[1] They were the supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern day countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

Afterwards, they declined rapidly, but nominally ruled territories until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, where they gave their last stand against the British forces in India.

[3][4][5] During the reign of Aurangzeb, the empire, as the world's largest economy and manufacturing power, worth over 25% of global GDP,[6] controlled nearly all of the Indian subcontinent, extending from Dhaka in the east to Kabul in the west and from Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri River in the south.

[8][9] Mughal power rapidly dwindled during the 18th century and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, was deposed in 1857, with the establishment of the British Raj.

Through his use of firearms and cannons, he was able to shatter Ibrahim's armies despite being at a numerical disadvantage,[14][15] expanding his dominion up to the mid Indo-Gangetic Plain.

[14] In the decisive Battle of Khanwa, fought near Agra a year later, the Timurid forces of Babur defeated the combined Rajput armies of Rana Sanga of Mewar, with his native cavalry employing traditional flanking tactics.

[19] Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) was born Jalal-ud-din Muhammad[20] in the Umarkot Fort,[21] to Humayun and his wife Hamida Banu Begum, a Persian princess.

[11] He left his son an internally stable state, which was in the midst of its golden age, but before long signs of political weakness would emerge.

One way he did this was by bestowing many more madad-i-ma'ash (tax-free personal land revenue grants given to religiously learned or spiritually worthy individuals) than Akbar had.

[38][31][32] From the imperial perspective, conversion to Islam integrated local elites into the king's vision of a network of shared identity that would join disparate groups throughout the empire in obedience to the Mughal emperor.

[39] He led campaigns from 1682 in the Deccan,[40] annexing its remaining Muslim powers of Bijapur and Golconda,[41][40] though engaged in a prolonged conflict in the region which had a ruinous effect on the empire.

[42] Aurangzeb is considered the most controversial Mughal emperor,[43] with some historians arguing his religious conservatism and intolerance undermined the stability of Mughal society,[11] while other historians question this, noting that he built Hindu temples,[44] employed significantly more Hindus in his imperial bureaucracy than his predecessors did, and opposed bigotry against Hindus and Shia Muslims.

In 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne",[11] as figureheads under the rule of a brotherhood of nobles belonging to the Indian Muslim caste known as the Sadaat-e-Bara, whose leaders, the Sayyid Brothers, became the de facto sovereigns of the empire.

As the Mughals tried to suppress the independence of Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah I in the Deccan, he encouraged the Marathas to invade central and northern India.

After a crushing defeat in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 which he nominally led, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858 to Rangoon, Burma.

[56] Historians have offered numerous accounts of the several factors involved in the rapid collapse of the Mughal Empire between 1707 and 1720, after a century of growth and prosperity.