UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 128 of 150

Correct — A, II, I, III, IV. In date order the four battles run: (II) Bilgram, 17 May 1540 — also called the battle of Kannauj, where Sher Shah Suri routed Humayun on the Ganga and drove him out of India into a fifteen-year exile, founding Sur rule over Hindustan; (I) Sarnal, 1572 — fought during Akbar's Gujarat campaign, when Akbar crossed the Mahi river with a small advance force and stormed the rebel Mirzas' position at Sarnal in what is now Kheda district, a dash that opened the way to the annexation of Gujarat; (III) Dharmat, 15 April 1658 — near Ujjain, where Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh defeated the imperial army led by Jaswant Singh of Marwar, the first major engagement of the war of succession against Dara Shukoh; and (IV) Jajau, June 1707 — near Agra, where, weeks after Aurangzeb's death, Prince Muazzam defeated and killed his brother Azam Shah and took the throne as Bahadur Shah I. So the sequence is 1540 → 1572 → 1658 → 1707, that is II, I, III, IV.

• (b)II, III, IV, I — It starts correctly with Bilgram but then pushes Sarnal to the very end, after Jajau. Sarnal belongs to Akbar's Gujarat campaign of 1572, more than a century before the 1707 succession battle at Jajau.
• (c)III, II, I, IV — It opens with Dharmat. Dharmat was fought in 1658 during Aurangzeb's war of succession — it cannot precede Bilgram (1540) and Sarnal (1572), both of which belong to the sixteenth century.
• (d)III, I, II, IV — It makes the same error of putting the 1658 battle of Dharmat first, and additionally places Sarnal (1572) before Bilgram (1540).

The four battles are milestones of four different phases of Mughal history, and remembering which phase each belongs to is easier than remembering its date. Bilgram belongs to the crisis of the first Mughal generation — Humayun's defeat and the Sur interregnum. Sarnal belongs to Akbar's period of expansion, when Gujarat with its ports and wealth was brought into the empire. Dharmat belongs to the war of succession of 1657–59 that put Aurangzeb on the throne. Jajau belongs to the succession war of 1707 that followed Aurangzeb's death and opened the long decline. Place each battle in its phase and the chronology writes itself.

In a four-item ordering question you rarely need all four dates. Fix the two extremes first: Bilgram is the only battle here that belongs to Humayun's reign, so it must be first; Jajau follows Aurangzeb's death, so it must be last. That alone eliminates options (b), (c) and (d) — each of which either starts with the wrong battle or ends with the wrong one — and leaves (a). Note also that both Dharmat and Jajau are war-of-succession battles, and the Mughal succession wars are separated by half a century: 1658 for Aurangzeb's, 1707 for his sons'.

• Battle of Bilgram (Kannauj), 17 May 1540: Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun, who fled India; Sur rule was established over Hindustan.
• Battle of Sarnal, 1572: Akbar defeated the rebel Mirzas at Sarnal on the Mahi river during his Gujarat campaign, part of the annexation of Gujarat.
• Battle of Dharmat, 15 April 1658: Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh defeated Jaswant Singh of Marwar, who commanded for the imperial side, in the war of succession against Dara Shukoh.
• Battle of Jajau, June 1707: fought near Agra after Aurangzeb's death in March 1707; Prince Muazzam defeated Azam Shah and became Bahadur Shah I.
• Dharmat was followed within six weeks by Samugarh (May 1658), the decisive defeat of Dara Shukoh.

• Reading the Roman numerals as if they were already in order. The list is deliberately shuffled; the first item, Sarnal, is chronologically the second battle.
• Mixing up Dharmat with Samugarh — both belong to the 1658 succession war, Dharmat in April and Samugarh in May, and Dharmat is the one fought against Jaswant Singh of Marwar.
• Assuming that an obscure-sounding battle must be an old one. Sarnal is the least familiar name here but sits comfortably in Akbar's reign.

UPPSC is fond of four-item chronological ordering from medieval Indian history; UPSC asks the same battles as single-fact items — who fought whom, and with what consequence.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Battle of Bilgram, also known as the Battle of Kannauj, was fought in 1540 between

  • (a)Babur and Ibrahim Lodi
  • (b)Sher Shah Suri and Humayun
  • (c)Akbar and Hemu
  • (d)Aurangzeb and Dara Shukoh

  Answer(b) Sher Shah Suri and Humayun — the defeat drove Humayun out of India and established Sur rule; Babur–Ibrahim Lodi was Panipat 1526, Akbar–Hemu was Panipat 1556, and Aurangzeb–Dara belongs to 1658.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Battle of Jajau, fought in June 1707, was a consequence of

  • (a)the invasion of Nadir Shah
  • (b)the death of Aurangzeb and the succession dispute among his sons
  • (c)the rebellion of the Marathas under Shivaji
  • (d)the deposition of Shah Jahan by Aurangzeb

  Answer(b) The death of Aurangzeb and the succession dispute among his sons — Aurangzeb died in March 1707, and at Jajau near Agra Prince Muazzam defeated Azam Shah to become Bahadur Shah I.