtesans, and wine — earning him the nickname “Rangila,” roughly “the colorful one” or “the pleasure-seeker.” As the Sayyid brothers’ dominance grew increasingly intolerable to the rest of the nobility, the Irani and Turani factions united against them, led by Muhammad Amin Khan and backed by Muhammad Shah himself and the queen mother, Qudsia Begum. On October 8, 1720, a conspirator named Haidar Beg stabbed Hussain Ali Khan Barha to death. Abdullah Khan, seeking revenge for his brother, proclaimed a rival emperor named Ibrahim and marched against Muhammad Shah, but his forces were defeated and he was captured at the Battle of Hasanpur in November 1720; he was killed shortly afterward. With that, the Sayyid brothers’ fifteen-year stranglehold on the throne was finally broken.

An Empire Fragmenting, Province by Province

In 1722, Muhammad Shah was recognized as a genuinely independent Mughal emperor — arguably the single notable achievement of his reign. It came too late to matter much: during his rule, Nizam-ul-Mulk laid the foundations of an independent state in the Deccan, Saadat Khan did the same in Awadh, and Murshid Quli Khan established near-total autonomy in Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. In the Ganges-Doab region, Rohilla Afghan chiefs carved out their own independent power as well.

The Maratha Raid on Delhi and the Treaty of Bhopal

In March 1737, the Maratha general Bajirao I besieged Delhi itself with a force of just 500 cavalry. Muhammad Shah reportedly hid inside the Red Fort rather than face him, and ordered Nizam-ul-Mulk, the Deccan’s governor, to intercept Bajirao. The Nizam, who had already been defeated once by Bajirao in 1728, welcomed the chance for revenge and surrounded Maratha forces near Bhopal — but Bajirao turned the tables, defeating both the Nizam’s army and the Mughal forces sent to support him. The 1738 Treaty of Bhopal that followed ceded the entire Malwa region to the Marathas.

Nadir Shah’s Invasion and the Sack of Delhi (1739)

The single most catastrophic event of Muhammad Shah’s reign came in 1739, when the Persian ruler Nadir Shah invaded India. Crossing the Hindu Kush, he defeated the governor of Peshawar and then routed Muhammad Shah’s army — reportedly well over 100,000 strong — at the Battle of Karnal, before capturing Delhi outright. Nadir Shah proclaimed himself Sultan and had the Friday sermon (khutba) read in his name, the traditional symbol of sovereignty.

When some of his soldiers were killed in unrest, Nadir Shah retaliated with a massacre and looting spree that left Delhi devastated. Estimates of the death toll vary, with historians commonly citing tens of thousands killed — figures in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 appear most often in scholarly accounts. Nadir Shah’s forces plundered the city of an almost unimaginable fortune, carrying off the Kohinoor diamond and Shah Jahan’s famous Peacock Throne among the spoils. The invasion accelerated Mughal decline dramatically and turned India, in the decades that followed, into an open arena for rival powers to fight over.

Muhammad Shah died in 1748. His son Ahmad Shah Bahadur succeeded him.

Ahmad Shah Bahadur (1748–1754): Crowned at Twenty-Two, Deposed and Blinded at the End

Ahmad Shah Bahadur (December 1725 – January 1, 1775) was the son of Muhammad Shah and inherited the throne in 1748 at age 22. By then the empire was already so politically and administratively weakened that court factions effectively ran the state. As a prince, Ahmad Shah had fought in the 1748 Battle of Manupur, a Mughal victory against an invasion by Ahmad Shah Durrani — but as emperor, he showed little administrative capacity of his own, and real power passed to competing court cliques. Chief among them were his mother, Udham Bai (given the title “Qibla-i-Alam”), and his favored courtier Javed Khan, whom he honored with the title “Nawab Bahadur.” Tensions grew between the wazir, Safdarjung, and rival factions, while the influence of a noble named Ghazi-ud-Din Imad-ul-Mulk expanded rapidly. In 1754, Imad-ul-Mulk deposed Ahmad Shah Bahadur outright, imprisoning both the emperor and his mother and having Ahmad Shah blinded. He spent the rest of his life in captivity, dying on January 1, 1775.

Alamgir II (1754–1759): A Name Recalling Former Glory, a Reign Without Power

The 16th Mughal emperor, Alamgir II reigned from June 3, 1754, to November 29, 1759. He was born Aziz-ud-Din on June 6, 1699, in Burhanpur, the son of Jahandar Shah and grandson of Bahadur Shah I. After Bahadur Shah I’s death touched off the 1712 war of succession, Aziz-ud-Din’s father, Jahandar Shah, briefly held the throne before being defeated and killed the following year by his cousin Farrukhsiyar. Aziz-ud-Din himself was later imprisoned by Imad-ul-Mulk in 1714 and remained a captive for four decades, until his release in 1754.

After deposing Ahmad Shah Bahadur that same year, Imad-ul-Mulk placed Aziz-ud-Din on the throne and gave him the regnal name “Alamgir II” — a deliberate echo of Aurangzeb’s own title, “Alamgir I,” meant to evoke the memory of centralized Mughal authority. The reality fell far short: actual power remained firmly with the wazir, Imad-ul-Mulk, while the emperor’s own position was extraordinarily weak. Maratha influence was expanding fast, and Ahmad Shah Durrani was once again invading from the northwest. In June 1757, the Battle of Plassey was fought in Bengal, opening the way for the East India Company’s political dominance there.

Imad-ul-Mulk allied himself with the Marathas to consolidate his own power and took direct control of imperial revenue, treating Alamgir II’s family harshly and trying to sideline his eldest son, Ali Gauhar. In October 1757, Alamgir II — working with loyal nobles and the religious scholar Shah Waliullah — opened contact with Ahmad Shah Durrani, who agreed to support the beleaguered emperor and arranged the marriage of his own son, Timur Shah, to Alamgir II’s daughter, Zuhra Begum. Imad-ul-Mulk, seeing the emperor as an increasing threat, had him lured out near Kotla Fateh Shah in November 1759 and murdered. Political instability deepened after his death, and Imad-ul-Mulk retained influence for a time, though Ali Gauhar had by then established his own base away from Delhi. In 1759 he proclaimed himself emperor as Shah Alam II.

Shah Alam II (1759–1806): Emperor in Exile, Then Ward of the British

Born Ali Gauhar, Shah Alam II was the 17th Mughal emperor and the son of Alamgir II. He was in Bihar, far from Delhi, when his father was murdered in 1759, and formally declared himself emperor in 1760. His reign saw the Mughal collapse accelerate sharply as the East India Company’s political power grew almost continuously.

In 1764, Shah Alam II allied with Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh, to confront the British at the Battle of Buxar — and lost. The 1765 Treaty of Allahabad that followed forced him to cede the diwani (the right to collect revenue and administer civil justice) of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha to the East India Company, making him effectively dependent on the Company from that point forward. In 1771, with help from the Maratha chief Mahadji Scindia, he returned to Delhi and lived under Maratha protection. In 1788, the Rohilla chief Ghulam Qadir seized Delhi, imprisoned Shah Alam II, and had him blinded — one of the most notorious atrocities of the era. When the British took control of Delhi in 1803, Shah Alam II spent his remaining years living under British protection until his death in 1806.

Akbar Shah II (1806–1837): A Sovereign Confined to the Red Fort

The 19th Mughal emperor, Akbar Shah II reigned from 1806 to 1837. He was the son of Shah Alam II and the father of Bahadur Shah Zafar. By his time, the emperor’s real political power had all but disappeared, limited in practice to the walls of the Red Fort in Delhi, while British influence continued to grow steadily. Akbar Shah II conferred the title “Raja” on the reformer Ram Mohan Roy and sent him to Britain as an envoy — a mission of real historical significance, since Ram Mohan Roy is widely regarded as a founding figure of modern Indian social reform. In 1835, the East India Company stopped minting coins bearing the Mughal emperor’s name — a small but symbolically enormous marker of how completely Mughal sovereignty had eroded, even in name. Akbar Shah II is also remembered for promoting “Phool Walon Ki Sair,” a Delhi festival celebrated as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim harmony.

Bahadur Shah II “Zafar” (1837–1857): The Last Mughal Emperor

Bahadur Shah II, better known by his pen name Zafar, was the last Mughal emperor of India. Born on October 24, 1775, in Delhi, he was the son of Akbar Shah II and ascended the throne on September 28, 1837, following his father’s death. By this point, the Mughal Empire’s real authority had essentially vanished; Bahadur Shah Zafar’s influence was confined largely to the Red Fort and the royal court, while genuine political power lay entirely with the East India Company.

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 — known in India as the First War of Independence — mutinying soldiers who reached Delhi proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar their emperor, and he lent the uprising symbolic leadership, though he held no real military command over it. After British forces recaptured Delhi, he was arrested, tried, and exiled to Rangoon (present-day Yangon, Myanmar), where he died on November 7, 1862.

Beyond politics, Bahadur Shah Zafar was a celebrated Urdu poet who wrote ghazals (a classical form of lyric poetry) under the pen name “Zafar.” His court patronized some of the greatest poets of the era, including Mirza Ghalib and Sheikh Ibrahim Zauq. His life — poet-emperor, figurehead of a doomed rebellion, and exile who died far from home — has come to symbolize both the final chapter of the Mughal Empire and the definitive end of Mughal political authority in India.

Timeline: The Later Mughal Emperors at a Glance

The Bigger Picture: What the Later Mughals Reveal About Imperial Decline

Taken together, these eleven reigns trace a single, cumulative story of collapse. Each war of succession weakened central authority a little further. Emperors leaned on powerful court factions and kingmakers — the Sayyid brothers, later Imad-ul-Mulk — who treated the throne as something to be filled and emptied at their convenience. Provincial governors in the Deccan, Bengal, and Awadh quietly turned their administrative posts into hereditary kingdoms. Foreign invasions, first by Nadir Shah and later by Ahmad Shah Durrani, exposed just how little military strength remained behind the Mughal name. The Marathas and the Sikhs emerged as genuine rival powers in their own right. And into the vacuum left by all of this stepped the English East India Company — first as a trading concern with a useful farman, then as a political power broker, and finally, after 1803, as the force that actually ran Delhi in the Mughal emperor’s name. By 1857, that arrangement had nowhere left to go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What period do the “Later Mughal emperors” cover? The term generally refers to the eleven Mughal emperors who ruled between Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 and the exile of Bahadur Shah Zafar following the 1857 uprising — a period of roughly 150 years marked by steady imperial decline.

How many Later Mughal emperors were there? Eleven: Bahadur Shah I, Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi-ud-Darajat, Rafi-ud-Daula, Muhammad Shah, Ahmad Shah Bahadur, Alamgir II, Shah Alam II, Akbar Shah II, and Bahadur Shah II (Zafar).

Why did the Mughal Empire decline so quickly after Aurangzeb? A combination of factors: costly wars of succession after nearly every emperor’s death, growing reliance on court factions and kingmakers, provincial governors breaking away into near-independent states, devastating foreign invasions (especially Nadir Shah’s in 1739), and the rising political and military power of the East India Company.

Who was Bahadur Shah I? Aurangzeb’s second surviving son, Bahadur Shah I ruled from 1707 to 1712 after winning a war of succession against his two brothers. Historians generally regard him as the last Later Mughal emperor to wield genuine authority.

What happened during Nadir Shah’s invasion of Delhi? In 1739, the Persian ruler Nadir Shah defeated Muhammad Shah’s army at the Battle of Karnal and occupied Delhi. After an outbreak of violence against his troops, he ordered a massacre and mass looting of the city, carrying off treasures including the Kohinoor diamond and the Peacock Throne. The invasion is widely seen as a turning point that exposed the Mughal Empire’s military weakness to the world.

Who were the Sayyid Brothers? Sayyid Abdullah Khan and Sayyid Hussain Ali Khan Barha were powerful nobles who helped install Emperor Farrukhsiyar in 1713 and went on to dominate Mughal politics for more than a decade, deposing and installing several emperors — earning them a lasting reputation as history’s most notorious Mughal “kingmakers.”

Who was the last Mughal emperor, and what happened to him? Bahadur Shah II, known by his pen name Zafar, was the last Mughal emperor, reigning from 1837 to 1857. After rebel soldiers proclaimed him their leader during the 1857 uprising, the British exiled him to Rangoon (Yangon, Myanmar), where he died in 1862.

Suggested Images

1. Portrait of Bahadur Shah I — alt text: “Portrait of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah I, who ruled 1707–1712”
2. Historical painting depicting Nadir Shah’s 1739 sack of Delhi — alt text: “Illustration of Nadir Shah’s forces during the 1739 invasion of Delhi”
3. Painting or engraving of the Battle of Plassey (1757) — alt text: “Depiction of the Battle of Plassey, a turning point for British power in Bengal”
4. Portrait or photograph of Bahadur Shah Zafar — alt text: “Portrait of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor”
5. Map of the fragmenting Mughal Empire, circa 1750 — alt text: “Map showing the breakaway Mughal successor states in the mid-18th century”