The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire based in South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. For some two hundred years, 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 the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India.

The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a Timurid chieftain from Central Asia, who employed aid from the neighbouring Safavid and Ottoman Empires to defeat the Delhi Sultan, Ibrahim Lodi, in the First Battle of Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of North India. The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar. This imperial structure lasted until 1720, until shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb, during whose reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent. Reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1760, the empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

In the initial years, the Mughals followed the Central Asian coinage standard, issuing coins known as 'Shahrukhis' - named after Shah Rukh, a son of Mughal ancestor Timur. After the Suri interregnum, during Akbar's reign, the coinage was standardised into the Gold Mohur, Silver Rupee and Copper Dam. This tri-metallic system lasted for centuries and was in widespread use as the primary currency of India.