Why Genghis Khan, Muhammad Ghori and Babur came to Indian subcontinent? A new study pegs it on good monsoons, thriving agriculture

 A new study has concluded that some of the most significant foreign invasions of the Indian subcontinent in the past 2,600 years coincided with good monsoons and favourable climatic factors. During this period, some central Asia-based invaders were Genghis Khan, The Hunas, Mahmud of Ghazni, Mohammad Ghori, and Babur.

It is well-established that the decline of the Harappan civilisation was linked to decreasing rainfall. This reaffirms that civilisations such as the Egyptian and Mesopotamian flourished under favourable climatic conditions.

The study, led by Naveen Gandhi from the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), stated that invasions into the Indian subcontinent were associated with specific monsoons in both Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Unlike India, Central Asia does not enjoy annual monsoon rainfall.

Researchers derived paleoclimatic conditions of the past 2,500 years to study the monsoon variations over Central and South Asia between the 6th century BCE and the 16th century CE. Tree ring-based evidence from Kerala provided rainfall fluctuations from 1484 to 2003 CE.

In addition, the team obtained oxygen isotope details gathered from the mineral depositions of rock caves located in Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh and Dandak in Chhattisgarh. Similar oxygen isotope data was procured from four ancient rock caves in present-day Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with some cave samples even dating back to 10,000 years.

“Inconsistent precipitation and a lack of systematic monsoon seasons, like those in the Indian subcontinent, have made a large geographical area along Central Asia desert-like with a high prevalence of aridity, thus limiting the chances of agriculture. The overall rich wealth and thriving agriculture facilitated by good monsoons and favourable climatic conditions could have attracted the invaders to the Indian subcontinent,” said Gandhi.

The paper published in the Journal of Earth System Science describes the strong monsoon that prevailed between 8000 and 3000 BC, contributing to wetter grasslands and pastures along the eastern parts of Central Asia. After that, a dramatic decline in the monsoon was observed over this region, affecting the overall rain-fed agriculture practices.

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Grasslands in western Central Asia (closer to the Indian subcontinent) shifted from a dry to a wet period after 4000 BCE. However, subsequent dry spells during 650-490 BCE, 400-500 CE, 650-710 CE, and 950-1025 CE in parts of Central Asia coincided with weak monsoons. Central Asia experienced severe drought spells from 1190-1210 CE, forcing foreign invaders to seek livable land in the Indian subcontinent, according to the study.

The study concluded that at least eight of the 11 major invasions — including those by the Persian ruler Cyrus II, the Hunas, Genghis Khan, Mohammad Ghori and Babur, who laid the foundation of the Mughal empire in India — were timed when the Indian subcontinent experienced good monsoons and enhanced agriculture activities. This further indicates that the rulers targeted regions already thriving with agricultural activities and had prosperous living conditions and stable economies.

Besides, climate scientists argued that most of these Central Asian invaders had advanced access to regional-scale climatic information, aiding their launch of attacks on new and unconquered regions along Southern and Central Asia.

“The well-established trade routes linking the Indian subcontinent could have been used to share information about the climatic conditions in India with those living in the otherwise arid Central Asia regions,” Gandhi said.