Medieval Bihar: Sher Shah Suri to the Battle of Buxar

Sher Shah Suri was born Farid Khan at Sasaram (in today's Rohtas district of Bihar). He earned the title Sher Khan ("Lion") — by one popular account, for killing a tiger. Rising from a local jagir manager to a great ruler, he founded the Sur Empire and ruled Delhi (1540–1545).

He defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun twice — at the Battle of Chausa (1539) and the Battle of Kannauj / Bilgram (1540) — forcing Humayun into a long exile. This is why a Bihari ruler interrupted Mughal rule and briefly became master of northern India.

Sher Shah ruled for only about five years, yet his administration became a model — even the Mughal emperor Akbar later built on it. His works touched roads, coins, trade and revenue.

• Grand Trunk Road (Sadak-e-Azam): He repaired and extended this great highway, running from Sonargaon (Bengal) towards the north-west. It boosted trade, movement of troops and communication.
• Coins: He introduced a standard silver coin, the Rupiya, and a copper coin, the Dam. The word "rupee" descends from his Rupiya.
• Sarais (rest houses): He built many sarais along the roads for travellers and traders; they also served as post-relay points.
• Revenue system: He built an efficient land-revenue system, with land measurement and fixed shares, which later inspired Akbar's revenue reforms.

Beyond roads and coins, Sher Shah built a tightly organised military and civil administration that later inspired Akbar directly.

• He maintained a large standing army paid directly in cash (not through jagirs), reducing dependence on nobles. To stop fraud, he introduced the Dagh (branding of horses) and Chehra (a descriptive roll of each soldier) systems — direct forerunners of Akbar's mansabdari checks.
• Administratively, the empire was divided into Sarkars (districts), each split into Parganas; officials like the Shiqdar (law & order), Amin (revenue/land measurement) and Munsif (justice) ran day-to-day governance — a structure the Mughals largely retained.
• Sher Shah died in 1545 (from an accidental gunpowder explosion during the siege of Kalinjar). His son Islam Shah Suri held the empire together for a while, but after his death the Sur Empire fell into succession disputes, letting the exiled Humayun reconquer Delhi in 1555 — ending Sur rule after barely 15 years.

• Bihar first came under Delhi's control when Bakhtiyar Khalji conquered the region around 1197-1203, in the process destroying Nalanda and Odantapuri — bringing it under the Delhi Sultanate. Interestingly, the very name "Bihar" is believed to derive from the Sanskrit/Pali word "Vihara" (Buddhist monastery), since the region was so thickly dotted with them.
• Under Akbar, Bihar was organised as a full subah (province) with Patna as a key city — this administrative shape (subah → sarkar → pargana) continued right up to the decline of Mughal central authority in the 18th century.
• Just before Buxar, the Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim — increasingly resentful of British interference in his territory's trade and administration — shifted his capital from Murshidabad to Munger (in Bihar) in 1762-63 to put distance between himself and Company pressure, and even raised a modernised army there. His defeat, first around Bihar and finally at Buxar (1764), ended this last serious attempt to resist the Company from within Bengal-Bihar.

Fast-forward two centuries. In 1764 the Battle of Buxar was fought at Buxar in Bihar. The British East India Company, led by Hector Munro, defeated a combined army of three powers: Mir Qasim (Nawab of Bengal), Shuja-ud-Daula (Nawab of Awadh) and Shah Alam II (the Mughal Emperor).

The victory was decisive. By the Treaty of Allahabad (1765), the Company obtained the Diwani — the right to collect revenue — of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. This was the turning point that turned a trading company into a territorial power ruling millions.