The Battle Chausa

The Battle of Chausa

Occurred in June 26, A.D. 1539

Between – Humayun and Sher Khan

The Battle Chausa

Jauhar, a personal attendant of Humayun, states about his activities in Bengal, “He divided the province into Jagirs among his officers, after which he, very unaccountably, shut himself up in his harem, and abandoned himself to every kind of indulgence and luxury.” In the Meanwhile Sher Khan established his control over Kara, Banaras, Sambhal and also besieged Chunargarh and Jaunpur and cut off the contracts of Humayun with Agra. After some time this alarming news was delivered to Humayun regarding the activities of Sher Khan and impertinence of Hindal. Leaving Bengal under the charge of Jahangir Ouli Beg, he at once marched towards Agra in A.D. 1539.

In order to put pressure upon Sher Khan, Humayun took the route of the Grand Turnk Road. Dr. A.L. Srivastava condemns this policy of Humayun whereas Dr. R.P. Tripathi feels that it was th most appropriate route as Mughals knew its geography very well. But this entire region was under the firm control of Sher Khan and his spies were keeping a close watch on the activities of Humayun. As Sher Khan was a great diplomat he provoked Humayun for recrossing the Ganga to its southern bank at Chausa and succeeded in his mission. Sher Khan also reached there. Both the armies remained encamped face to face for about three months. If Humayun had taken initiative and attacked the Afghans forthwith, he must have achieved victory, but Sher Khan was clever enough to indulge him in negotiations for peace. In fact, Sher Khan was waiting for the beginning of the rains which would have created problems for the Mughals for they were encamping in a lower land between the two rivers, viz, the Ganga and the Karmanasa.

With the beginning of the rains, the Mughal camp was filled with water of the two rivers which caused a lot of trouble to the Mughal army. Their entire arrangements went to dogs and they felt themselves on tenterhooks. At this juncture, Sher Khan prepared his army for attack and gave an impression that he was going to attack a tribal chief named Maharatha chero in Bihar. When the Mughal army saw the Afghan forces going towards Shahabad, the state of the tribal chief, they became careless. Sher Khan came back in the night and made a surprise attack on the Mughal forces from there directions. It created a lot of confusion among the soldiers of the Mughal Army and they ran here and there in order to save their life but a great number of them were killed by the Afghans and about 8000 of them were drowned in the flooded Ganga. Humayun himself was at the verge of drowning when a water-carrier Nizam rescued his life with the help of his Mashak. Ferishta writes that Humayun rewarded the water-carrier with the grant of kingship for half a day and permitted him to sit on the throne. Jauhar mentions that he was allowed to sit on the throne for two hours but Gul Badan remarks that Nizam saqqa was granted royalty for two days.

The entire camp of the Mughals along with their artillery and harem was captured by Sher Khan. She Khan treated the ladies of the harem very kindly and made arrangements for their safe return to Humayun.

Milan Tomic

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