Arrange the following events in correct chronological order, starting from the earliest to the last event: I. First Battle of Panipat II. Battle of Khanwa III. Battle of Ghagra IV. Battle of Chanderi Select the correct answer from the code given below:
- (a)I, II, III, IV
- (b)I, III, II, IV
- (c)I, II, IV, III
- (d)I, III, IV, II
Correct — C, I, II, IV, III.
Babur's decisive Indian battles fall in four consecutive years. Panipat came first, on 21 April 1526, against Ibrahim Lodi. Khanwa followed on 16 March 1527, against Rana Sanga of Mewar and the Rajput confederacy he led.
Chanderi came next, on 29 January 1528, when Babur took the Malwa hill-fort held by Medini Rai, an ally of Rana Sanga. Ghagra came last, on 6 May 1529, fought in Bihar near the meeting of the Ghaghara and the Ganga against Afghan chiefs and Nusrat Shah of Bengal.
So the sequence is Panipat, Khanwa, Chanderi, Ghagra — I, II, IV, III. The idea to carry away is that Chanderi (1528) comes before Ghagra (1529): the Rajput war closed first, and the eastern Afghan reckoning came afterwards.
- (a)I, II, III, IV — This is the stem's own printing order, read straight down the list — what you get by assuming the examiner numbered the items chronologically.
It places Ghagra (6 May 1529) third and Chanderi (29 January 1528) fourth. That asks you to accept that Babur marched east against the Afghans and only afterwards stormed a Malwa fort, reversing more than a year.
- (b)I, III, II, IV — This keeps Khanwa ahead of Chanderi, which is right, but lifts Ghagra out of the last slot and drops it into second. Ghagra is the last of Babur's four major Indian battles, fought on 6 May 1529.
Babur died in December 1530, so Ghagra sits at the very end of his campaigning, roughly three years after Panipat — it cannot occupy the position immediately after 1526.
- (d)I, III, IV, II — This ends with Khanwa, making it Babur's final battle. Khanwa is his victory over Rana Sanga's Rajput confederacy, fought on 16 March 1527, under eleven months after Panipat, so it belongs second.
The option also carries the same displacement as (b): Ghagra, fought in 1529, is put second instead of last, ahead of both engagements against the Rajputs.
Babur's conquest of north India was not one campaign but four battles in four successive years, each against a different kind of adversary.
Panipat removed the Delhi Sultan; Khanwa broke the Rajput confederacy under Rana Sanga; Chanderi reduced Rana Sanga's Malwa ally Medini Rai; Ghagra dealt with the Afghan chiefs in the east, backed by Bengal.
A sequencing question on these four is really a question about which power Babur faced when.
Winning at Panipat gave Babur Delhi and Agra but not the country. The order of what followed shows how his problem kept changing shape — first a Rajput coalition, then its Malwa outpost, then the Afghan nobility regrouping beyond the Ganga.
Because he died in December 1530, all four battles are compressed into the last four years of his life, which is why year-level dates, not decade sense, decide this item.
- The First Battle of Panipat was fought on 21 April 1526, where Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, the Sultan of Delhi.
- The Battle of Khanwa, on 16 March 1527, was fought near Fatehpur Sikri against Rana Sanga of Mewar and his Rajput confederacy.
- Babur assumed the title Ghazi after his victory at Khanwa.
- The Battle of Chanderi, on 29 January 1528, gave Babur the Malwa fort held by Medini Rai, an ally of Rana Sanga.
- The Battle of Ghagra, on 6 May 1529, was fought in Bihar against Afghan chiefs and Nusrat Shah of Bengal, near the Ghaghara–Ganga confluence.
- Babur died in December 1530, which places Ghagra last among his four major Indian battles.
Rows are in fought order. The two highlighted rows are where the answer is decided: Chanderi (1528) before Ghagra (1529) is the single swap that separates (c) from (a).
- The stem's I–IV listing is not chronological; copying the printed order straight down produces option (a).
- All four options open with I, so putting Panipat first earns nothing — the mark rides on positions two, three and four.
- Ghagra sounds like the mopping-up of Lodi remnants and so invites an early slot, but it was fought in 1529, after both Rajput engagements.
- Khanwa and Chanderi are under a year apart (March 1527 and January 1528), so a decade-level sense of the period is not enough to separate them.
- Chanderi is against Medini Rai, not Rana Sanga himself; blurring the two makes Chanderi look like a part of Khanwa rather than the battle after it.
The same four battles appear as a sequencing set, as a battle-to-opponent match (Ibrahim Lodi, Rana Sanga, Medini Rai, Nusrat Shah), and as single-fact items on which battle was Babur's last or where a named battle was fought.
A sequencing variant renumbers the identical four items, so the code letters look different while the underlying order is unchanged — the UKPSC 2024 paper lists Ghaghra first and Panipat second.
The safest preparation is to hold the four years — 1526, 1527, 1528, 1529 — attached to the four adversaries, rather than memorising a code.
UKPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q1242024The same four battles of Babur, asked with the same chronological-order device. What differs is the numbering: that paper lists Ghaghra as I and Panipat as II, so the code strings look nothing alike even though the sequence being tested — Panipat, Khanwa, Chanderi, Ghaghra — is the same one.
UPSC_2020_GS1_Q242020Same sequencing device, different material and a different scale of time: Pallava, Pala, Pratihara and Chola milestones spread over centuries, anchored by reign dates. Here the four items sit inside a single four-year window, so year-level precision is what settles the order.
UPPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q1372024Also an 'arrange chronologically' item, but on early-colonial events — Nana Fadnavis's death, Wellesley's recall, the Vellore Mutiny and the Anglo-Nepalese War — spread across the early 1800s. The events differ, and a rough decade sense goes further there than it does on Babur's four consecutive years.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Battle of Chanderi (1528) was fought by Babur against which of the following?
- (a)Rana Sanga of Mewar
- (b)Medini Rai
- (c)Nusrat Shah of Bengal
- (d)Ibrahim Lodi
Answerb — Chanderi was fought against Medini Rai, who held the Malwa fort and had been an ally of Rana Sanga. (a) fails because Rana Sanga was Babur's opponent at Khanwa in March 1527.(c) fails because Nusrat Shah of Bengal was on the Afghan side at Ghagra in 1529. (d) fails because Ibrahim Lodi was defeated and killed at Panipat in April 1526.
- practice — not a real PYQ
At the Battle of Ghagra (1529), Babur's opponents were:
- (a)Rana Sanga and the Rajput confederacy
- (b)Ibrahim Lodi and the Delhi Sultanate army
- (c)Afghan chiefs supported by Nusrat Shah of Bengal
- (d)Medini Rai and the chiefs of Malwa
Answerc — Ghagra, fought in Bihar on 6 May 1529, pitted Babur against the eastern Afghan chiefs with the backing of Nusrat Shah of Bengal. (a) names the Khanwa adversary of 1527. (b) names the Panipat adversary of 1526. (d) names the Chanderi adversary of January 1528. - practice — not a real PYQ
In the chronological sequence of Babur's career, the Battle of Chanderi falls between which two of the following?
- (a)The First Battle of Panipat and the Battle of Khanwa
- (b)The Battle of Khanwa and the Battle of Ghagra
- (c)The Battle of Ghagra and Babur's death
- (d)Babur's capture of Kabul and the First Battle of Panipat
Answerb — Chanderi (January 1528) comes after Khanwa (March 1527) and before Ghagra (May 1529). (a) fails because Khanwa precedes Chanderi by about ten months. (c) fails because Ghagra is later than Chanderi, and Babur died in December 1530. (d) fails because Chanderi is after Panipat (1526), not before it.