UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 91 of 150

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.

• (a)2, 4, 3, 1 — 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)4, 2, 3, 1 — 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)4, 2, 1, 3 — 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.

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.

The options are engineered around exactly two decisions, and each decision kills two options. Decision one: is Samugarh last? Any candidate who knows Samugarh as the Aurangzeb-versus-Dara battle immediately rejects (a) and (b), which both bury Samugarh in the middle. Decision two: does Daurah precede Chausa? Daurah is Humayun beating the Afghans; Chausa is the Afghans beating Humayun — the reign moves from strength to collapse, so Daurah is earlier, and that eliminates (c). What is left is (d). This is the general technique for UPPSC's 'arrange in chronological order' items: you rarely need all four dates, only enough relative anchors to knock out three codes.

• Battle of Daurah (Dourah/Dadrah), 1531 — Humayun abandoned his siege of Kalinjar, crossed the Ganga and defeated the Afghans under Mahmud Lodi; some Indian textbooks date it 1532
• Battle of Chausa, June 1539 — Sher Shah Suri attacked Humayun's camp on the Ganga near Buxar; Humayun survived by swimming the river on an inflated water-skin
• Battle of Kannauj (Bilgram), 17 May 1540 — Sher Shah's decisive victory; Humayun lost Hindustan and went into exile, and Sher Shah was proclaimed ruler of Hindustan
• Battle of Samugarh, 29 May 1658 — about 16 km east of Agra; Aurangzeb and Murad Bakhsh defeated Dara Shikoh, following Aurangzeb's earlier win at Dharmat in April 1658
• Mahmud Lodi, the loser at Daurah, was a brother of Ibrahim Lodi and had already been beaten by Babur at the Battle of Ghaghra in 1529

• Assuming any battle involving Humayun must precede any battle involving Sher Shah — Daurah (1531) is Humayun's victory and Chausa (1539) his defeat, eight years apart
• Slotting Samugarh among the Humayun-era battles because the name is unfamiliar; it is 1658, more than a century later
• Not realising that the Battle of Kannauj and the Battle of Bilgram are the same 1540 engagement under two names — UPPSC has used both spellings in different years

UPPSC leans on the 'arrange in chronological order … Code:' format and deliberately mixes battles from different centuries in one list; UPSC more often asks for a single battle's participants ('the Battle of Dharmat was fought between') or pairs a battle with its year in a match-the-list.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which of the following battles did Humayun defeat the Afghan forces led by Mahmud Lodi?

  • (a)Battle of Ghaghra
  • (b)Battle of Daurah
  • (c)Battle of Chausa
  • (d)Battle of Bilgram

  Answer(b) Battle of Daurah — Humayun's early victory (1531) over the last Lodi claimant; Ghaghra (1529) was Babur's win, and Chausa and Bilgram were Humayun's defeats by Sher Shah.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Battle of Samugarh (1658) was fought between

  • (a)Humayun and Sher Shah Suri
  • (b)Akbar and Hemu
  • (c)Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh
  • (d)Babur and Rana Sanga

  Answer(c) Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh — Aurangzeb, allied with Murad Bakhsh, defeated Dara about 16 km east of Agra in the war of succession for Shah Jahan's throne.