Mughals
New Delhi: India was invaded by the Mughals many times but a study has claimed that most of these invasions happened during the rainy season i.e. monsoon. Scientists of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune (IITM Pune) have made this discovery. The study revealed that out of the 11 major invasions between the 6th century BCE (Before the Common Era) and the 16th century CE (Common Era), 8 happened during the monsoon.
The research team included scientists from IITM Pune and Department of Remote Sensing, BIT (Birla Institute of Technology), Mesra, Ranchi. It was led by Naveen Gandhi, senior scientist at IITM. It was recently published in the Journal of Earth System Science in the first week of April.
Shocking revelation in study
The scientists found that except for two cases, all major invasions from Central Asia were carried out in the monsoon, while the invasions in Central Asia occurred during unfavourable climatic conditions. Only Alexander the Great and Timur invaded India during unfavourable monsoon conditions.
The study found that almost every invasion between the 6th century BC and the 16th century AD was associated with a particular monsoon climate. For example, Cyrus II’s invasion coincided with a prolonged period of good monsoons in India and drought conditions in central Asia.
Alexander the Great invaded India during a weak monsoon and drought conditions. Alexander’s invasion of India is often seen as following in the footsteps of Greek rulers like Cyrus the Great, Dionysus and Hercules. However, he did not care about the monsoon conditions in India.
Besides, the invasion of the Huns, the invasion of the military commander Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, the plundering raids by Mahmud Ghaznavi were all carried out during the monsoon. Genghis Khan and Alauddin Khilji also invaded India during good monsoon and heavy rainfall. The Turko-Mongol conqueror, Timur, invaded India during weak monsoon conditions.
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