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Mirza could join tLem, having discovered a ford ten miles above Kanauj left his camp standing and effected a passage unobserved with all his troops. The two armies soon met face to face, but when they were on the point of engaging, a strong nor-wester rising blew such clouds of dust right in the eyes of the insurgents that they could not keep their position. The imperial troops who had the wind on their backs availing themselves of their advantage, pressed hard upon the enemy, whose retreat was soon converted into a flight. Hindal, after taking possession of Bilgram and the surrounding country, pursued the remainder of their army as they marched to form a junction with Ulugh Mirza. He overtook them at And." (Erskine, II., page 90.) Here, two months later, another action was fought in which the rebels were finally dispersed this was in 1537 A.D.

But the country from Jaunpur to Kanauj was still in a very unset" All the materials of revolt and resistance were amply tled state. scattered over the eastern provinces. They had for many years been the theatre of war, the minds of the inhabitants were unsettled, had become familiarized to change, and were almost strangers to regular government. Though the old Sharqi and the more recent Lohani dynasty had disappeared, and though the attempts of Mahmiid Lodi and of Muhammad Sultan Mirza to revive the kingdom had failed, Sher Khan Sur, a new candidate for distinction and power, had started up, was extending and consolidating his influence in Behar, and on the side of Bengal

and by his valour in the field and the equity of his financial administration was gaining the admiration and the affection of his subjects. The Afghans in every part of India began to turn their eyes to him as the leader who at some future time might be destined to restore to them that proud ascendancy of their nation, the loss of which every man of them so deeply deplored. "

(Erskine, II. 109.)

Before marching against Sher Khan,Hum^ylin entrusted Kanauj and the adjoining country to Nur-ud-din Muhammad Mirza, who had married the Emperor's sister. During Humaylin's absence in Bengal (1538) this Meanwhile Sher officer joined prince Hindal in his rebellion at Agra. Khan had possessed himself of Behar and the country from thence to Kanauj. In 1539 the disaster of Chausar occurred. Sher Khan recovered Bengal. " He crossed the Ganges to renew the siege of Jaunpur, which, with the whole territory dependent on it, surrendered with little resistance. In like manner he overran the rest of the country east of the Ganges as far as Kanauj." (Erskine, II., 176.) "In 1 540 Hum^yun once more marched against Sher Shah, who by this time had recrossed the Gauges lying opposite Kanauj."

More

detailed accounts of the battles which then took place, and of that it almost on the same spot, have been extracted from the

which preceded

native chronicles, Erskine's Baber and other sources. of HamSytin writes as follows

life

The author

of the



" I must now revert to the insurrection which took place during his majesty's expedition to Gtrjerat. Muhammed Zeman Sultan (a descendant of Timur, and favourite of the late Emperor), taking advantage of his.