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Humayun: The King Who Ruled India Twice

Humayun, the second Mughal ruler was a fascinating character who is often wrongly looked upon as a dull ruler who was not fit for ruling.

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:41 PM, Bhavuk

[The Humayun's Tomb, the Mughal masterpiece in Delhi, is a UNESCO World Heritage site]

Humayun, the second Mughal ruler was a fascinating character who is often wrongly looked upon as a dull ruler who was not fit for ruling. This view is the “mis-creation” of the Colonial historians who reduced his multifaceted characters to a single event which was his defeat at the hands of Sher Shah. However, contrary to the colonial historians, he was a remarkably colourful character, a ruler who contributed uniquely to kingship through his idiosyncrasies. We shall explore the political life of this adventurous king of the Mughal Empire holding the unique distinction of ruling India twice.

Humayun Ascends The Throne

Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun was born on 6th March 1508. At the tender age of 12, he was sent as governor to Badakhshan. He commanded the right wing of Babur’s army at Panipat and Khanwa. Kamran got Kabul & Kandahar, Badakhshan went to Sulalman Mirza, a second cousin of Humayun. Babur specified the division of the empire between Humayun and Kamran in the ratio of 6:5.

Humayun ascended the throne on 30th December 1530. Humayun chased Bahadur Shah as far as Cambay where he saw sea for the first time (no Timurid before him had seen the sea). He then besieged Champanir/Champaner. It took four months to capture Champaner which had considerable hidden treasure.

Ferishta says that upon the capture of Champaner, Humayun gave his soldiers and officers as much gold, silver and jewels as could be heaped on their respective shields, proportioning the value to their rank and merit.

Abul Fazl states that Humayun held magnificent banquets and constantly arranged royal entertainments on the banks of DuRya tank.

The Antics of The Court

On Tuesday, Humayun used to wear the red vesture of Mars astrologically determined and meted out punishment. His idiosyncrasy led to the invention of a carpet of mirth.

He also designed a prefabricated portable bridge. He also set up the drum of justice near the Durbar hall in Agra to enable people to appeal to him directly. The uniqueness lay in his regulation of the number of beats signalling various purposes for the demand of justice i.e. one beat for a matter of dispute, two beats for non-receipt of wages and dues and the case of oppression was marked by three beats.

Government affairs were dealt with on Sundays and Tuesdays since the sun regulates sovereignty and Mars is the patron of soldiers as stated by Abul Fazl. Matters of religion and learning were dealt with on Saturdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays were days of joy and Friday was open to all matters of all classes. Humayun wore yellow on Sunday, green on Monday and red on Tuesday. The administrative officers were divided into three functional classes; administrators, men of religion and culture and, people of pleasure- beautiful and elegant young people who were clever musicians and sweet singers. This information has been elaborately penned down by Khwand Mir.

Government departments were arranged on the basis of four natural elements- fire (for the armed forces), air (for wardrobe, kitchen and stable), water (for canals and wine cellars) and earth (for agriculture, land and buildings) each under a minister who had to wear clothes of colour suited to his department, like the minister in charge of the army had to wear red.

The Battlefield Becomes The Durbar

After capturing Ahmadabad, Humayun left his brother Askari in charge of Gujarat and moved to Mandu. Hindal was left in charge of Agra from where he drove out the rebels at this point of time.

Humayun instead of subduing Sher Khan in Bengal paused to siege Chunar, an Afghan fort on the banks of Ganga near Varanasi. Meanwhile, Sher Khan moved with his family to a hill fort on the upper reaches of Son river called Rohtas

Humayun was joined by Mahmud Shah, the fugitive king of Bengal (he had been defeated by Sher Khan).

Humayun offered Chunar, Jaunpur and other places of his choice to Sher Khan if he gave up Bengal and the treasures he got there along with royal umbrella (chhatra). Sher Khan offered to give regalia (symbols and umbrella) of Bengal, surrender Bihar and pay an annual tribute of one million Rs to Humayun if he allowed Sher Khan to keep Bengal.

Humayun rejected the offer thus, Sher Khan left a small force under his son Jalal Khan at Rohtas and himself moved to Bengal and took the title of Sher Shah at its capital Gaur.

Sher Shah sent his son Jalal Khan to block Teliyagarhi pass around Rajmahal through which the Mughal army had to enter Bengal. Jalal Khan defeated Mughals but withdrew from the pass. Sher Shah moved to Rohtas but according to Niamatullah, Sher Shah furnished the palace at Gaur with an exquisite variety of ornements and embellishments in the hope that Humayun, charmed by all this would be induced to prolong his stay there. As anticipated by Sher Shah, Humayun was so fascinated with them that he renamed Gaur as Jannatabad (Paradise).

After a prolonged delay, Humayun reached Chausa where river Karmanasa joined Ganga. He crossed Karmanasa and encamped at a rivulet called Toram Nathi.

While Humayun was battling the ebbs and flows of a rugged topography in the east, his brother Hindal declared himself ruler. However, his mother, Dildar Begum was so upset with this act of Hindal that she put on mourning clothes saying, “I am mourning for you as you have girded your loins for your own destruction.”

According to Gulbadan Begum, the other brothers had also harnessed dreams of kingship since she states that, “as for Kamran there arose in him a desire for sovereignty.”

Meanwhile, hard pressed from all the fronts, Humayun sent Mullah Muhammad Barghiz as an emissary to negotiate peace with Sher Shah during the battle of Chausa.

Sher Shah, according to Abbas Khan Sarwani, wrote a conciliatory letter to Humayun that if he handed over Bengal to him (Sher Shah), then he would read Khutbah and get money stuck in Humayun’s name and be his vassal. Humayun agreed to it.

On 25th June 1539, Sher Shah said now is the time to regain the Empire of Hindustan and waged a war against Humayun reneging on his own pledge.

Humayun was saved from drowning in the Ganga by his water carrier, Nizam and as an expression of gratefulness promised Nizam that you shall sit on my throne. That Humayun was a man of his words can be gauged from the fact that according to Jauhar Aftabchi, on reaching Agra, Humayun made Nizam sit on the throne for one day.

Sher Shah in the meantime returned to Bengal and expelled Jahangir Quli, the Mughal governor. Here he took the title of Sultan-ul Adil, the just ruler and to mark the ocassion, drums were beaten for seven days says Abbas Sarwani.

Humayun might have been late in his response to Sher Shah’s onslaught but the biggest let down for him were his brothers. Mirza Haider Dugulat holds the retreat of Kamran as the reason for the rise of Sher Khan and the fall of the Chaghtai dynasty. Abul Fazl was of the opinion that “no matter however much Humayun scoured the rust of contrariety with the burnisher of advice, the brightness of concord could not by any means be developed in the mirror of Kamran’s fortune.”

The Ebbs and Flows Of The Battered King

Even his nobles turned out to be a huge disappointment for him as Humayun’s nobles started deserting him going on to say, let us go and rest in our homes, as per Haider Dughlat. Even the most loyal of his nobles tormented him in various ways, for example, Tardi Beg Khan when asked for money by Humayun, lent 80,000 ashrafis at the rate of twenty percent to Humayun during his exile.

At Kannauj on 17 June 1540, Sher Shah attacked the Mughals. Haider Dughlat who commanded a division of the Mughal army in that battle wrote that “it was not a fight but a rout, for not a man, friend or foe, was even wounded. Not a gun was fired not a cannon.” The Mughal right under Askari was defeated by the Afghan division under Khavaas Khan.

After losing the battle and with it the crown of India, Humayun came back to Agra to the house of Sayyid Rafia-e-Din, a Sufi who served him a meal of bread and melons and advised him not to defend Agra but instead join Kamran at Lahore.

It was suggested to Humayun that he must reclaim at least those parts ruled over by his brother Kamran and upon his refusal he should put him to the sword. Humayun refused saying “no, never for the vanities of this perishable world will I imbrue my hands in the blood of a brother.”

Having forced to seek shelter at Umarkot, upon Akbar’s birth, Humayun broke a pod of musk in a china bowl and divided the pieces among his men saying, “this is all the present I can afford to make you on the birth of my child whose fame will I trust be one day expanded all over the world, as the perfume of the musk now fills this apartament.”

The King Who Ruled India Twice

It was Shah Husain who built a bridge of boats across the Indus to speed Humayun on his way to escape from India. At Kandahar, Akbar was entrusted to Askari’s wife, Sultana Begum. In 1544, Humayun reached Persia where the Shah welcomed him quite receptively. Jauhar Aftabchi says that “among all the Indian dishes served to the Shah he liked the dish of rice with pea (dal khuske) the most.” With the help of the Shah, in 1545 Humayun entered Afghanistan to seize Kandahar from Askari which he did after four months of siege.

From there he advanced to Kabul in mid November 1545 and the city surrendered to him without resistance. As a rebel under the care of Babur’s elder sister Khanzada Begum, Akbar met his father. Khanzada used to kiss Akbar’s hands and feet saying they are the very hands and feet of my brother, emperor Babur and he is like him altogether. This emotional moment was made further dramatic when the defeated Askari was ordered to go on pilgrimage to Mecca (there he died in 1558).

Kamran, the other deserting and rebel brother was blinded and sent to Mecca as well where he died in October 1557. Having reclaimed his father’s earlier empire, he now moved to regain his own. In November 1554 Humayun set out from Kabul for India.

He defeated an Afghan army led by Sikandar at Sirhind and on 23rd July 1555 Humayun reoccupied Delhi unopposed. In January 1556, he was preparing to shift his residence to Agra but alas that was not to be!

Humayun died on 26 January 1556 at forty eight and his last words were, “I accept the divine Summon.”

Lane-Poole remarks about his death in the following words, “Humayun stumbled out of life as he had stumbled through it.”

For a couple of weeks Mullah Bekasi who resembled Humayun presented himself to the public as emperor and it was only after Akbar was in the process of taking full control(under the guidance of Bairam Khan) that on 11th February his death was made public.

Views of the Chroniclers on Humayun

Abul Fazl wrote that Babur used to say that Humayun was an invaluable/incomparable companion. Humayun’s fief was Sambhal near Delhi. Maham Begum was Humayun’s mother to whom Babur used to say- “I desire the kingdom for your son because he has not his equal in distinction.” Babur wanted to hand over the throne to Humayun and retire to Zer Afshan garden.

Ferishta wrote that Humayun was for the most part disposed to spend his time in social intercourse & pleasure. However, Ferishta is very much off the mark in saying so because though Humayun was guilty of being reluctant in acting at crucial times, he certainly did not prioritize pleasure over state-affairs. Badauni wrote that “Humayun was a skilled mathematician, was unequalled in the sciences of astronomy and astrology and all abstruse sciences.”

Mushtaqui wrote of Humayun that “his conversation was so nice that he never addressed any person as tu but only as shuma.”

[The writer, Bhavuk, is a PhD candidate at The Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)]

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