In December 1525, Zahir-ud-din Babur, descended from Chengiz Khan and Timur Lenk, crossed the Indus river into the Punjab with a modest army and some cannon. At Panipat, five months later he fought the most important battle of his life and routed the mammoth army of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the Afghan ruler of Hindustan. Mughal rule in India had begun. It was to continue for over three centuries, shaping India for all time.

In this monumental and definitive biography of the great Mughals, Abraham Eraly reclaims the right to set down history as a chronicle of flesh-and-blood people. Bringing to his task the objectivity of a master scholar and the high imagination of a master story-teller, he recreates the lives of Babur, the intrepid pioneer; the dreamer Humayun; Akbar, the greatest and most enigmatic of the Mughal emperors; Jehangir and Shah Jahan, the aesthetes; and the dour and determined Aurangzeb. Because of their charisma and leadership the Mughal empire survived and grew despite the chaos and contradictions it carried within itself-the tumult of unending wars, the baffling opulence of the ruling elite and the desperate misery of the masses, the brutal feuds in the royal families, as also the flowering of art and culture.

Without ever sacrificing authenticity and academic accuracy, Eraly has written a stirring and vivid account of one of the world’s greatest empires that will be savoured by the general reader and the serious scholar alike for years to come.