The Mughal Navy and Maritime Power

The Mughal Empire was, in its geographical extent, a predominantly land-based power, and its naval arm has received much less attention from historians than its cavalry, artillery, and elephant corps. Yet the empire was, for most of its history, dependent on maritime and riverine transport for the movement of bulk cargo, the projection of force in Bengal, the suppression of piracy in the western Indian ports, and the conduct of operations against the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, and other European competitors in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The Mughal naval establishment, such as it was, took several institutional forms, and its development, deployment, and ultimate decline are treated below.

The Geographic and Strategic Context

The Mughal Empire was bounded on the west by the Arabian Sea and on the east by the Bay of Bengal, and the imperial frontiers included several thousand kilometres of coastline. The western Indian coast, from the ports of Gujarat to those of the Konkan and Malabar, was a zone of intense commercial activity, and the principal Mughal ports of Cambay, Surat, and Diu were major centres of the Indian Ocean trade. The eastern Indian coast was similarly important, and the ports of Bengal, particularly Satgaon, Hooghly, and Chittagong, were the outlets for the rich trade of the Gangetic plain.

The principal maritime competitors of the Mughals were, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, and, to a lesser extent, the French. The Portuguese had been present on the western Indian coast since the voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1498, and their control of the sea lanes of the western Indian Ocean was a major constraint on Mughal maritime activity. The English East India Company, established in 1600, and the Dutch VOC, established in 1602, were the principal European commercial powers of the seventeenth century, and both maintained substantial naval forces in Indian waters. The Maratha naval power, built up by the Angrias and other admirals in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was another major factor in the maritime politics of the western Indian coast. The geographic focus of the Mughal naval effort was the Bay of Bengal rather than the Arabian Sea, both because the Bay was the maritime frontier of the densely populated and economically productive Gangetic plain, and because the Arakanese and Portuguese pirates of the eastern coast were a constant threat to the maritime trade of the region.

The Mir Bahr and the Organisation of the Naval Establishment

The Mughal naval establishment was headed by the mir bahr, or admiral, an office held by nobles appointed directly by the emperor. The mir bahr was responsible for the imperial war fleet and for the coordination of the provincial naval forces, and the office was one of the most prestigious in the imperial court. The mir bahr of the early seventeenth century was typically a high-ranking mansabdari noble, and the office was often combined with other important positions, including the governorship of a major maritime province or the command of a substantial land force.

The administrative framework of the Mughal navy was less elaborate than that of the topkhana or the pil-khana. There was no formal imperial navy in the European sense, and the actual vessels of the imperial fleet were relatively small by European standards, typically galleys or grabs of one to two hundred tons. The personnel were drawn from the seafaring communities of Gujarat, the Konkan, Malabar, and Bengal, and the imperial fleet was typically supplemented, on campaign, by the private vessels of the provincial governors and the great merchants. The mir bahr was assisted by a number of subordinate officers, including the shah-bandar or port-master at each major port, and the sahib-i-sair or superintendent of maritime customs, a position of considerable prestige and profit given the importance of the customs duties as a source of imperial revenue.

The Riverine Flotillas

Riverine warfare was, in many respects, more important than blue-water operations in the Mughal context. The great rivers of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Indus, and the Narmada served as the principal arteries of bulk transport, and the imperial military expeditions in the Deccan and in the eastern provinces relied heavily on flotillas of boats to move men, supplies, and artillery. The river fleets were typically composed of locally recruited boatmen and were commanded by officers drawn from the mansabdari ranks.

The Ganges flotilla was the largest and most important of the riverine establishments. The Ganges and its principal tributaries served as the principal arteries of bulk transport in northern India, and the imperial military expeditions in Bengal, Bihar, and the upper provinces relied heavily on the river boats. The Mughal army that suppressed the eastern Afghan revolt in the 1570s, for example, was largely transported by river, and the imperial expeditions against the Ahom kingdom of Assam in the seventeenth century similarly depended on the river flotillas. The Indus flotilla, centred on the river Indus and its tributaries in the northwestern provinces, was of particular importance in the operations against the western Indian coast, and the Narmada and Tapti flotillas served the Deccan campaigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. The personnel of the riverine flotillas were typically drawn from the local boatmen and fishermen of the regions traversed by the rivers, organised into hereditary occupational groups, and the command of a river flotilla was often a hereditary position within a particular boatman community.

The Small Naval Arm of Akbar

The Mughal naval establishment of the early seventeenth century was, in formal terms, a small one. The principal naval force of the empire was the flotilla maintained by the provincial governor of Gujarat, and the imperial navy proper, the bahri-khas, was a relatively modest establishment. The bahri-khas included a small number of war vessels, typically grabs and galleys of one to two hundred tons, and was based principally at Cambay and Surat.

The Mughal naval activities of the reign of Akbar were concentrated on two principal operations. The first was the suppression of the Portuguese in the western Indian ports, and the second was the projection of imperial authority in the Bay of Bengal. The Mughal expeditions against the Arakanese and Portuguese pirates in the Bay of Bengal in the 1570s and 1580s, conducted under the general supervision of the governor of Bengal, were the first major naval operations of the Mughal state. The Mughal naval operations of the late sixteenth century were supplemented by the development of the shipbuilding centres of Gujarat. The principal shipyards of the Mughal Empire were located at Cambay, Surat, and other Gujarat ports, and the Gujarati shipbuilders were the most skilled in the Indian subcontinent.

Conflicts with the Portuguese

The Portuguese were the principal European naval power in Indian waters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the Mughal relationship with the Portuguese was a long and troubled one. The Portuguese had established a network of fortified settlements at Cochin, Goa, Daman, Diu, and other points along the coast, and their control of the sea lanes of the western Indian Ocean was a major constraint on Mughal maritime activity. The Mughal response was a combination of military pressure, diplomatic negotiation, and commercial accommodation. The commercial accommodation was, perhaps, the most important element: the Portuguese, despite their military presence, were never able to control the Indian Ocean trade in the way they had hoped, and the bulk of the Indian Ocean trade continued to be carried in Indian and Asian vessels. The Portuguese settlement at Hooghly in Bengal, established in 1580, was a major commercial outpost, and the long Mughal struggle with the Portuguese at Hooghly, which culminated in the siege and capture of the settlement in 1632, is episodes of Mughal maritime history. The siege of Hooghly, commanded by the prince Shah Jahan, was the most significant Mughal naval operation of the seventeenth century, and the capture of Hooghly was followed by the expulsion of the Portuguese from the region.

The Early Activities of the East India Company

The English East India Company, established by royal charter in 1600, was the principal European commercial rival of the Portuguese in the early seventeenth century, and the early activities of the Company in Mughal waters were conducted under the general framework of the Mughal-Portuguese relationship. The Company established its first factory at Surat in 1613, and the subsequent expansion of the Company’s operations in the western Indian ports, the Coromandel coast, and the Bay of Bengal was, for the most part, conducted with the acquiescence of the Mughal provincial authorities.

The Mughal relationship with the English East India Company was, in the early seventeenth century, a relatively cordial one. The Company was granted a series of commercial privileges by the Mughal court, including the right to trade at Surat and other ports, the right to establish factories in the major commercial centres, and the right to a limited degree of self-government in the factories. The English naval presence in Indian waters was, in the early seventeenth century, a small one: the Company’s vessels, typically armed merchantmen of two to five hundred tons, were no match for the Portuguese war galleons, and the early English operations in Indian waters were primarily commercial rather than military. The English naval presence in Indian waters expanded considerably in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, particularly after the establishment of the Company’s own dockyards at Bombay in the 1670s.

The Ports of Surat, Cambay, and Hooghly

The principal ports of the Mughal Empire were Surat, Cambay, and Hooghly. Surat, situated on the river Tapti in Gujarat, was the principal port of western India and the centre of the Indian Ocean trade, administered by the shah-bandar of Surat, with customs duties that were a major source of imperial revenue. The English East India Company, the Dutch VOC, and the French Compagnie des Indes all maintained factories at Surat. Cambay, situated on the Gulf of Cambay, was an older port that had been a major centre of trade since the early medieval period, but the port was, in the seventeenth century, in decline owing to the silting of the harbour. The port retained, however, a significant role in the coastal trade of Gujarat, and the shipbuilding yards of Cambay continued to produce vessels for both the merchant marine and the imperial navy. Hooghly, situated on the river Bhagirathi in Bengal, was the principal port of eastern India and the outlet for the rich trade of the Gangetic plain. The subsequent expansion of the English and Dutch presence at Hooghly in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was a major step in the gradual transfer of maritime power to the European trading companies.

The Shipbuilding Centres of Gujarat

The shipbuilding centres of Gujarat, principally at Cambay, Surat, and other Gujarat ports, were among the most important in the early modern world. The Gujarati shipbuilders produced a wide range of vessels, from small coastal craft to large ocean-going ships, and were particularly skilled in the construction of the grabs and gallivats that were the standard vessels of the Indian Ocean trade. The principal type of vessel was the grab, a single-masted ocean-going vessel of one to three hundred tons, with a high stern and a low bow, a versatile vessel capable of both commerce and war. The gallivat was a smaller vessel, typically of fifty to one hundred tons, used principally for coastal trade and for anti-piracy operations.

The shipbuilding industry of Gujarat declined in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as the European trading companies expanded their own shipbuilding operations in India. The English East India Company established dockyards at Surat and, later, at Bombay, and the Dutch VOC established dockyards at Cochin and other ports. The Gujarati shipbuilders, deprived of their principal customers by the European commercial dominance, were gradually reduced to a marginal position, and the long tradition of Indian shipbuilding was effectively ended by the consolidation of European maritime power in the nineteenth century.

The Decline of Mughal Maritime Power

The decline of the Mughal naval arm in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a gradual process. The financial crisis of the mansabdari-jagir system, treated on the Mughal decline page, made it increasingly difficult for the imperial court to maintain the elaborate establishment of the mir bahr, and the actual naval forces of the empire were progressively reduced. The European trading companies, particularly the English East India Company and the Dutch VOC, expanded their own naval power and gradually eclipsed the Mughal naval presence in Indian waters.

The Maratha naval power, built up by the Angrias and other Maratha admirals in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, was another major factor in the decline of Mughal maritime power. The Maratha naval forces, based at the strongholds of the western Indian coast, came to dominate the maritime trade of the region, and the Mughal provincial governors in Gujarat and the Konkan found themselves unable to prevent Maratha seizures of imperial shipping. The gradual transfer of maritime power to the European trading companies was, perhaps, the most significant feature of the late Mughal period. The English East India Company, in particular, expanded its naval presence in Indian waters in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and the Company came to exercise a virtual monopoly of maritime power in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

The British naval supremacy, established by the victories of the Seven Years’ War in the 1760s and consolidated in the wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, marked the effective end of any independent Indian maritime power. The Maratha naval forces were destroyed in the early nineteenth century, and the principal Indian merchant fleets were absorbed into the European-dominated maritime economy. The Mughal naval tradition, such as it was, was effectively ended with the destruction of the imperial army in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Sources

S.A. Khan, Mughal Navy (Brill, 2020).