Sher Shah Suri

Also called: Farid Khan, Sher Khan · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"

Meaning

Sher Shah Suri (born Farid Khan, later called Sher Khan) was an Afghan leader from Bihar. He defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun at Chausa (1539) and Kannauj (1540), founded the Sur dynasty, and ruled north India from 1540 to 1545. [3]

He ruled for only about five years. But his work on coins, roads, the post and land revenue lasted much longer than his empire. Akbar later built the Mughal state on top of it.

Explanation

Background: how an Afghan chief rose against the Mughals

• Humayun took over a weak, new empire. After Babur died, the Mughal hold on India was still shaky:
• Afghan nobles in the east (Bihar, Bengal) had never accepted Mughal rule.
• Babur left no settled system for collecting revenue or paying the army.

• By Mughal custom, brothers got a share of power. Humayun's brother Kamran held Kabul and Punjab and did not help him.

• Sher Shah used this weakness. He first built up his power in Bihar and Bengal, far from the Mughal centre. Then he attacked Humayun.

The sequence of events

• 26 June 1539 – Battle of Chausa. Sher Shah defeated Humayun. [3]
• May 1540 – Battle of Kannauj. Humayun lost again and fled India. [3]
• 1540. Sher Shah already held Bengal, Bihar and north India, and he set up the Sur dynasty. [3]
• 1540–1545. Sher Shah ruled as emperor. [2]
• 22 May 1545. Sher Shah died. [3]
• After 1545. The Sur dynasty went on under later Suri rulers. Humayun took back Lahore, Agra and Delhi in 1555. [3] The Surs' last stand came at the Second Battle of Panipat (5 November 1556), where their general Hemu lost to Akbar. [6]

Main reforms

• Coins: the tri-metallic system. Tri-metallic means coins in three metals used side by side. [2]
• Silver rupiya, weighing 178 grains. It is the direct ancestor of today's rupee, and its design stayed almost the same into the early 20th century. [2]
• Gold mohur, weighing 169 grains. [2]
• Copper dam. [2]

• The RBI says this system was "largely the creation, not of the Mughals but of Sher Shah Suri". [2]

• Roads. [4]

• He rebuilt the old imperial highway, the Grand Trunk Road, from Bengal to Peshawar.
• He built a road from Agra to Jodhpur and Chittor, which linked to the ports of Gujarat.

• He built a third road from Lahore to Multan.

• Sarais. He built many sarais (roadside rest houses where travellers and traders could sleep, eat and change horses) along these roads. [4] They served as trade stops and also as relay points for the post.

• Kos minars. These were tall, round brick pillars. Each one marked a distance of 1 kos (about 3 km), so travellers knew how far they had come. [4]
• Postal service. He ran a regular post carried by horse riders along the same roads. [4]
• Land revenue and administration. He reorganised the administration. Land was measured and the peasant's share was fixed, so a farmer knew in advance what he owed. [4]

Results and legacy

• The empire did not last, but the system did. The Sur dynasty fell in 1556. Akbar's revenue system grew out of Sher Shah's measured-land method. [4]
• A lasting currency. The silver rupiya became the basis of the rupee. [2]
• A lasting road network. The Grand Trunk Road, the sarais and the kos minars tied north India together for trade, the post and the army.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the early 16th century, between Babur's death and Akbar's rise. Sher Shah ruled 1540–1545. [2]
• Dynasty: Sur dynasty (Afghan). He founded it, and later Suri rulers carried it on until 1556.
• Region: his power base was Bihar and Bengal, and he then took over north India. [3] His battles were at Chausa and Kannauj.
• Key people:
• Humayun, the Mughal emperor he defeated.
• Kamran, Humayun's brother, who did not help Humayun.
• Akbar, who later built on his reforms.

• Hemu, the wazir (chief minister) under a later Suri ruler.

• Monument: Sher Shah's tomb at Sasaram, Bihar. It is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India. [5]

• How we know:
• The coins themselves: the rupiya, mohur and dam, with their fixed weights. RBI records describe them. [2]
• Physical remains: the Sasaram tomb [5], and the roads, sarais and kos minars. [4]
• Standard accounts of the battles of Chausa and Kannauj. [3]

Don't confuse with

• Sur dynasty (1540–1556) vs Sher Shah's reign (1540–1545): Sher Shah ruled only until his death in 1545. The dynasty went on under later Suri rulers until Panipat II in 1556.
• Second Battle of Panipat (1556): it was fought between Akbar and Hemu, the Sur general and wazir. Sher Shah was not alive for it; he died in 1545. [6]
• Grand Trunk Road "builder": Sher Shah rebuilt an old imperial highway (Bengal to Peshawar). He did not create the route from nothing. [4]
• Mughal coinage: the rupiya–mohur–dam system is often credited to the Mughals. The RBI credits it to Sher Shah, and the Mughals continued it. [2]

Prelims Hooks

• Battle of Chausa, 26 June 1539 → Sher Shah defeated Humayun. Battle of Kannauj, May 1540 → Humayun fled and the Sur dynasty began. [3]
• Order of events: Chausa (1539) → Kannauj (1540) → Sher Shah dies (22 May 1545) → Humayun recovers Delhi (1555) → Panipat II (1556). [3][6]
• Silver rupiya = 178 grains, gold mohur = 169 grains, copper = dam. [2]
• Kos minar marked 1 kos ≈ 3 km. [4]
• Sher Shah's tomb → Sasaram, Bihar (ASI-protected). [5]
• Trap: the tri-metallic coin system was Sher Shah's creation, not the Mughals', according to the RBI. [2]

Mains Points

• The Sur interlude laid the foundation of Mughal administration rather than breaking it.
• Sher Shah's land measurement, standard coins and road-sarai-post network gave Akbar a ready-made state machine.

• The Mughal empire restored in 1556 was a Mughal crown resting on an Afghan administrative frame.

• Why Sher Shah won and Humayun lost: institutions beat inheritance.

• Humayun had a newly conquered state, brothers who claimed shares of power, and no fixed revenue base.
• Sher Shah had a tight regional base in Bihar–Bengal, and he then built systems for revenue and communication.

• This is a useful example for questions on why empires fail in their second generation.

• Continuity across dynasties. The rupiya [2], the Grand Trunk Road and the revenue methods [4] outlived a dynasty that lasted less than 20 years. This shows that good administration in medieval India could outlast the ruling house that created it.

Related concepts

• Humayun
• Battle of Chausa
• Battle of Kannauj
• Grand Trunk Road
• Rohtas Fort
• Purana Qila
• Sher Shah's tomb, Sasaram
• Humayun-nama
• Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad
• Hemu

Read more

• Humayun, the Surs and Hemu