Few historical figures have been as wrongly named as Humayun – which means lucky. This son of Babur, inherited the Mughal Empire from his father Babur (See ‘An Empire Carved from Cannon Smoke’ – First Battle of Panipat and ‘Consolidating an Empire – Battle of Khanua’) and then spent the rest of his life trying to hold on to it. He spent his life almost as a figure on a chess board, moving from place to place, suffering defeat after defeat, till he finally re-established the Mughal Empire in India.
When Humayun ascended the throne in 1530 on the death of Babur, he had to contend with enemies all around. In Bengal and Bihar, the Afghans under Sher Shah Suri were on the rise. In Gujarat, Bahadur Shah was a major threat; the Rajputs were up in arms and his own brothers eyed his throne covetously.
Humayun spent most of his early years quelling rebellion after rebellion. In 1537 he rushed to Gujarat to defeat Bahadur Shah, only to rush back to Agra when Sher Shah Suri marched towards the city. Humayun managed to save his capital and forced Sher Shah to withdraw, but now the battle lines between the Mughal Empire and the rising power of Suri were being drawn.
Humayun Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri was a formidable opponent. He had risen from the ranks as a simple sepoy and got his name ‘Sher’ when he killed a tiger with his bare hands to save the Mughal Governor of Bihar. That act got him a position of prominence and he built upon it till he finally supplanted the Governor and took control of all of Bihar. In 1537, he captured and looted Gaur – the capital of Mughal Bengal and armed with its riches built up his own power in Bihar and Bengal.
Humayun could not let this rising threat go unchecked. In early 1539 he marched out with a huge army into Bihar to confront Suri. He captured Gaur and Charna, but in each battle he was being drawn deeper eastward and further from his own capital. In his long absence, his own brother now moved to usurp the throne.
With this new threat developing, Humayun rushed back toward Agra, only to find that Sher Shah had blocked his route back by positioning himself at Mungar on the Northern bank of the Ganges River. He was now forced to cross the Ganges and in doing so entered Sher Shah Suri’s territory where Suri held the advantage. Suri attacked and harassed the Mughals repeatedly forcing them to re-cross the Ganges at Bihiya and get back to the Northern side.
As Humayun resumed his march towards Agra, Sher Shah awaited him in the vicinity of Chausa. The two armies camped opposite each other for over three months – from April to June 1539 – with neither willing to go on the offensive. Sher Shah deliberately delayed the battle, knowing that the Mughal army was being gradually weakened through illness and the constant campaigning of the past few months. His own army was getting reinforced by his Afghan and Rajput allies. Humayun on the other hand was isolated. His appeals for help to his brothers were unanswered and he was literally on his own.
In June, as the rains set in a huge flash flood engulfed the Mughal camp which had been wrongly sited in the lowlands between the Ganges and the Karmanasa rivers. With the Mughal army in disarray, Sher Shah attacked. He divided his army in three divisions, one under his son Jalal Khan, one under his ablest General Khanwar Khan and the strongest division commanded personally by him. The three pronged attack ripped through the Mughal camp and the army disintegrated under the shock attack. Over 8000 Mughals were cut down, and twice as many drowned as they tried to cross the flooded Ganges. Humayun himself was carried across the river on an inflated water skin and he and the remnants of his army dragged their way back to Agra.
Flush with the victory, Sher Shah Suri took on the title of Sultan of Bihar and Bengal and began expanding his power Westwards towards Agra. Humayun managed to cling on to power and reconstituted his army. Humayun was forced to confront his old nemesis, just a year later, as Suri’s army came closer and closer towards Agra. He marched out to meet him and the two armies met on 17 May 1540 at Kannauj (250 kilometers East of Agra). Here Sher Shah, using superior tactics and field craft inflicted another crushing defeat on the Mughals forcing Humayun to flee to Agra and then to Lahore and Kabul.
Sher Shah took over the throne and established the Suri Empire. His five years of rule (1540 – 1545) were eventful and he proved himself to be a good administrator. He extended the Grand Trunk Road from Chittagong to Peshawar, building rest houses and water tanks along the way. He developed the concept of ‘Rupaya’ – a silver coin weighing exactly 178 grams, and copper coins called Paisa – a currency whose names remain even today. He introduced land reforms and fair taxation and ran a stable efficient government till his death in 1545.
And what of Humayun? He wandered in exile for 15 years – a king on a chessboard moving from place to place. Then the Suri Empire was weakened by the death of Sher Shah Suri’s son Islam Shah in 1554. Seizing his moment, Humayun marched back and defeated the Afghans in the Battle of Sirhind in 1555. Once again, the Mughal Empire re-established itself in India. This time it would be for keeps.