MUGHAL MONARCHS
An Introduction to the Mughal Dynasty and Mughal Agra

The Mughal Dynasty is a line of Muslim emperors who reigned in India from 1526 to 1858. Babur, the first mughal emperor, was a descendant of the Turkish conqueror Timur on his father's side and of the Mongol (in Persian, mughal) conqueror Genghis Khan on his mother's side, Invaded India from Afghanistan and founded the Mughal Empire on the ruin of the Delhi Sultanate. From 1526, when Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the ruler of Delhi and established himself in neighbouring Agra, until 1638, when his great-great-grandson Shah Jehan built a new capital city in Delhi again, Agra was a repository for all the wealth and talent of one of the most extensive empires in the medieval world.
The many elements that led to the creation of the Taj Mahal had their roots in the reigns of earlier monarchs : 1) Babur, 2) Humayun, 3) Akbar, 4) Jehangir, 5) Shah Jehan, 6) Aurangzeb, each of whom contributed his particular aesthetic interests and endeavours to the establishment of what we have subsequently called the Mughal Style, a style which blended the Persian patterns brought by the Mughals with the indigenous genius for fine craftsmanship.
The amazing achievements in the Mughal architectural tradition owe much to the great talent of Indian artisans and the wealth of material found in India, including the abundance of stone. Each emperor used local materials and indigenous forms and craftsmanship to nurture and bring to fruition a unique enduringly beautiful architectural tradition. The Mughal style found triumphant fulfilment in the building of the Taj Mahal, the most splendid expression of the centuries of Mughal rule in India. The Taj Mahal was the last and greatest architectural flowering of the Mughal period in Agra, before its builder, Shah Jehan (1592-1658) shifted the imperial centre of power and administration to what is now called Delhi.