Emperor of Hindustan sometimes also translated as Emperor of India,[Note 1] is the usual rendering in English of the imperial title used firstly by the Delhi Sultanate[1] and then their successors the Mughal Empire[2][3] It signified their sovereignity over Northern India and later much of the Indian subcontinent (excepting the Far-Southern states of present-day India and its Northeastern parts as well).
The term Hindustan was used for Northern India in particular, and also the whole Indian subcontinent during the Medieval period. During the rule of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, the term was equivalent to Emperor of India.
Even after Mughal rule had collapsed, by about 1720, the other powers in India, such as the Maratha Confederacy, the British East India Company and many others, continued to use the title in certain contexts until the Mughal Empire was formally abolished in 1858. For example, the East India Company issued coinage in the name of the "emperor", and bearing this title, until then. Part of the reason for this was to avoid other powers claiming the title, during the prolonged struggle for supremacy in India.
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- ^ Larned, Josephus Nelson (1895). History for Ready Reference: From the Best Historians, Biographers, and Specialists; Their Own Words in a Complete System of History ... C.A. Nichols Company.
- ^ Hindustan), Jahangir (Emperor of (1999). The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. ISBN 978-0-19-512718-8.
- ^ Journal of Historical Research. Department of History, Ranchi University. 1983.