Afghan Rule In Bihar

With the fall of the Nuhanis, Sher Shah emerged as the new leader of the Afghans in Bihar.

Sher Shah Suri (1540-1545 AD)

• Sher Shah was born in 1472 AD from the womb of an Afghan woman in a place called Baijwada (Hoshiarpur). Sher Shah’s ancestors initially lived in Rahari village of Afghanistan.
• Farid Khan alias Shershah was the son of Hasan Khan Sur, Jagirdar of Sasaram in Bihar.
• Sher Khan’s grandfather Ibrahim Khan came to India during the reign of Sultanate ruler Bahlol Lodi.
• After completing his education in Jaunpur, Farid was engaged in managing his father’s estate in Sasaram.
• The childhood name of Sher Shah was Farid Khan. In his childhood, Farid Khan had killed a lion with a single stroke of the sword, which pleased Sultan Mohammad Bahar Khan Nuhani, the Afghan ruler in Bihar gave him the title of Sher Khan.
• Sher Khan fought on the side of the Mughals in the Battle of Chanderi. At the same time he said that, “if luck is on my side, I will easily chase away the Mughals out of India one day”.
• After defeating Nusrat Shah, the ruler of Bengal in 1529 AD, Sher Khan assumed the title of Hazrat-Ala.
• In 1530, Sher Khan married Lad Malika, the widow of Taj Khan, the former Subedar of Chunar. This greatly increased his economic and military power.
• Sher Khan supported Mahmud Lodi in the Battle of Dauharia (1532 AD).
• On June 10, 1540, Sher Shah was duly coronated in
• He also assumed the title of Sultan-i-Adil.
• Sher Shah attacked Malwa in 1542 AD and captured it.
• While returning from Malwa, he also captured
• In 1543 AD, Sher Shah attacked Raisin and treacherously killed the Rajput ruler Puranmal During this invasion, women committed Jauhar.
• In 1544 AD, Sher Shah attacked Maldev, the ruler of Marwar.
• In this war, Rajput chieftains ‘Jayta’ and ‘Kuppa’ displayed great bravery.
• Sher Shah had said during the Marwar war itself that “he had almost lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of millet”.
• In 1545 AD, Sher Shah made his last attack on Kalinjar whose ruler was Kirat Singh.
• During the Kalinjar campaign, when Sher Shah was operating a firearm named Ukka, a shell hit the fort wall and fell on the gunpowder kept nearby, producing fire and killing him. He was 73 years old at the time of his death.
• The last Subedar of Bihar appointed by Sher Shah was Suleman Khan.
• According to Tarikh-e-Daudi, composed by Abdullah, Sher Shah built a fort in Patna during his reign and made this city the capital of Bihar again in 1541.
• In order to stop the activism of the Mughals in the North-Western Province, Sher Shah built a fort named Rohtasgarh in Sindh.
• There is evidence of a fortified palace ‘Shergarh, 20 miles south-west of Sasaram, which was built during the reign of Sher Shah.
• Sher Shah built or renovated many forts with the aim of improving his military administration. Among these, fort at Chittor, Gwalior, Chunar and Rohtas in Bihar are the most prominent.
• During the period of Sher Shah, Persian and Sanskrit were used for writing on the buildings.
• There is evidence of a Sher Shahi mosque built by Sher Shah in Patna city.

Sher Shah’s Tomb

• The construction of ‘Sher Shah’s Tomb’ (one of the finest examples of ‘Indo-Islamic architecture) at Sasaram (Rohtas) was started by Sher Shah Suri himself during his lifetime, but after his death in the battle of Kalinjar, it was completed by his son Islam Shah, Sher Shah’s tomb is in the center of the mausoleum and there are 24 other tombs side by side.
• The tomb of Sher Shah Suri was designed by Mir Muhammad Aliwal Khan, a famous architect of that time, and constructed between 1540 and It is a mausoleum (122 ft/ 37 m high) made of red sandstone near Kaimur, which stands in an artificial lake spread over 52 acres. This tomb is built in an octagonal shape.
• The dome of the mausoleum comes second only to the Bijapur dome in the world.

Note: The road known as Uttarapatha in ancient times was reconstructed by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century, which became famous as Sadak-e- Azam and Badshahi Sadak Later the name of this road was changed to Grand Trunk Road by the British in the 17th century. The archaeological remains of this ancient route have been found in Bihar in Barunand Dehri in Son river in the form of a strong bridge made of about 4 kilometers long limestone-sunkhi and stone pieces, it was discovered in the year 2016-17 by Shankar Sharma of the Archaeological Survey of India. This discovery has been considered a very important evidence from the archaeological point of view. Earlier this Sadak-e-Azam (highway) used to stretch from today’s Kabul to Dhaka.

• Determining the rent by measuring the land correctly is considered to be the biggest achievement of Sher Shah. This land revenue system is called Jabti system, Later, this system was adopted by Akbar after making some changes.
• Sher Shah had adopted Todermal’s Jabti system for land revenue recovery in his rule. Therefore, Sher Shah is considered as the father of Jabti system.
• He also started the practice of Patta and
• Sher Shah introduced a silver coin of 178 grains and a copper coin of 380 grains.
• Shershah got the Old Fort built in Delhi by breaking the Din Panah built by Humayun. A mosque named Qila-e-Kuhna was also built inside this fort by Sher Shah.
• In the words of the famous historian Keane, no government, not even the British government, showed so much wisdom as this Pathan.
• After the death of Sher Shah, his son Islam Shah ascended the throne of Delhi. After the death of Islam Shah in 1555 AD, Humayun again became the ruler of Delhi after defeating the Afghans badly.