Roads and communications in Mughal India

Abstract

In Akbar's time (1556 1605), the territories of the Mughal emnire included parts of present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, the whole of northern India and parts of the Deccan, but by 1690, other once independent states in the Deccan had been incorporated into the empire. Before his death, Aurangzeb (1658-17 07) had conquered the greater part of the Deccan, but much of the emnire was in a state of chronic disorder. Historically, the present work is confined to the period between 1556 and 1707; geographically, it covers northern, central and western India, the area generally knot-In as Mughal India, the administration and power of the Mughals being more or less consolidated within it. The whole of the Deccan did not come fully into the administrative orbit of the Mughals even at the end of the 17th century.