RISE OF SHER SHAH SURI (1540-45 AD)
Sher Shah Suri was the founder of the Sur empire in North India with its capital at Delhi. An Afghan of humble origin, Sher Shah had risen through military service, so he was well placed to take advantage of temporary Mughal weakness. After defeating Humayun twice in Chausa and Kannauj (Bilgram) (1539 and 1540 AD), he made himself emperor of Delhi, extending his control to Gwalior and Malwa. He carried out innovations in the land revenue system and the army which were subsequently built by the great Mughal emperor, Akbar.
Sher Shah was a great expansionist. In 1544 AD, he invaded the fort of Kalinjar, which was ruled by Kirti Singh and laid a siege of the fort. During this siege, one of the cannons accidentally went off killing him on 26th May, 1545.
SHER SHAH’S ADMINISTRATION
Sher Shah was not only a great conqueror, but also one of the greatest administrators of the Medieval India. His administration was very sound. His central machinery of administration was based on the model of Sultanate administration. The most remarkable feature of Sher Shah’s administration was that it was a highly centralised system.
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION
In the field of Central Administration, Sher Shah followed the Sultanate pattern. There were five main central departments
Diwan-i-Uijar Department of revenue and finance.
Diwan-i-Arz Headed by Ariz-i-Mamalik, it was a Military department.
Diwan-i-Insha Working as a secretariat, it issued royal orders. The head of this department was called Dabir. Custodian of all government documents and papers. It was also incharge of government dispatches.
Diwan-i-Risalat Headed by Sadr, this department dealt with the religious and foreign affairs matters.
Diwan-i-Qaza Headed by Qazi. Qazi looked after Judicial administration.
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS
For administrative convenience, Sher Shah divided his kingdom into 47 divisions called Sarkars.
Sarkars were divided into parganas. Parganas, under the charge of Shiqdar or Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran, consisted of a number of villages.
While Shiqdar looked after the law and order and general administration of his Parganas, Munsif or Munsif-i- Munsifan collected the land revenue in the pargana.
JUSTICE
Civil cases of Pargana were heard by Amir and criminal cases by a Qazi or Mir-i-Adal. Sher Shah introduced the principle of local responsibility for local crimes. Muqqadams (Headmen) were punished for failure to find culprits.
LAND REVENUE
Sher Shah had fixed the land revenue after getting the whole of the land measured through the agency of Raja Todar Mal.
He got an accurate survey of all the agricultural land and fixed a definite revenue for each unit of land (normally, one-third of the produce).
For the measurement of land. Sikandari Gaj (32 inches =39 points) was made the base. lands were divided into good, bad and middling.
The farmers were allowed to make revenue The payments directly to the government treasury in order to eliminate their exploitations by the intermediaries. The area sown, the type of crops cultivated and the amount each peasant had to pay was written down on a paper called patta and each peasant was informed of it.
He also introduced the system of qabuliyat (deed of agreement) with the peasants. Peasants also had to pay survey charge (Jaribana) and tax collection charge (Muhasilans), which were 2.5% and 5% respectively.
MILITARY REFORMS
Sher Shah personally supervised the recruitment of the soldiers and paid them directly in cash. He revived Ala-ud-din Khilji’s system of branding the horses (daag) and keeping a descriptive roll of the soldiers (chehra).
ROADS AND TRADE
Sher Shah constructed roads to encourage trade and provide comfort and convenience to the travellers, to facilitate the movement of troops from one place to another and to carry on the administration systematically.
Of these roads, four are very important
- The Grand Trunk Road, which lays between Sonargaon in East Bengal and North-West boundary of India.
- A road from Agra to Burhanpur in the Deccan.
- A road between Agra and Jodhpur and Chittor in Rajputana.
- A road between Lahore and Multan. On either other side of these roads, shady trees were planted, Sarais were built at the interval of two Koses (miles) from each other, where separate arrangements for lodging and boarding for the Hindus and Muslims were made. His roads and sarais are called the arteries of the empire.
Sher Shah introduced a regular postal service and attempted the standardisation of weights and measures.
Other reforms include collection of customs duty on goods only twice, once at the time of entering the country and another at the time of sale of goods; making the local headmen and zamindars responsible for the loss of the goods of merchants on roads.
An idea of Sher Shah’s administrative structure is provided by his historian Abbas Khan Sarwani in the book Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
COINAGE SYSTEM
The coins and currency reforma of Sher Shah Suri are one of his most outstanding achievements. He took steps to fasue a large number of new silver coins which came to be known as dam. He gave the name of rupee (rupia) to his silver coins.
Both the silver rupee and the copper dam had their 1/2 quarters, 8th and 16th. He abolished all old and mined metal currency coins. This rupee lasted throughout the Mughal period and was retained by the East India Company upto 1835. Sher Shah’s name, title and place of mint were inscribed on the coins in Arabic characters.
Some of his coins bore his name in Deunagari script and some had the names of first four Khalijas in addition. The ratio of exchange between the dam and the rupee was 64 to 1 (64:1). The ratios between the various gold coins and the silver coins were fixed on a permanent basis.
SUR ARCHITECTURE
The following are the highlights of Sur architecture
- Sur architecture forms the climax of Pre-Mughal style of architecture.
- Sur built tombs at Sasaram, which were octagonal Mausoleum. One of the most outstanding Sher Shah’s Mausoleum was built on a huge base, surrounded by a lake and is multistoreyed. This represents harmonious combination of Hindu and Muslim architectural ideas.
- He also built the Purana Qila, Delhi whose surviving monuments are Qila-i- Kuhna Masjid and the Sher-e-Mandal Library.
RESTORATION OF HUMAYUN (1555-56 AD)
During his exile in Persia, Humayun was given military help by King Shah Tahmasp to conquer Kabul and Kandahar (1554 AD) from his brother Kamran. After that he turned to India to regain his lost throne. With the help of an able officer, Bairam Khan, Humayun defeated the weak rulers of the Sur dynasty and took control over Agra and Delhi in 1556 AD.
He died due to an accidental fall from the staircase of his library at Delhi in 1556 AD. His favourite wife, Hamida Bano, Begum built a magnificent mausoleum for him near his fort at Delhi. This building marks a new phase in the style of architecture in North India, its most remarkable feature being the magnificent dome of marble. One of the significant features of his regaining the empire is the introduction of Persian influences into India when he returned from exile accompanied by Persian scholars and artists. Persian gradually became the court language.