what were the major contributions of sher shah suri in constructing roads in medieval india
Answers
Sher Shah Suri was the founder of the Sur Empire in North India. Delhi was its capital. He was a great administrator. He built an excellent network of roads to promote trade and commerce, to make travelling easier and help the officials and troops to move quickly throughout the empire. He built four major roads. The Grand Trunk Road was the longest and most important amongst them. It was known as the Shahi or Royal road. It extended from Sonargaon in the east to Peshawar in the north-west.
Trees were planted on the sides of the road. Rest houses or sarais were built and wells were dug at regular intervals. The sarais were used by travellers and merchants. They were also used as dak chaukis. There used to be two horsemen at each post house. They carried the royal mail to different parts of the country.
Sher Shah Suri build a very good network of roads during his reign. The best known road is the Grand Trunk Road that connected Bengal to Punjab. Other major roads constructed by him are from Gaur to River Indus; Rohtas to Mandu; Agra to Jodhpur, Chittor and Burhanpur; Jaunpur to Ajmer and Bayana; Lahore to Multan; and Delhi to Agra.
All roads had either rest houses, gardens and shady fruit bearing trees on either side for the benefit of the travellers. The rest houses catered to both Hindus and Muslims, and had water to quench the thirst and cooked food to satiate the hunger of the travellers. There were also cots for weary people to rest themselves.