Page 38 - SST Class 07

He also laid several gardens in Agra, Sikri and
Dholpur. He was interested in polo.
Info Bits
Info Bits
The Europeans started to come for trade in India
during the Mughal rule. The Portuguese came to
India to trade during Shah Jahan’s rule. The
English too came during his rule and enjoyed
several concessions in trade.
HUMAYUN
Humayun was the eldest of the four sons of Babur,
the other three were Kamran Hindal and Askari .
,
Since they were given smaller areas as compared
to Humayun, they were not happy and created
problems for him. Moreover,
Babur did not live long after
he set up his empire, due to
which he did not get time to
consolidate and set up a
proper system of
administration. This job had
to be performed by
Humayun. Humayun
Humayun was threatened by the Afghans, Gujarat
and Rajputs. Humayun defeated Sher Shah Suri in
1532 and then Gujarat and Malwa in 1534. While
Humayun was busy consolidating his empire,
Sher Shah Suri regrouped his forces and defeated
him at Chausa in 1539 and then at Kanauj in
1540. He chased Humayun out of his kingdom.
Now, Humayun was without a kingdom. He fled
to Sindh. When he was facing terrible problems, a
son was born to his wife. He named him Akbar . empire. He also got planted trees on either side of
This son was to become the greatest Mughal
emperor in the times to come.
Humayun went to Persia and sought the help of
the ruler. With his help, he was able to regain the
throne of Delhi in 1555 after defeating Islam
Shah , the successor of Sher Shah Suri. This time
again, he had no time to enjoy the fruits of his
victory, as he fell down the stairs in Delhi and
died in 1556. Humayun was not an able ruler. He
was fond of taking opium. He was succeeded by
his son Akbar.
Contemporary Social Science-7
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SHER SHAH SURI
It should be relevant to describe Sher Shah Suri,
though he was not a Mughal.
Farid Khan was the son of an Afghan jagirdar in
Sasaram, Bihar. Once he killed a tiger single-
handedly, so the ruler of Bihar gave him the new
name of Sher Shah. He was an ambitious young
man. He even joined the Babur’s army in order to
learn tactics of battle. At the death of Babur, he
declared his kingdom independent in Bengal and
Bihar. He collected a large army and equipped it
well. He was defeated by Humayun in 1532, but
he reorganised his army and defeated Humayun in
1539 and again in 1540, and became the emperor
of India. He ruled over a large empire extending
from the Jhelum in the west to the Brahmaputra in
the east, and from the Himalayas in the north to
Malwa in the south.
Sher Shah Suri Tomb of Sher Shah Suri at Sasaram
Sher Shah Suri was not only an able general, but
also an able administrator. He set up effective
civil, military and revenue administration.
Civil Administration
He introduced a new silver coin called rupiya . He
made efforts for the expansion of trade, so he
constructed a large network of roads in his
the road. He also got constructed inns and dak
chowkies (postal posts) at regular distances for the
delivery of mail. It was the duty of messenger of a
dak chowki to deliver mail up to the next one,
until it reached its destination.
The modern day Grand Trunk Road (GT Road)
follows the road he built to connect Kolkata with
Lahore. Besides, he also got connected Agra to
Jodhpur, Delhi to Burhanpur, Delhi to Jaunpur,
Lahore to Multan etc. These roads were used by
traders and his army.