Indian Antiquary Vol 51

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 195

OCTOBER, 1922)
A NEW VIEW OF SHER SHAH SUR
187
Soon after his return to Agra, Sher Shah found himself seriously faced by Maldev of Mârwâr, who had been intriguing with Humâyûn, then at Bhakkar in Sind, more or less under the protection of Shâh Hussain of Tattâ.
Maldey Rathor, a man of great parts, had recently raised Marwar from an insignificant principality into the greatest centralised state in Rajputânå. He had been a friend of Sher Shah, but the latter's acquisition of Humâyûn's territories had so threatened his own State as to turn him into an implacable enemy. So he represented to Humayûn his chance of recovering his throne. Humayún, as hesitating and inept as ever, did not, however, get further than quarrelling with his family and supporters as to the action to be taken. Finally he decided to try the aid of Mâldev, but far too late. This gave time to Sher Shâh to take active steps--very active steps—to protect himself from a combination of Maldev and Humâyûn, and as it suited neither Sher Shâh nor Maldev to join issue in actual war, the net result of Humâyûn's efforts was his retreat back to Amarkot in the desert, where, as formerly stated, his son, the great Akbar, was born.
Safe from Humayun, Sher Shah set to work to organise Bihår, where he did some notable things. He found Bihar to consist of the old Magadha Kingdom, and he added to it the Rohtas and Mungêr Districts, and also Tirhût to the North of the Ganges, creating the large province which afterwards was Akbar's Sabah of Bihår. He then rebuilt Patna, making it the capital of the new Province, in supersession of Bihar town, and constructing a fort at the strategical point it possessed on the Ganges.
He next, in 1543, returned to Malwa in order to oust Paran Mal from Raisin, where he had left him in the previous year. In the whirligig of the fortune of war between Muslim and Hindu, the great fortress of Raisin had of comparatively recent years played so prominent a part, and had been the scene of so many conflicts, rousing the fiercest animosity, that Sher Shah's desire to possess it has been put down to religious motives. The real reason, however, was political, viz., to protect his frontiers by removing the Rajpût chiefs from power in so menacing a spot. Päran Mał had never been in any doubt as to the temporary nature of Sher Shah's clemency during his previous invasion of Malwa.
Sher Shah sat down to invest Raisin for six months, casting cannon in his camp on so large a scale as to oblige him to seize all the copper and similar metal he could lay hands on,
proceeding adopted on the European Continent in the late Great War for the same reason. In the end Paran Mal made overtures for leave to evacuate the fort with all his Hindu following and their belongings. Sher Shah, always careful of the lives of his own troops, agreed to all the terms proposed, even to moving his forces out of the route of the evacuating population. But he reckoned without his people and their long ruffled feelings against the Rajputs of Mâlwâ, and there was more than serious grumbling in his army, led by the great saint, Shekh Rafi'u'ddin Safavi. Matters were not in his hands, and the Afghâns by a forced march overtook the retiring Rajputs, and then was carried out the awful jauhar (holocaust of wives and children) of Raisin, and the last stand, without hope, of the Rajputs was made. We need not attribute to Sher Shâh an incapacity for treachery in order to acquit him of voluntarily performing so stupid a slaughter as this, and one so certain to recoil adversely on himself in the future. There are many instances in history of strong and sågacious leaders of men being forced into action against their own better judgment. A parallel to this particular incident in Sher Shah's career is Cromwell's action in the matter of the trial