Mughals!!
Absolutely my favourite minor (at the moment) and probably the most exotic of the playable nations (I don't consider the pagan nations, like the chinese and the aztecs, as playable because they don' t evolve technologically).
They easily dominate the Indian peninsular in the early years of the game, which gives them a very solid financial base.
The only potential threat in the beginning of the game is Persia, which is still a pushover, and they are usually ripe for annexation in the first half of the 16th century.
When and if the European nations become a problem, it's probably because your borders have expanded all the way up north, and at that point in the game, you are most likely all but omnipotent.
In the one Mughal-game I have played to a glorious conclusion, I ended up with all of Asia and the Middle-east, most of Russia and a couple of provinces formerly belonging to PL. I even clashed with Spain for control of the old Incan provinces, because they kept expelling my traders, thus giving me a free CB...
Their is one, slightly annoying problem with the Mughals however: Around 1650 they get a seriously incompetent ruler, who lives for about 60 or so years. During his reign all sorts of bad, bad random events occur. Especially the -1 stab/-1/2 of investments in trade and infrastructure event is rampant. I think I was hit by it 10-15 times during those years. Random uprisings are also legio. At one point 3/4 of my troops "joined the rebels" (in the viscinity of 400.000 men) and 20 or so provinces rebelled. This was just a random event - not the effect of instability, war or religious intolerance!
But of course this can be remedied by turning of random events ... if that's your style
