Pariksha SaathiLesson 2 of 10 · Bihar General Knowledge
Medieval Bihar: Bakhtiyar Khilji, Sher Shah Suri and the Battle of Buxar
Drafted with AI assistance and fact-checked on 28 October 2026; not yet read line by line by a human editor. Spotted a mistake? Tell us. Editorial standards & corrections
Bakhtiyar Khilji and the name Bihar
Around 1200, Ikhtiyar-ud-din Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turkish commander of the Ghurid conquest, raided south Bihar. Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri describes how his men stormed what they took to be a fort, killed its shaven-headed inhabitants, and only then learnt that it was a vihara, a Buddhist monastery, usually identified as Odantapuri. Because the area was full of viharas the Turks called it Bihar, and the town now known as Bihar Sharif became their headquarters; the name later spread to the whole province. In the traditional account Nalanda and Vikramashila were sacked in the same raids. Bakhtiyar went on to seize Nadia from Lakshmana Sena of Bengal and made Lakhnauti his base, but died in 1206 after a disastrous expedition towards Tibet.
Between Delhi and Bengal
For the next three centuries south Bihar was a frontier contested by the Delhi Sultans and the rulers of Bengal, while Mithila (Tirhut) in the north kept its own Hindu dynasties. The Karnat dynasty, founded by Nanyadeva in 1097, ruled Mithila until Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's invasion of 1324-25 drove Harisimhadeva into Nepal; the Oiniwar dynasty that followed patronised the poet Vidyapati. In the 15th century the Sharqi sultans of Jaunpur held parts of Bihar until the Lodis took it. Sufism also took root: Makhdum Sharafuddin Ahmad Yahya Maneri of the Firdausi order, whose letters (Maktubat) are classics of Sufi literature, lived at Bihar Sharif and died there in 1381, and Maner near Patna remains a major Sufi centre.
Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan from Sasaram
Farid, son of Hasan Khan Sur, grew up on his father's jagir of Sasaram and Khawaspur. He served Bahar Khan Lohani, the Afghan ruler of Bihar, who gave him the title Sher Khan for killing a tiger, and he rose to control Bihar as guardian of Bahar Khan's young son. Exploiting Humayun's troubles, he seized the strong hill fort of Rohtasgarh, defeated Humayun at Chausa on the Ganga near Buxar in 1539, crowned himself Sher Shah, and drove Humayun out of India after the battle of Kannauj (Bilgram) in 1540. He died in 1545 from a gunpowder explosion while besieging the fort of Kalinjar.
Sher Shah's administration
In five years Sher Shah left a system that the Mughals copied. The empire was divided into sarkars and parganas; a pargana had a shiqdar for law and order, an amin for land revenue, a qanungo for land records and a fotedar as treasurer. Land was measured and the state's share fixed at one-third of the produce, recorded in a patta given to the peasant and a qabuliyat signed by him. He issued the silver rupiya and the copper dam, ancestors of the rupee, rebuilt the great road from Sonargaon in Bengal to the north-west (later the Grand Trunk Road) with sarais at regular stages, and used the sarais as posts for a horse mail. In 1541 he built a fort at Patna and made it the provincial headquarters in place of Bihar Sharif. His tomb at Sasaram, an octagonal red sandstone building rising from an artificial lake, is a masterpiece of Indo-Afghan architecture; his father Hasan Khan's tomb also stands at Sasaram.
Bihar under the Mughals
Akbar captured Patna from the Afghan ruler Daud Khan Karrani in 1574, and in Akbar's division of the empire in 1580 Bihar became one of the original twelve subahs, with Patna as its capital; Raja Man Singh was among its governors. In 1704 the governor Azim-us-Shan, a grandson of Aurangzeb, renamed Patna Azimabad. As Mughal power declined in the 18th century, Bihar was ruled as part of the Nawabi of Bengal through a deputy governor (naib nazim) at Patna; Alivardi Khan held this post before becoming Nawab of Bengal in 1740. This is the origin of the familiar phrase Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
The Sikh connection
Guru Nanak and Guru Tegh Bahadur both visited the region, and Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, was born at Patna in 1666. The Takht Sri Harmandir Ji Patna Sahib stands at his birthplace and is one of the five Takhts, the seats of religious authority, of Sikhism; the present building was raised after the earthquake of 1934 damaged the older shrine.
The British and the Battle of Buxar
European traders came to Patna in the 17th century for saltpetre (used in gunpowder), opium, sugar and cloth; the English soon set up a factory there. After Plassey (1757), Mir Qasim, made Nawab of Bengal in 1760, moved his capital from Murshidabad to Munger, set up an arms workshop there and quarrelled with the Company over duty-free private trade. Defeated in 1763, he had English prisoners killed at Patna and fled to Awadh. On 22 October 1764 at Buxar, Major Hector Munro defeated the combined armies of Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-daula of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. By the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) Shah Alam granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect revenue, of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Under Clive's dual government Raja Shitab Rai served as naib diwan for Bihar, and in 1793 Bihar came under Cornwallis's Permanent Settlement.
Key facts
- Bakhtiyar Khilji raided south Bihar around 1200; Minhaj-us-Siraj's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri records his attack on a vihara mistaken for a fort, usually identified as Odantapuri.
- The name Bihar comes from vihara (Buddhist monastery); Bihar Sharif was the first Turkish headquarters in the province.
- Mithila dynasties: Karnat (founded by Nanyadeva in 1097, ended by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's invasion of 1324-25) and Oiniwar (patrons of Vidyapati).
- Sufi saint of Bihar: Makhdum Sharafuddin Ahmad Yahya Maneri of the Firdausi order, author of the Maktubat, died at Bihar Sharif in 1381.
- Sher Shah's career: title Sher Khan from Bahar Khan Lohani; seized Rohtasgarh; Chausa 1539; Kannauj (Bilgram) 1540; died at Kalinjar 1545; tomb in a lake at Sasaram.
- Sher Shah's reforms: sarkars and parganas; shiqdar, amin, qanungo, fotedar; patta and qabuliyat; silver rupiya and copper dam; the Sonargaon road (later Grand Trunk Road) with sarais.
- Patna: fort built by Sher Shah in 1541; capital of the Mughal subah of Bihar from 1580; renamed Azimabad in 1704 by Azim-us-Shan, grandson of Aurangzeb.
- Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, was born at Patna in 1666; Takht Sri Harmandir Ji Patna Sahib is one of the five Takhts.
- Mir Qasim moved his capital from Murshidabad to Munger and set up an arms workshop there.
- Battle of Buxar, 22 October 1764: Hector Munro defeated Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-daula and Shah Alam II; the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) gave the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
Quick revision
Bakhtiyar Khilji c. 1200, Odantapuri, Tabaqat-i-Nasiri; Bihar from vihara; Karnat dynasty (Nanyadeva 1097) and Oiniwar in Mithila; Sharafuddin Maneri (Firdausi) died 1381; Sher Shah: Rohtasgarh, Chausa 1539, Kannauj 1540, Kalinjar 1545, Sasaram tomb, rupiya, patta-qabuliyat, Patna fort 1541; Bihar subah 1580; Azimabad 1704; Guru Gobind Singh born Patna 1666; Mir Qasim at Munger; Buxar 22 Oct 1764; Diwani 1765.