How far can the Mughal Empire realistically expand at the highest?

As the title says, how far does the Mughals can realistically expand at it's highest, assuming everything goes well for them and under competent leadership?

Do you think the Mughal Empire can expanded themselves bigger than OTL or that's as far as they go in their holdings?

The pictures below are Mughal Empire's greatest extent for references:

Joppen1907India1700a.jpg


mughal-empire-map.jpg
 
Well, the big question here is Burma and expanding over the Arakan mountains. No one would doubt that southern India, Ceylon and the Brahmaputra valleys are doable.
North you have the Himalayas, south you have the ocean. Persia could be an option if they stay a great power into the 19th century, but unlikely to be interesting before that.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
Problem is there was not a huge migration from central asia to north india with mughals otherwise if let's say the immigrant tadjuks , uzbeks, Turks significantly alter the demographics of north india then conquering and maintaining the lands of central asia all the way to samarkand bukhara was possible
 
Problem is there was not a huge migration from central asia to north india with mughals otherwise if let's say the immigrant tadjuks , uzbeks, Turks significantly alter the demographics of north india then conquering and maintaining the lands of central asia all the way to samarkand bukhara was possible

There were more Indians than Turks or Tajiks, even along the Indus. Maybe if the Oirats are more aggressive and drive a lot more Turks South to Afghanistan. But I'd say the Turks, Tajik and Pashtuns will assimilate in the dominant Indian Islamic population, considering how easy Turkic and some Iranian populations assimilated.

If the Mughals assimilate into the Northern Indian populations (Punjabi, Rajput etc... which they did) and focus on those certain groups to Islamize them (which they didn't) they could get a secured North Indian core. The South will still be problematic although I think it was the rapid conquest of Deccan by Aurangzeb that weakened Mughal capabilities. Divided over time, they might have secured the South of India as well to the tip of the Subcontinent, albeit with vassals or semi independent provinces.

Militarily, big show off Armies were not optimal for battle either. Smaller efficient forces will help them rather than 300k troops in Kernal for example...
 
Mughal expansion would be hard pressed to do any better than it did. The Indian subcontinent was large enough to try and manage, The moment things go south for the Mughals is the moment many of their governers might more than willing to rebel, which is the typical reason you get many breakaway states.
 

Kaze

Banned
The best thing they could do is hold what they had under Aurangzeb - and pray that that his heirs won't be incompetent, collapse into civil war over succession, keep Islamization to a minimum - it should be done slowly if it isn't expect some rebellions, and keep the conquered well conquered.
 
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