Mughal–Portuguese conflicts refers to the various armed engagements between the forces of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...

in India and the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, between the 16th century and the 18th century. The Mughal Empire came into direct contact with the Portuguese Empire in 1573 after

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

annexed

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

, which bordered the Portuguese territories of Dio,

Damaon Daman district () (formerly Distrito de Damão) is one of three districts of the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is located on the west coast of India and is surrounded by the Valsad district of Gujarat to ...

Bassein (Vasai) Vasai (Konkani and Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �əsəi British English: Bassein; formerly and alternatively Marathi; ''Bajipur'') is a historical place and city located in Palghar district; it was partitioned out of the Thane d ...

near

Portuguese Bombay Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. The Portuguese governor António de Noronha then signed a treaty with Akbar, officially establishing bilateral relations between Portugal and the Moghal Empire.João Vicente Melo:
Jesuit and English Experiences at the Mughal Court, c. 1580–1615
', Springer Nature, 2022, p. 10. Hostilities usually broke out because of diplomatic blunders, or steadfast Portuguese rejection of Mughal demands for tribute. Despite occasional incidents, Mughal-Portuguese relations were usually pragmatic in practice, as the Moghals prioritised land and Portuguese authorities the sea. Starting in 1573, the Mughals agreed not to harbour pirate fleets, welcomed Portuguese ambassadors and

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missions in

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

and in return the Portuguese Crown granted a single naval license or

cartaz The Cartaz (plural cartazes, in Portuguese) was a naval trade license or pass issued by the Portuguese empire in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth century (circa 1502–1750). Its name derives from the Portuguese term ''cartas'', meaning letter ...

each year to the

Mughal emperors The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty ( House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire i ...

, who in effect tacitly acknowledged Portuguese naval supremacy. Conflict with the Portuguese also caused the Mughal Empire to favour relations with the

English East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South Asia and Southeast A ...

, who were allowed to open a trading post at

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

, in the hopes that the English might be of assistance against the Portuguese.

Background

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

established direct contact with India after

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

first reached the subcontinent by sea via the

Cape Route The European-Asian sea route, commonly known as the sea route to India or the Cape Route, is a shipping route from the European coast of the Atlantic Ocean to Asia's coast of the Indian Ocean passing by the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas ...

in 1498. A first fortress was then built in the allied

Kingdom of Cochin The kingdom of Cochin or the Cochin State, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It originated in the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until i ...

in 1502 in exchange for a military alliance against the

Zamorin of Calicut The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edi ...

and

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

was captured by

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

in 1510. The

Sultanate of Gujarat The Gujarat Sultanate or Sultanate of Gujarat was a late medieval Islamic Indian kingdom in Western India, primarily in the present-day state of Gujarat. The kingdom was established in 1394 when Muzaffar Shah I, the Governor of Gujarat, decla ...

was hostile towards the Portuguese but when war broke out between Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

in 1532, Bahadur offered Portugal the territory of Bassein in exchange for peace and military assistance against the Mughals. The Portuguese governor of India

Nuno da Cunha Nuno da Cunha ( – 5 March 1539) was a Portuguese admiral who was governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1529 to 1538. He was the governor of Portuguese Asia that ruled for more time in the sixteenth century in a total of nine years. ...

agreed and the Treaty of Bassein was signed in 1534. Bahadur was however routed in battle and as a result, the following year he allowed the Portuguese to erect a formidable fortress at the strategically important Island of Diu in the southern tip of the

Kathiawar Peninsula Kathiawar (), also known as Saurashtra, is a peninsula in the south-western Gujarat state in India, bordering the Arabian Sea and covering about . It is bounded by the Kutch district in the north, the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest, and by the ...

, in exchange for protection should his sultanate fall. Gujarat was subsequently invaded by Mughal troops and under these circumstances they first clashed with the Portuguese, though the region would only be annexed in 1573.

Early engagements 1535-1573

Between the signing of the Treaty of Bassein in 1534 and the annexation of Gujarat in 1573, the Portuguese occasionally engaged invading Mughal troops in defense of their territory or in support of the

Siege of Verivene, 1535

At the request of the Sultan of Gujarat, the Portuguese governor of India

dispatched Vasco Pires de Sampayo at the head of a naval squadron with 250 soldiers to recover the fort of Verivene by the mouth of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

, which had been taken by the Mughals. An attack was made one morning, but before the Portuguese could land their artillery the Mughals abandoned the fort during the night and it was recovered for Gujarat the following day.Frederick Charles Danvers: The Portuguese in India, A.D. 1481-1571, Being A History of the Rise and Decline of Their Eastern Empire, W.H. Allen & Company, limited, 1894, pp. 407-408.

Siege of Daman, 1565

When the Mughals invaded the

in 1565, 3000 Mughal horsemen invaded the Portuguese territory of Daman. After receiving reinforcements from Goa,

Chaul Chaul is a historic town located in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. The Korlai Fort is located nearby. History Many foreign writers have mentioned Chaul. Ptolemy in his ''Geography of India'' calls the town Symullla or Timulla. The ...

and Bassein, the captain of Daman João de Sousa marched north beyond the

Daman Ganga River The Daman Ganga, also called the Dawan River, is a river in western India. The river's headwaters are on the western slope of the Western Ghats range, and it flows west into the Arabian Sea. The river flows through Maharashtra and Gujarat states, ...

with a force of 600

arquebusiers An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...

, 120 horse cavalry and some field guns to Pernel, where the Mughals had set up camp but the Mughals immediately withdrew, leaving behind all their material, which was captured.Diogo do Couto: ''Ásia'', VIII, pp. 39-43.

Gujarat campaigns, 1569

In 1569, Nuno Velho Pereira was dispatched from Daman with a naval squadron to clear the

Gulf of Cambay The Gulf of Khambhat, also known as the Gulf of Cambay, is a bay on the Arabian Sea coast of India, bordering the state of Gujarat just north of Mumbai and Diu Island. The Gulf of Khambhat is about long, about wide in the north and up to wi ...

of Portuguese enemies. He burnt two settlements, ships, captured prisoners and later attacked a Mughal stronghold three leagues away from Daman at Pernel, which was abandoned after six days of artillery bombardment and razed. Ayres Telles de Menezes helped Rustum Khan resist a Mughal siege on

Bharuch Bharuch () is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since times of antiquity. It was a shi ...

with a squadron of seven ships. Rustum Khan offered to become a tributary vassal of Portugal in exchange but after the Mughals were driven off Rustum Khan repudiated his part of the agreement.Danvers, volume I, 1894, pp. 543-544. While the siege of Bharuch was ongoing, the captain of Daman sailed to Surat and confiscated two large merchant ships loaded by the lord of Surat ''Agaluchem'' without the authorization of the Portuguese viceroy of India. They were valued at 100,000

ducats The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

Siege of Daman, 1581

In 1580, Diogo Lopes Coutinho de Santarém at the head of a force of eight ships had a village near

burned, after its garrison had killed six Portuguese who had gone ashore.Frederick Charles Danvers: ''The Portuguese in India, A.D. 1571-1894, Being A History of the Rise and Decline of Their Eastern Empire'', W.H. Allen & Company, limited, 1894, pp.42-43 At the request of the Mughal governor of Surat ''Caliche Mahamed'', the Mughal governor of

Qutub ud-Din Khan (''Cutubidicam'' in Portuguese) joined forces into an army of 15,000 men,

war elephants A war elephant is an elephant that is trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific mil ...

and a cannon to attack Daman.Diogo do Couto: ''Da Asia de João de Barros e de Diogo de Couto'', volume 20, decade I, part I, Regia Officina Typographica, 1786 edition, pp.184-198. Portuguese reinforcements flowed into Daman by sea while the Mughals attacked the surrounding territory of Daman. Despite their numerical advantage, facing stiffer resistance than anticipated the Mughals hesitated in assaulting the unwalled city and withdrew their army after six months of maneuvers and skirmishes.

Battle of Valsad, 1582

Wishing to undertake the

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

pilgrimage to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, Emperor

's aunt

Gulbadan Begum Gulbadan Begum ( 1523 – 7 February 1603) was a Mughal princess and the daughter of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. She is best known as the author of '' Humayun-Nama'', the account of the life of her half-brother and B ...

gifted

Valsad Valsad (Pronunciation: �alsɑɖ, historically known as Bulsar, is a town and a municipality in Valsad district of the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the district headquarters of Valsad district. Valsad is located north of Vapi and shares bor ...

to the Portuguese in 1572 while waiting for a Portuguese naval pass at Surat so as to ensure a safe passage.Antonio Monserrate:
The Commentary of Father Monserrate: S. J., on His Journey to the Court of Akbar
' p. 166. Upon her return and no longer needing to be on good terms with the Portuguese she demanded that Valsad be retaken and troops were dispatched from Surat to occupy the town but they were routed by the Portuguese with considerable loss.Pius Malekandathil:
The Indian Ocean in the Making of Early Modern India
', Taylor & Francis, 2016, pp. 252-253.

Luso-Mughal War 1613-1615

The years up to 1613 were marked by affinity between the Mughal capital and the capital of the

Portuguese State of India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

. After the

Battle of Swally The naval Battle of Swally, also known as Battle of Suvali, took place on 29–30 November 1612 off the coast of Suvali (anglicised to ''Swally'') a village near the Surat city (now in Gujarat, India) and was a victory for four English East Indi ...

however, the Mughals allowed the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

to set up a trading post at Surat and as reprisal the Portuguese seized the imperial Mughal merchant ship '' Rahimi'', belonging to Emperor

Jahangir Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal ...

's mother

Mariam-uz-Zamani Mariam-uz-Zamani (; – 19 May 1623), commonly known by the misnomer Jodha Bai, was the Empress consort, chief consort, principal Hinduism, Hindu wife and the favourite wife of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar. She was also the longest-servi ...

, worth 200,000 pounds and carrying 700 persons.Ellison Banks Findly: ''Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India'', Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 130-131. The Rahimi incident sparked a major diplomatic incident and renewed hostilities between the Mughals and the Portuguese. The Jesuit church in Agra was closed. The territory of Daman was invaded by a Mughal detachment from

and in mid 1614 they clashed with reinforcements dispatched from Goa under the command of Luiz de Brito, who forced the Mughals to withdraw.António Bocarro: ''Década 13 da História da Índia'', parte I, Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, 1876, pp. 301-314. The city of

was then sacked and the surrounding region pillaged by the forces of Brito. Portuguese trade with the Mughal Empire ceased during the conflict, providing the English East India Company with an unexpected windfall. After two years, the Portuguese Viceroy of India Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo compensated the Mughals and reestablished bilateral relations.

Luso-Mughal Crisis, 1630

A crisis between the Portuguese State of India and the Mughal Empire erupted in March 1630 when captain Dom Francisco Coutinho de Ocem captured two large Mughal trade ships in the Surat harbour for lacking cartazes, one of which belonged to

Shah Jahan Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...

. Another large Mughal trade ship was apprehended by Dom Francisco in September, however a treaty was negotiated in November and further conflict averted.

Siege of Hooghly, 1632

In 1578, the Portuguese merchant Pedro Tavares had obtained authorization from the Mughal Court for Portuguese merchants to settle at Hooghly. Although the city came to contain a large community of Portuguese traders, churches and monasteries, it was not officially part of the Portuguese Empire. Having received complaints of illegal Portuguese activities in the region and angered that the Portuguese did not support his revolt,

ordered the destruction of Hooghly. Although the city was unwalled and defended by no more than 300 Portuguese it was only taken after a three-month siege and its inhabitants taken captive to Agra. The viceroy of India interceded on behalf of the Portuguese traders and they were allowed to resettle in Bengal the following year.

Luso-Mughal War 1638-1639

After being appointed viceroy of the Deccan, Prince

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

determined to attack Daman. In late 1638 a Mughal army of 10,000 to 40,000 men invaded Portuguese territory and set up camp at Magravará, two miles from the city. Reinforcements flowed into Daman by sea and the Portuguese conducted limited attacks against the Mughals. Although the siege was closely fought, on the evening of January 5, 1639, the Portuguese captain of the city nevertheless offered

William Methwold William Methwold (sometimes spelled Methold), (baptised 1590 in South Pickenham, near Swaffham, Norfolk; died 5 March 1653, Kensington), was an English merchant and colonial administrator in India. He is credited with identifying the site of Mumba ...

refreshments when his ship docked there.''The Calcutta Review'', Volume 75, 1882, p.87. Because the Mughals were unable to cut the naval supply lines to Daman, the Portuguese were able to continuously reinforce the city. Unable to break through Portuguese defenses despite their numerical superiority, the Mughals requested peace through the Governor of

Mir Musa, with the help of the president of the

factory at Surat, and later lifted the siege, having lost between 700 and 7000 men in the action.Ignacio Barbosa Machado: ''Fastos Politicos, e Militares da Antigua, e Nova Lusitania'', Officina de Ignacio Rodrigues, 1745, pp.681-682,M. S. Commissariat: ''Mandelslo's Travels In Western India'', Asian Educational Services, 1995, p.57.

Luso-Mughal War, 1692-1693

While at war with the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

, a Mughal army sought to pass through Portuguese territory near Bassein, however this was refused by the Portuguese.Alexandre Lobato: Relações Luso-Maratas 1658-1737, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, Lisboa, 1965, pp. 35-36. As the Mughal general Matabar Khan accused the Portuguese of favouring the Marathas and harbouring the families of their officers, in 1692 he invaded Portuguese territory and pillaged the region of Bassein. By diplomatic means however, the Portuguese viceroy Pedro António de Meneses Noronha de Albuquerque got Emperor Aurangzeb to order the cessation of hostilities. Matabar Khan was instructed to return any prisoners of war and compensate the Portuguese with 200,000 rupees.

Aftermath

Conflict with the Portuguese caused the Mughal Empire to gradually turn to the English East India Company for trade. Portuguese maritime supremacy was complete as far as the Mughals were concerned, as the Mughals paid the Portuguese tolls to sail the Indian Ocean.K. M. Mathew:
History of the Portuguese Navigation in India 1497-1600
', Mittal Publications, 1988, p. 138. As a land-based power, the Mughals did not wish to hostilize the Portuguese because it could result in reprisals against Mughal merchant ships and most importantly disturb the naval

pilgrimage route from Surat to Mecca, which they sought to present themselves as sponsors and protectors of. Mughal trade ships were still required to acquire Portuguese naval licenses to sail the Indian Ocean and they cost between 3000 and 8000 ''mahmudis''. They also sought the sympathy of the Portuguese to check the activities of the Marathas in the

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

. The Portuguese sought to preserve their territory in India against the Mughals. Although open conflicts tended to be avoided, the Portuguese Viceroy of India covertly supported the Marathas against the Mughals and promoted anti-Mughal alliances in the

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

with

Ahmadnagar Ahmednagar, officially Ahilyanagar, is a city in, and the headquarters of, the Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Ahmednagar has several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost imp ...

Bijapur Bijapur (officially Vijayapura) is the district headquarters of Bijapur district of the Karnataka state of India. It is also the headquarters for Bijapur Taluk. Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments of architectural importa ...

and

Golkonda Golconda is a fortified citadel and ruined city located on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparudra in the 11th century out of mud walls. It was ceded to the Bahmani ...

.Sanjay Subrahmanyam: ''The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700: A Political and Economic History'', John Wiley & Sons, 2012, p. 157. After the Maratha conquest of Konkan and Gujarat in the 18th century, contact between Portuguese India and the by then declining Mughal Empire ceased.

References

{{reflist Military of the Mughal Empire Military history of Portugal Military history of India History of Daman and Diu