Sher Shah
Suri
 |
Sher Shah
Suri
|
The early
name of Sher Shah was Farid. He was the grandson of Ibrahim Sur and the name of
his father was Hassan Khan Sur. His grandfather came to Hindustan from
Afghanistan in search of employment and settled in the pargana of Bajwara. It
was situated about two miles southeast of Hastinapur in Punjab. At this very place a wife of Hasan
Khan Sur gave birth to Farid in A.D. 1472. There is great controversy about the
dated of birth of Farid. A few days after the brith of Farid his grandfather
Ibrahim sur joined the service of Jamal Khan Saranglani and was employed with
Khan-i-Alam Umar Khan. After some time Hasan went in the service of Jamal Khan
and when Siander Lodi transferred Jamal Khan to Jaunpur, during the reign of
Sikander Lodi, he took with him Sher Shah’s father Hasan Khan as he was much
pleased with his devoted services. His
master gave him the parganas of Sasaram, Khawaspur and Tanda near Banaras.
Hasan was
undoubtedly a successful and worthy soldier but he lacked domestic
arrangements. He had four wives and eight sons. Farid Khan and Nizam Khan were
born of an Afghan mother whereas Sulaiman and Ahmad were born of another wife
and the rest were born of slave girls. Hasan had no love for the mother of
Farid but he loved very much the mother of Sulaiman and Ahmad. Therefore, Farid
and his mother could not enjoy the love of Hasan Khan. As there was a great
tension between father and son, hot words often passed between the two. Being
rebuked by his father and feeling offended, Farid went to Jamal Khan at
Jaunpur.
As during
this period Jaunpur was a centre of education and learning, he employed himself
to the study of Arabic and the biographies of most of the kings of ancient
times. He had got by heart the Sikandar-Nama,
Gulistan, Bostan, etc. He also had interest in Hindi, History and
Arithmetic. Soon he earned fame and name in entire Janupur due to his
politeness, labour, manly activities and extraordinary wisdom. Jamal Khan, the
master of his father, was also one of his fans. During his stay in Jaunpur Farid
Khan also received practical knowledge of civil and military affairs of the
state. His ability and capability impressed Jamal Khan so much that he took
initiative and brought about reconciliation between father and son.
When
father and son were reconciled, Farid was given charge of two parganas of
Sasaram and Khawaspur. He continued to make arrangements of these Jagirs from
A.D. 1497 to 1518 very efficiently. He did not allow any noble or Zamindar to
raise his head high, and established law and order in the country. He gave
unmistakable evidence of his executive abilities and genius in the field of
revenue. Abbas Khan Sarwani quotes his views, “I shall devote myself to
increase the prosperity of the district and that depends on a just
administration.” While fixing the land revenue, measuring the land and at the
time of classification of land, he paid proper attention to the interests of
the peasants. He punished the corrupt officers if they tried to cheat the
peasants. The Afghans also were not spared in this matter.
The
successes of Farid enhanced the jealousies of his stepmother and she along with
his sons began to pour venom against Farid as a result of which once again in
A.D. 1518 he had to leave Bihar for Agra. He appealed to Sultan Ibrahim Lodi that
the Jagirs of his father be given to him but the Sultan did not agree to his
request, rather he did not like his attitude for he went to the Sultan against
his father Hasan. But Hasan did not survive long and now Sultan Ibrahim Lodi
had no hesitation in granting the Jagirs of Hasan Khan to Farid. Thus, armed
with the authority of the royal Firman, Farid returned to Sasaram in A.D.
1520-21 and established his control over Sasaram, Khawaspur and Tanda.
In spite
of the fact that the Jagirs of his father were allotted to him by sultan
Ibrahim Lodi, the dispute of succession did not end and conflicts went on. His
step-brother Sulaiman who was looking after the Jagirs of his father prior to
him, invite Muhammad Khan Sur of chand in shahpur district to interfere in this
issue of succession. Muhammad had bad blood with Hasan and so he advised the
division of the Jagir but Farid did not agree to it and joined the service of
Behar Khan Lohani who was the Governor of sourth Bihar. Behar Khan was very
pleased with the efficient services of Farid. One day he went with his master
on a hunting expedition and killed a lion with one stroke of his sword. Behar
Khan was much pleased with his bravery and bestowed the title of Sher Khan on
him. After some time, he was appointed teacher of Behar Khan’s infant son Jalal
Khan as well as the deputy governor of the province.
The rise
of Sher Khan was not appreciated by the Lohani nobles and other Pathans, so
they created a rift between Behar Khan and Sher Khan. As a result, Sher Khan,
leaving the services of Lohani Khan, joined Babur, the founder of the Mughal
Empire in India. He was planning to get back his Jagir with the help of the
Mughal emperor and with this end in view he made contacts with Junaid Barlas,
an officer in Mughal services. Sher Khan was recruited in the army of the
Mughals in A.D. 1520. He rendered efficient and significant services to his
master when he invaded the Afghans of Bihar. In A.D. 1528, he received back his
lost Jagir but he could not remain in the employment of the Mughals for a long
time.
Once again he went back in the court of Behar
Khan alias Muhammad Shah in south Bihar where after the death of Behar Khan,
his son Jalal Khan a minor, was enthroned under the regency of his mother. The
widow mother of Jalal Khan appointed Sher Khan his Vakil and helper. He served
the infant Sultan with great sincerity and made utmost efforts to remove the
military weaknesses in order to strengthen the position of the Sultan. Sher
Khan was also not careless towards his own existence and consolidated his own
position and formed a group of his well tested Afghans. Most of the members of
this group belonged to Sur clan. He appointed them to higher and lucrative
posts.
No doubt, Sher Khan had achieved prominence
but he had yet to surpass some impediments before establishing his existence as
national leader of the Afghans. Just after a year with the coming of Mahmood
Lodi, the younger brother of Ibrahim Lodi, in Bihar, his stars began to fade.
He was a staunch contender to the throne of Delhi. Though he was defeated twice
yet he did not give up his hope altogether. After reaching Bihar he wanted to
bring all the Afghans under his flag in order to establish Afghan rule in India
once again. Sher Khan also had to associate with him in the battle of Ghaghara
in A.D. 1529. Soon after the collapse of the Afghans, Sher khan submitted to Babur. He was restored to his previous position but was liable to pay annual
tribute to the Mughal Emperor. Sher Khan once again devoted himself to the work
of administration and established law and order in his territory. After the
death of Dadu Bibi, the mother and regent of the infant ruler, Sher Khan became
the regent and the de facto ruler of south Bihar.
The
honorable position of Sher Khan once again offended the Lahore and Fermuli
Afghans and they moved heaven and earth to uproot him from his prize position
but by this time Sher Shah had established himself quite firmly. However, in
order to please his co-religionists, he agreed to share the responsibility of
the state with them but they did not accept his proposal. Not only this, they
captured the infant Sultan and ran away to Bengal, so that they might secure
the support and cooperation of the ruler of Bengal against Sher Khan whom they
took to be a usurper.
After the
departure of Jalal Khan from South Bihar he became the virtual ruler of Bihar
but he did not assume the royal title and contented himself with the little of
Hazrat-i-Ala. As Taj Khan the Mughal Governor of Chunargarh fort, was put to death
by his own son, Sher Khan married his widow Lad Malka and received the fort of
Chunar as well as a huge amount of wealth in dowry. It cemented his military
and economic position and accelerated his ambitious for further conquests.
Abbas Sarwani writes that besides the fort Sher Shah received as a gift “150
exceedingly valuable jewels, seven maunds of pearls, 150 maunds of gold and
many other articles and ornaments” from his queen. Historians hold different
opinion regarding the date of coronation of Sher Khan. Dr Qanungo refers to two
coronation ceremonies of Sher Shah. The first was performed in March A.D. 1538
when he was waging war against Humayun and second was performed in A.D. 1539,
when he reached Gour after the battle of Chausa.
Sher Shah
was quite old, almost sixty-eight, when he became the emperor of India. So he
could not enjoy the fruits of his hard Labour for a long time. He often used to
lament that God had made him king “In the evening of his life.” He could rule only for five
years but he was still quite powerful. He paid personal attention to the organization
of the army and training of is soldiers. He not only commanded his army
efficiently but also fought bravely if the occasion demanded. He made some
significant victories during his reign and introduced efficient administration
for his empire. Sher Shah
breathed his last on 22nd May A.D.
1545.
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