The Mughal Empire: Political History, Consolidation and Decline — Part 2: Humayun and Sher Shah
Part 2: Humayun — battles of Chausa (1539) and Kanauj (1540); exile at Safavid court; Sher Shah Suri's reforms (patta-qabuliyat, sarkar-pargana, Grand Trunk Road, silver rupiya); Humayun's restoration (1555).
Medieval India — Part 2 of 5
2. Humayun (1530–1556): Struggle and Restoration
Nasruddin Muhammad Humayun inherited an empire that was barely consolidated. He faced three simultaneous threats: his own brothers (Kamran, Askari, Hindal), the Afghan resurgence under Sher Shah Suri, and the Gujarat Sultanate under Bahadur Shah.
Early Difficulties
Humayun's campaigns against Gujarat (1535) and Bengal were initially successful but left his flanks exposed. His tendency toward indecision and his inability to unite the Mughal nobility around a single strategic objective compounded political difficulties. Contemporary sources, including Gulbadan Begum's Humayun Nama, record the turbulence of these years from within the imperial household.
Sher Shah Suri Interregnum (1540–1555)
Sher Shah Suri (Farid Khan), an Afghan noble who had served the Bengal Sultanate, rose to challenge Mughal power. At the Battle of Chausa (1539), Humayun was routed and barely escaped drowning in the Ganga. The decisive defeat came at the Battle of Kanauj (Bilgram, 1540), which forced Humayun to flee India. He spent fifteen years in exile — first in Sind, then at the Safavid court of Shah Tahmasp in Persia, who provided military assistance.
Sher Shah's Administrative Reforms (1540–1545)
Sher Shah governed for barely five years before dying in a gunpowder explosion at the siege of Kalinjar (1545), yet his administrative contributions were foundational:
- Revenue settlement: Patta (deed of grant) and qabuliyat (deed of acceptance) established direct revenue contracts with peasants, bypassing intermediaries.
- Land measurement: The sikandra gaz (a standardised measuring rod) brought uniformity to land assessment.
- Sarkar-pargana administrative hierarchy: 66 sarkars divided into parganas, each with a shiqqdar (executive) and amil or munsif (revenue officer). As the sources record, by the time of Sher Shah the shiqq had emerged as a well-defined administrative unit known as the sarkar. This structure was later refined and systematised by Akbar.
- Grand Trunk Road: Rebuilt from Sonargaon in Bengal to Peshawar; sarais (rest-houses) placed at regular intervals.
- Currency reform: Introduced the silver rupiya of uniform weight and purity — the direct ancestor of the Indian rupee.
Restoration (1555–1556)
After Sher Shah's successors weakened through internecine conflict, Humayun reconquered Delhi in 1555. His restoration was tragically brief: he died on 27 January 1556 after falling down the stairs of his library at Sher Mandal, Delhi. He was succeeded by his thirteen-year-old son, Akbar, with the able regent Bairam Khan guiding the young emperor.