A short note on Shergarh of Delhi : D
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Sher Shah Suri was medieval India’s first rockstar Emperor. Who else can lay claim to successfully chase a Mughal Emperor out of the country? Such was Sher Shah Suri’s fear that when Humayun’s son Akbar was fighting Sher Shah’s later successor Hem Chandra Vikramaditya in the Second Battle of Panipat, Akbar had his back towards Kabul so that he could flee like Humayun did sixteen years before. However, the ending this time was different as shown in the opening scene of movie Jodha Akbar.
Your first introduction to Sher Shah was when you were travelling in Sasaram about ten years ago in driving rain. Roads in Bihar were non-existent then and had turned into treacherous bumpy streams. This was when this truly majestic and beautiful edifice appeared. It just seemed so out of the place and incongruous in the surroundings that is Sasaram. You leapt out of your car, ran few yards in the rain to the entrance, read the information board and realised the GT Road you just transversed was built by this person. He would have been either mad to see the condition of the roads or mighty pleased that we were still using the roads he built without any repairs all these years.
Sher Shah’s journey from Sasaram in Bihar to being Emperor of Delhi is truly incredible. According to some reports, Sher Shah Suri was born Farid Khan in Sasaram. He was a commander in the Mughal Army under Babur and soon became Governor of Bihar. Legend has it that he fought a tiger with bare hands; the reason probably why he was conferred with the title of Sher Khan. Seeing his chance he revolted and took over Bengal; this probably after getting motivated by local and national hero Chanakya. In 1539, he defeated Humayun in the battle of Chausa and then again in Battle of Kannauj. Humayun fled India and Sher Khan took over Dinpanah, originally built by Humayun, renamed it Shergarh, proclaimed himself the emperor of India in 1540 and founded the Sur Dynasty. Today, Shergarh or Dinpanah is popularly known as Purana Qila.
Besides introducing elements to Dinpanah, Sher Shah built the mighty Grand Trunk Road from Chittagong to Kabul, built his own tomb in Sasaram, a hallmark of Afghan architecture in India, revived the ancient city of Pataliputra as Patna and introduced our currency rupiya – all this within a short span of five years. Sher Shah died in 1545 during the siege of Kalinjar Fort in Banda district of UP.