Arrange the following events in correct chronological order and select the correct answer from the code given below.
1. Battle of Kannauj
2. Battle of Daurah
3. Battle of Samugarh
4. Battle of Chausa

Question

Arrange the following events in correct chronological order and select the correct answer from the code given below.
1. Battle of Kannauj
2. Battle of Daurah
3. Battle of Samugarh
4. Battle of Chausa
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, 2, 4, 1, 3 — that is, Daurah → Chausa → Kannauj → Samugarh. The Battle of Daurah (the name is also spelt Dourah, Dauhrah or Dadrah) came first: Humayun broke off his siege of Kalinjar, crossed the Ganga and scattered the Afghan force led by Mahmud Lodi, the last serious Lodi claimant, in 1531. Eight years later the balance flipped — at Chausa, on the Ganga near Buxar, Sher Shah Suri fell on Humayun's camp in June 1539, and Humayun escaped only by swimming the river on an inflated water-skin. Sher Shah finished the job at Kannauj (also called the Battle of Bilgram) on 17 May 1540, after which he was crowned ruler of Hindustan and Humayun began fifteen years of exile. The Battle of Samugarh belongs to an entirely different generation: fought on 29 May 1658 about 16 km east of Agra, it was Aurangzeb and Murad Bakhsh crushing Dara Shikoh in the war of succession for Shah Jahan's throne. So the order is 2, 4, 1, 3 — option (d). One honest caveat on the first date: sources differ between 1531 and 1532 for Daurah. The question does not turn on that — either way Daurah is comfortably the earliest of the four.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) It opens correctly with Daurah before Chausa, then breaks down at the end: it puts Samugarh (1658) ahead of Kannauj (1540), a 118-year jump in the wrong direction. Samugarh is an Aurangzeb-era battle and has to come last in any list containing Humayun's battles.  (b) Wrong at both ends. It starts with Chausa (1539) ahead of Daurah (1531), and it repeats the Samugarh-before-Kannauj inversion. Chausa cannot be first — it belongs to Humayun's collapse, whereas Daurah belongs to his early, victorious years.  (c) The closest wrong option, and the one that catches most candidates. Its tail is right — Kannauj (1540) then Samugarh (1658) — but it opens with Chausa before Daurah. Chausa (1539) was Humayun's first defeat by Sher Shah; Daurah (1531) was his victory over Mahmud Lodi's Afghans right at the start of the reign.

Concept: The four names come from two separate crises of the Mughal dynasty, a century apart. The first three belong to Humayun's reign (1530-40): Daurah was his opening success against the Afghan remnant of the Lodi house, while Chausa and Kannauj were the twin defeats by Sher Shah Suri that cost him Hindustan and inaugurated the Sur interregnum of 1540-55. Samugarh belongs to 1658 and the war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons, which ended with Aurangzeb on the throne and Dara Shikoh executed. Recognising which reign a battle sits in is enough to order it.

State PCS 2025 Q91 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q91 — History PYQ with Answer