78.147.28.16 at 17:13, 14 December 2022

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{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of Ghaghra
| partof = [[Mughal Empire|Mughal conquests]]
| caption = Ghaghra River
| date = May 6, 1529
| place = [[Ghaghara River]], near [[Chhapra]], [[Bihar]]
| result = [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] victory
| territory = [[Bihar]] annexed by [[Mughal Empire]] including surrounding territories. Peace settlement with the [[Sultanate of Bengal]].
| combatant1 = [[Mughal Empire]]
| combatant2 = Eastern Afghan Confederacy [[Sultanate of Bengal]]
| commander1 = [[Babur]] [[Humayun]] [[Bairam Khan]] [[Askari Mirza]] [[Muhammad Zaman Mirza]] Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki Sultan Junaid Birlas [[Ustad Ali Quli]] [[Mustafa Rumi]]
| commander2 = [[Sultan]] [[Nusrat Shah]] [[Sultan]] [[Lodi dynasty#Mahmud Lodi|Mahmud Lodi]]{{KIA}} [[Sher Shah Suri]] Sultan Jalal ud-Din{{KIA}} Lohani{{KIA}} Bayezid{{KIA}} Biban{{KIA}} Fateh Khan Shirwani{{KIA}} Shah Muhammad Maaruf{{KIA}}
| strength1 = 50.000<ref> A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun, By William Erskine, Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854,Public Domain</ref>
| strength2 = 100.000<ref> A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun, By William Erskine, Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854,Public Domain</ref> 
100-150 Vessels
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}
{{Campaignbox Babur}}
The '''Battle of Ghaghra''', fought in 1529, was a great battle for the conquest of [[India]] by the [[Mughal Empire]]. It followed the first [[Battle of Panipat (1526)|Battle of Panipat]] in 1526 and the [[Battle of Khanwa]] in 1527. The forces of Mughal Emperor [[Babur]] of the emerging Mughal Empire were joined by Indian allies in battle against the Eastern Afghan Confederates under Sultan [[Lodi dynasty#Mahmud Lodi|Mahmud Lodi]] and [[Sultanate of Bengal]] under [[Sultan]] [[Nusrat Shah]].<ref name="lodi">{{cite book |last1=Joshi |first1=Rita |title=The Afghan Nobility and the Mughals: 1526-1707 |year=1985 |publisher=Vikas Publishing House |isbn=978-0-7069-2752-8 |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Afghan_Nobility_and_the_Mughals/qhhuAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Battle+of+Ghaghra%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Battle+of+Ghaghra%22+-wikipedia&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref>

== Background ==
Sultan [[Lodi dynasty#Mahmud Lodi|Mahmud Lodi]], who aspired to the throne of [[Delhi]] and who had been declared the rightful heir to the [[Delhi Sultanate]] by the Western Afghan Confederates and aided by the [[Rajput]] Confederates, was put to flight after the defeat at the [[Battle of Khanwa]] in 1527. He took refuge in [[Gujarat]]. After trying to get in touch with his kinsmen in the east he managed to join them. He at the head of the Eastern Afghan Confederates took [[Bihar]].
When Sultan Muhammad Shah Lohani, the [[Pashtun people|Pathan]] king of [[Bihar]] of the new dynasty, died, some time after Babur's expedition to [[Chanderi]], he was succeeded by his son Sultan Jalal ud-Din Lohani, a minor, and the chief management of affairs at least in Bihar then devolved on that prince's mother Dudu and on Farid Khan, better known as [[Sher Shah Suri]], who had already risen into distinction; that the country was distracted by the rival claims of the [[Lohani]] nobles related to the young king, of Baban and Bayezid whose influence was very extensive, of [[Sher Shah Suri]] and of other chiefs, and that these factions added to the effects of the discomfiture which the Pathans received in the preceding campaigns from the armies of [[Babur]] at length induced the young prince to take refuge in the territories of the [[Sultan]] of [[Bengal]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roy |first1=Manabendra Nath |title=The Radical Humanist |publisher=Maniben Kara |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/The_Radical_Humanist/qS0KAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Battle+of+Ghaghra%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Battle+of+Ghaghra%22+-wikipedia&printsec=frontcover |language=en}}</ref>

In this state of things the [[Afghans]] of [[Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh|Jaunpur]] and indeed of [[India]] in general, in order to avert the total ruin of their affairs and to unite all interests as far as was practicable, resolved to call in Sultan Mahmud Lodi who had already, with the support of [[Rana Sanga]], made an effort to mount the throne of [[Delhi]]. When defeated in that attempt he had retired to Gujarat. Afterwards he proceeded to Panna in [[Bundelkhand]] where he remained waiting for some favorable change of affairs and now accepted the invitation to ascend the throne of [[Bihar]] and Jaunpur. He was speedily joined by his countrymen from every quarter and seems to have taken possession of nearly the whole of [[Bihar]] without opposition. What excites most surprise is the secrecy and success with which intrigues and movements so extensive appear to have been conducted, a fact explained perhaps by the deep interest which every [[Pashtun people|Pathan]] felt in the national success and the fidelity which tribesmen show to their chiefs and to each other.

The day after receiving this news, [[Babur]] returned to [[Agra]], where he told his council he would immediately assume command of the eastern army. Taking with him such troops as were at hand, he set out on February 2, 1529, and crossing the [[Doab]], reached the right bank of the [[Ganges]] at Dakdaki on February 27, 1529. Here he was met by his son [[Humayun]], General Askari, and several generals who came from the other side. He arranged with them that while his army marched down the right bank of the river theirs should march down the left and should always encamp over against his.

The information which he received here was but little satisfactory. He found that the [[Pashtun people|Pathan]]s who were straining every nerve to recover their military and political ascendancy had gathered around Sultan Mahmud Lodi to the number of 100,000 men. The Sultan had detached Baban and Sheikh Bayezid with a large force to Sirwar while he himself with Fateh Khan Shirwani, the minister of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Lodi and of Sultan [[Ibrahim Lodi]] in succession by whom Mahmud had been joined and who had now deserted [[Babur]] as he had done his first master, kept along the [[Bihar]] bank of the [[Ganges]] and was marching on [[Chunar]]. [[Sher Shah Suri]], whom [[Babur]] had distinguished by marks of his favor having given him several perganas and entrusted him with a command, had joined the insurgents, had crossed the Ganges, and occupied [[Benares]] from which the officers of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, a descendant of the older dynasty of the country who held the city under Babur's authority had fled on his approach.<ref name="lodi"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Books |first1=L. L. C. |title=Lodi Dynasty: Battle of Ghaghra, Sikandar Lodi, Battle of Panipat |date=September 2010 |publisher=General Books LLC |isbn=978-1-158-27228-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YyLFbwAACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

There were therefore at this time three competitors for the Eastern or Sherki kingdom

*Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, the representative of the older kings who ruled the country before it was conquered by Sultan [[Sikander Lodi]]. He had lately submitted to [[Babur]] and sought his protection. His claims had become rather obsolete but seemed to have been revived at this period, and acknowledged by Babur, evidently to serve an immediate purpose.
*Sultan Jalal ud-Din Khan Lohani, whose father and grandfather had headed the revolt against Sultan [[Ibrahim Lodi]]. He was supported by many [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] nobles in [[Bihar]] but had lately been forced to seek refuge with the [[Monarch|Sultan]] of [[Bengal]], his ally.
*Sultan Mahmud Lodi, the brother of the late Sultan [[Ibrahim Lodi]] and the representative of the [[Lodi dynasty]] of [[Delhi]] whom the great body of the [[Pashtun people|Pathan]]s had now united to support in his claims not on [[Bihar]] merely, but on [[Delhi]] itself.

[[Babur]] informed of the real state of affairs continued his march down the banks of the Ganges. In passing [[Kara, Uttar Pradesh|Karra]], he was magnificently entertained by Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, the prince whose pretensions he favored and on whom he bestowed the nominal command of a division of his army. When he had made a march or two below that city the effects of his activity became visible. He learned that Sultan Mahmud Lodi, who had recently advanced to [[Chunar]] and even made an assault upon it, had no sooner received certain information of the Emperor's approach than filled with consternation he raised the siege and retreated in confusion and that [[Sher Shah Suri]] had in like manner abandoned [[Benares]] and recrossed the river with such precipitation that two of his boats were lost in the passage.

The imperial army having reached [[Allahabad]] where the [[Ganges]] and [[Yamuna]] rivers unite, their streams began on March 10, 1529 to cross the latter river to Priag whence [[Babur]] proceeded by [[Chunar]], [[Benares]] and [[Ghazipur]] hastening to attack Sultan Mahmud who had now taken a position behind the [[Son River]]. At [[Ghazipur]], Mahmud Khan Lohani, an Afghan of influence, came and submitted to him and while yet near the same place Sultan Jalal ud-Din Khan Lohani the expelled prince and still one of the competitors for the throne of [[Bihar]], [[Sher Shah Suri]] the future sovereign of [[Delhi]] and other Afghans of influence sent to tender their submission. This amounted to a breaking up of the [[Lohani]] dynasty of [[Bihar]] leaving only Sultan Mahmud Lodi and his adherents to be combated.

[[Babur]] now proceeded to cross the Kermnas and encamped beyond Chousa (that was to become celebrated by the calamity of his son) and Baksara or [[Buxar]]. Marching thence he found that Sultan Mahmud whose army had been daily suffering from defection and who had been lying not far off attended by only 2000 men had retired with precipitation on the approach of an advanced party of the imperial army had been pursued and several of his men slain. He also now took refuge with the army of [[Bengal]] which had crossed the Ganges probably in the intention of cooperating with him. [[Babur]] proceeded to the district of Ari in [[Bihar]] lying between the [[Ganges]] and the [[Son River]] at their confluence where he invested Muhammad Zaman Mirza with the government of [[Bihar]] and fixed the revenue to be paid out of that province. The Emperor had now arrived opposite to where the [[Ghaghara River]] (also called [[Gogra]] in some texts) joins the [[Ganges]] from the north east and where apparently the kingdom of [[Bengal]] commenced on the left bank of that river. Here he learned that Sultan Mahmud Lodi was in the [[Bengal]] camp at the junction of the two rivers with a body of [[Afghanistan|Afghans]] and that when he and his followers wished to remove their families and baggage they were not permitted by the Bengalis probably wishing to retain them as hostages Sultan Jalal ud-Din Khan Lohani his rival who had lately sent his submission to [[Babur]] was in like manner hindered from departing in consequence of which he had come to blows with the [[Bengali people|Bengali]]s had effected a passage over the [[Ganges]] into [[Bihar]] with his followers and was on his march to join the imperial army. The Emperor therefore who considered that the position of the army of [[Bengal]] and the conduct of its leaders had violated their neutrality prepared to call them to account. Nusrat Shah, the [[Sultan]] of [[Bengal]] had recovered some of his lost territories from the [[Pashtun people|Pathan]]s after the collapse of the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref name="lodi"/>

== Battle ==

[[Babur]] found the army of Kherid, as the [[Bengal]] army was called, lying between what is at present the territory of [[Saran district|Saran]] in the north. It was encamped near the junction of the [[Ganges]] and the [[Ghaghara River]] so as to be able to defend both the course of the Ghaghara River and the left bank of the [[Ganges]] after the union of the two rivers. He discovered too that the [[Bengali people|Bengali]] generals had collected about 100–150 vessels on their side of the stream by means of which they were able at once to hinder the passage of an enemy and to facilitate their own. Such an army he could not safely leave behind especially as the troops of Baban and Bayezid had also taken refuge upon and in strength occupied the upper course of the Ghaghra River. He was indeed at peace with [[Bengal]] but the shelter afforded to his flying enemy the position of the Kherid army and the equivocal conduct of its leaders made it indispensable that he should have a categorical declaration as to the disposition and intention of the Bengali government. He, therefore, dispatched an envoy to Nusrat Shah, the Sultan of Bengal.

[[Babur]] was now joined by Sultan Junaid Birlas from Jaunpur with about 20,000 men. The tardy arrival of these troops subjected their commander to a temporary disgrace. Not having received a satisfactory answer to his demands, the Emperor resolved to compel the army beyond the [[Gogra|Ghaghra River]] to quit its strong position. He made the necessary arrangements for the intended attack. He formed his army into six divisions. Four of these consisting of Askari's army which was already on the eastern bank of the [[Ganges]] and of Sultan Junaid's which had recently joined on the same side were ordered to be prepared to cross the Ghaghra River either in boats at Haldi or by fording still farther up that river. Askari was the youngest son of Babur. The other two divisions were still on the western bank of the [[Ganges]]. One of these under the Emperor's personal direction was to effect the passage of that river and then to cover the operations of the [[Turkic peoples|Turkish]] Ustad Ali Quli, his chief engineer and commander of the artillery, who was directed to plant a battery on the banks of the Siru or Ghaghra River above its union with the [[Ganges]] directly opposite to the [[Bengal]]i camp, which it would be able to cannonade and afterward to cover the passage of the Emperor's division when it crossed the Ghaghra River to attack the enemy. Mustafa Rumi another Turkish engineer who had a party of [[musketeers]] and [[artillery]] supported by Muhammad Zaman Mirza and the sixth division was to open a cannonade on the flank of the enemy's camp from the [[Bihar]] bank of the Ganges below the junction of the rivers. The main body of the army which was that under Askari after passing the Ghaghra River at Haldi was ordered to march down upon the enemy so as to draw them from their camp and induce them to march up that river and by this diversion to keep them occupied until the two divisions of [[Babur]] and Muhammad Zaman under cover of the fire of the [[artillery]] and [[matchlock]] men could be transported across.

The whole army was accordingly put in motion Askari's four divisions marched for Haldi. The batteries both on the [[Ghaghara River]] and [[Ganges]] were constructed and commenced their fire. The [[Bengal]]i army behaved with great bravery and pushed parties across to attack the Emperor's troops both above and below the junction of the rivers. At length after various movements [[Babur]] received notice that Askari had effected a passage over the Ghaghra River at the Haldi Ghat and was now ready for action and that he had been strengthened by the defection of Shah Muhammad Maaruf an Afghan nobleman of the highest rank and consequence who had deserted the confederacy with his followers and now joined his camp. The general attack was therefore fixed for the next morning but in the meantime, there was some fighting between the vessels in the river.

On the morning of May 6, 1529, as soon as Askari's army was known to be in motion the [[Bengal]]i troops moved up to meet him whereupon [[Babur]] ordered both his division and that of Muhammad Zaman to cross over without delay. This was affected bravely though not without sharp resistance. The troops got across some in [[boats]], some by [[human swimming|swimming]], some floating on [[Reed boat|reeds]]. They were met with equal gallantry on landing but kept together formed and made repeated vigorous charges. As Askari advanced north-west towards the enemy, the Bengali army finding themselves surrounded and driven in on three sides finally quit the field in confusion.

==Aftermath ==
This victory was decisive in its consequences. Numbers of the Afghans who till now had been refractory having lost all hope of re-establishing an Afghan government in the [[East]] submitted and Sultan Jalal ud-Din Khan Lohani the late [[Monarch|King]] of [[Bihar]] whose escape from the [[Bengal]]i camp has been mentioned arrived with many of his principal Amirs and acknowledged [[Babur]]. Other chiefs imitating their example petitioned to be received into the Emperor's service. 7000-8000 [[Lohani]] Afghans had already joined him and were now rewarded and employed. The feuds between the [[Lohani]] and [[Lodi (Pashtun tribe)|Lodi]] factions in the Eastern [[provinces]] were fatal to the [[Pashtun people|Pathan]] national interest. As for the Sultan of Bengal Nusrat Shah, he hastily accepted peace proposals, previously communicated to him via the envoy [[Babur]] had sent before the battle.

This would be Babur's last major engagement. He continued to consolidate his power and establish administrative infrastructure in his new Empire distributing ''jagirs'' (Estates) to loyal nobles and allies. He died at the age of 47 on December 26, 1530, of an unknown illness and was succeeded by his eldest son, [[Humayun]].

== See also ==
* [[First Battle of Panipat]]
* [[Battle of Khanwa]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
''A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun'' By William Erskine Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854

{{Mughal Empire|state=expanded}}

[[Category:Battles involving the Mughal Empire|Ghaghra]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1529|Ghaghra]]
[[Category:1529 in India]]
[[Category:Military history of the Bengal Sultanate]]
[[Category:Eastern Afghan Confederates]]

Battle of Ghaghra - Revision history

78.147.28.16 at 17:13, 14 December 2022