After the death of Humayun, the 13 year-old Akbar was coronated in 1556 at Kalanaur in ________.

Correct — C. Kalanaur is a town in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, and that is where the 13-year-old Akbar was enthroned in 1556 after Humayun's death.

Akbar was campaigning in the Punjab with Bairam Khan when the news came from Delhi, so the coronation happened where the prince already stood — on a raised platform in the field, not in a capital city.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Gujarat — Gujarat was outside Mughal control in 1556. Akbar annexed it only in the 1570s, nearly two decades after the coronation.
• (b)
  Rajasthan — Rajasthan baits the memory of Akbar's Rajput campaigns — Chittor, Ranthambore, Haldighati — but every one of those comes years after 1556.
• (d)
  Bengal — Bengal lay far to the east and beyond Mughal reach in 1556. It too was annexed in the 1570s, long after Akbar was crowned.

Humayun died in January 1556 after a fall on the stairs of his library at the Sher Mandal in Delhi. His son was away with the army, in the Punjab.

Bairam Khan had Akbar proclaimed emperor at once, at Kalanaur, and then governed as regent until 1560 — the years in which Hemu was beaten at the Second Battle of Panipat in November 1556 and Mughal rule was rebuilt from almost nothing.

The place matters for that reason: a coronation held in the field tells you the succession was urgent and contested.

Key facts

• Akbar was crowned in 1556 at Kalanaur, in present-day Gurdaspur district, Punjab.
• Bairam Khan acted as regent from 1556 until 1560.
• The Second Battle of Panipat, in November 1556, was fought against Hemu.
• Humayun died in 1556 at the Sher Mandal in Delhi.

Common traps

• Placing the coronation at Delhi or Agra because those were the Mughal capitals
• Reading 'Kalanaur' as a Rajput site because of Akbar's later Rajasthan campaigns

No directly related past PYQ was found.