“Lion Lord” The Sher Shah Suri & His Road To Glory

?proof of good governance and administrative skill in the administration of the country as Sher Shah Suri did."

There is no doubt that the deeds performed by Sher Shah Suri, who ruled India for only five years, were not only appreciated by the Mughals but also by the British.?On the contrary, there are some of his deeds which the British themselves were forced to adopt.?To find out who Sher Shah Suri was, let's first look at his family background.

Sher Shah Suri belonged to the Sur tribe.?The ancestor of this tribe, Amjad Muhammad Sur, is said to belong to the Ghauri family.?After coming to Afghanistan, he married the daughter of a chief and settled there.?This was the time when Delhi was ruled by Sultan Bahlol Lodhi, the chief of the Sahukhel tribe of Afghanistan.?The Sultan wanted more Afghans to settle in India.?He promised to provide Afghans with jobs, estates and livelihoods.?Seeing their generosity, a large number of Afghans migrated and settled in Delhi and surrounding areas.?Among those emigrants, Sher Shah's grandfather Ibrahim Khan from the Sur tribe also came to India with his son.?Arriving in India, he was employed by a Sardar Jamal Khan Sarang Khani and received many villages and an army of forty horsemen as a gift for his unparalleled service.

Sher Shah's father had four marriages in his life and they had eight sons.?Sher Shah was the eldest of his eight brothers.?He was born in 1486 AD in Feroze area of Delhi and was named Farid Khan.?A few years after the birth of Sher Shah, his grandfather Ibrahim Khan died and Omar Khan, a minister of Sultan Bahlol, gave Sahasram and some more lands in Rohtas district as a gift to Sher Shah's father.?Disagreements arose between the stepmother and the brothers over the division of these estates and they returned to Junpur in anger.?After coming here, he got a job with Jamal Khan Sarang Khani.?During this job he also paid attention to his education and studied different religions besides Arabic and Persian.?After some time Jamal Khan reconciled the father and son and Sher Shah got the jagir of Sahasram and Khawaspur.

When Sher Shah took over the management of these areas, he implemented many reforms due to which the discussion of his good governance started spreading far and wide.?But due to some family differences, he left the jagir and came to a Mughal governor, Bihar Khan Lohani, who was then ruling over the areas which included Sher Shah's jagir.?It was Bihar Khan Lohani who once gave him the title of Sher Khan for hunting a lion.

This was the period when the rule of Lodhis was coming to an end and the sun of Mughal Empire was rising over India.?In those days some differences arose between Bihar Khan and Sher Shah, after which he joined Babar's army in 1527 AD after the battle of Khanwa.?After serving in the Mughal army for almost a year and a half, he regained his estate.?During this period, Emperor Babar had closely watched Sher Shah's leadership abilities and feared their growing influence.?On the other hand, Sher Shah also became alert and from there he once again came to the court of Bihar Khan Lohani, the ruler of Bihar.?Bihar Khan forgot the differences and appointed him as his son's mentor.?Shortly after the death of Bihar Khan Lohani, Sher Shah took over the entire administration of Bihar.

On the other hand, Emperor Babar also died in 1530 AD and Humayun took the throne.?At the same time there were differences with the Lohani tribes of Sher Shah and the administration of Bihar passed to the ruler of Bengal.?Sher Shah combined several Afghan tribes to form a large army and in 1533, using a very strategic strategy, defeated the Bengali army.?After this battle, Sher Shah's spirits soared.

His next battle after the conquest of Bengal was the fort of Chinar in Uttar Pradesh.?This fort was considered one of the strongest forts in India at that time and was owned by a Sardar Taj Khan Sarang.?He did not have to make much effort to conquer the fort as Taj Khan was killed by his son and Sher Shah married his wife.?Due to this victory, immense wealth came into their hands.

When Humayun heard of the Afghan conquests, he marched from Agra to Lucknow to fight.?At that time the chief of the Afghan tribes was Sultan Mahmud Shah.?This war took place in 1537.?During the war Sher Shah secretly sent a message to Humayun that he would not join the battle and would get out of the middle on the very occasion of the battle and that is what happened.?Therefore, with the departure of Sher Shah, Humayun achieved a great victory.?Two years after this battle, Humayun again marched with troops but this time Sher Shah Suri was in front of him.?Sher Shah defeated him in the battle of Chosa in 1539, and Fariduddin proclaimed his kingdom by adopting the title of Sher Shah Suri.

A year later, the defeated Humayun gathered an army of 100,000 and returned to Sher Shah.?The two armies met at Qanooj but once again Humayun was defeated.?After this defeat, Humayun was forced to leave India.?After his victory in this war, Sher Shah became known as the emperor of the whole of northern India.

Sher Shah, by the way, spent only five years as emperor, but in those five years he did things that perhaps no one can do till today.?His greatest achievement was to determine the rating and value of coins and rupees.?This is a testament to his foresight and wisdom even today.?They called the silver coin a rupee, the copper coin a price, and the gold coin a seal.?This name is still used in the subcontinent and in many countries of the world.?The currency system that was introduced during his reign was continued by the Mughal rulers who came after him and even the British government with a slight change.

In addition, another great achievement of Sher Shah is the construction and expansion of the General Road and the highways built during the reign of the Indian King Chandragupta Morya in BC.?The most spectacular of these highways is the Grand Trunk Road, the GT Road.?This highway is about 2500 km long and runs from Bengal to Kabul.?One road runs from Agra to Burhan Bor, one road from Agra to Rajasthan and one highway from Multan to Lahore.?These highways still exist in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan under different names.

Sher Shah Suri is also credited with planting trees around the major highways of India and constructing about 1700 such inns where passenger accommodation was arranged.?These inns were staffed round the clock to protect the lives and property of mosques, wells and travelers.?Food and drink were arranged separately for both Hindus and Muslims and all these arrangements were borne by the state.

Apart from all these achievements, his most important achievement was some of the agrarian reforms which made the farmers of that time prosperous.?He set the scale for measuring the land of farmers all over India.?Introduced tax system according to these criteria.?Thanks to these agrarian reforms, a department like Land Records was established.?These agrarian reforms of Sher Shah were such a wise act that later rulers were also forced to adopt them.

Sher Shah built many forts in his life which still show his glorious past.?One of them is Shergarh Fort which is located in Bihar province.?The fort was built between 1540 and 1545 and was named after Sher Shah Suri.?Apart from this, his great constructions include the old fort of Delhi which was started by Humayun in his time but further expansion and repair of this fort in 1541 is the work of Sher Shah Suri.?Apart from this, Rohtas fort on the banks of Jhelum river in Jhelum district of Pakistan is also one of their magnificent structures.?The fort was built in 1542 and is considered one of the most popular historical sites in Pakistan today.?He also built many small and large forts, including his own tomb in the Sahasram area of Bihar, which was completed by his son after his death.

Along with all these feats, Sher Shah Suri also continued the series of victories.?In connection with these conquests, he led his army to conquer the fort of Kalingar in Madhya Pradesh.?It is said that Sher Shah first ordered only rain of arrows and bullets on the fort as he wanted to capture a dancer named Patar alive in the fort.?Raja Kirat Singh, the ruler of Kalingar fort, fought hard and closed the fort.?Eventually Sher Shah ordered the army to shell the fort.?As a result of this shelling, a shell hit the wall and returned, injuring Sher Shah.?According to his wish, he was buried in Sahasram's tomb in Bihar province.

Note: The organization does not necessarily agree with the author's views and the content presented

Afghan, Sher Shah Suri( 1486-1545)

An ethnic Afghan, Sher Shah Suri( 1486-1545) also known as Farid Khan laid the foundation of the Suri Empire in Bihar. He was a great warrior, an eminent leader, a great strategist, and also a powerful administrator. Sher Shah Suri took over the Mughal empire in 1538 by defeating the Mughal emperor Humayun. He established the capital of the Suri dynasty at Sasaram, Bihar.

He was born in Sasaram and later on fled to Juanpur, Uttar Pradesh to serve its governor Jamal Khan. Sher khan served under the Bahar Khan Lohani who was the Governor of Bihar. He had later on rewarded him the title ‘Sher Shah’ when he killed a tiger which leaped upon Lohani. After his death, Sher Khan became the regent ruler in Bihar under the sultan Jalal khan.

By seeing his growing rule in Bihar, Jalal Khan with assistance from Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah sent an army. Sher Khan defeated the army under General Ibrahim Khan at the Battle of Surajgarh in 1534. It led to Sher Khan having complete control of Bihar. In 1538, he attacked Bengal which was ruled by Mahmud Shah. This strike was a failure because Humayan rose to power.

Sher Khan was a man of determination. He struck again against Humayun in the battle of Chausa in 1539 and defeated him. Moreover, in 1540, he forced Humayun to leave India after defeating him at Kannauj. After the fled of Humayun, he laid the foundation of the Suri dynasty. Suri destroyed the old cities captured by him. He introduced the term Rupiya which is still the national currency of India.

Sher Shah Suri was a remarkable architect and built several monuments. The Grand Trunk Road was rebuilt and modernized under?his supervision. The Rohtas Fort( now in Pakistan), Sher Shah Suri Masjid in Patna, Qila-a-Kuhna in Delhi, and the Sher Mandal are some of his astounding works. Sher Shah Suri had proved himself that he was a man of wisdom and courage and he had left a legacy behind him.

But soon after his sudden death in 1545 during the siege of Kailnjar Fort, the Suri Dynasty couldn’t last long. The 16 years long rule came to an end in 1556 when the Mughal emperor defeated the last ruler Adil Shah Suri. The restoration of the Mughal dynasty with Humayun as the King took place soon after.