William Darmyple has managed to exquistely detail the magnificience of the Mughals, who ruled India in the 15 th and 16 th centuries. The mughal dynasty was perhaps the greatest in the world at that time. The enchanting beauty of India, its enormous riches and the promise of opulence brought the mughals to India. The great Babur was the first ruler to establish an empire in India followed by Humayun, the benevolent king and followed by the greatest ruler of this clan, Akbar. Akbar not just ruled India, he also won the hearts of the population by his eclectic religion, the Din-E-Illahi which borrowed concepts from Hinduism and Islam both. he married a Hindu princess and thereby strengthened his hold over the entire sub-continent. Akbar''s capital was Agra where he built huge edifices bearing the distinct stamp of the Mughals. Of course it was his grandson who built two of the greatest monuments in living memory, the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red fort in Delhi. The Taj Mahal, now a part of the seven wonders of the world was built in the memory of Begum Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shahjahan.
It has been described as a "tear in marble". The white mouseleum was built in around 20 years with craftsmen from Persia. The former US president, on his visit to the taj had remarked, there are two kind of people in this world, those that have seen the taj Mahal and those that have''nt. With insciptions from the Koran and jewels inlaid with delicate carvings, there is no match for the Taj in contemporary edifices. The Mughals exceleld in arts and architecture and with their opulent lifestyles, they attracted the Europeans to invade India in the latter half of the 16th century. The Englishmen came as traders in the court of the last great Mughal rule, BahadurShah Zaffar, but were dumbstruck with the riches of the land. They followed the Mughals as India''s next rulers but history will always remember the Mughlas as the greatest rulers of India.