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Battle of Kannauj

1540 battle during Sur campaigns against the Mughal Empire

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ108485662
Source-derived summary

The Battle of Kannauj or Battle of Bilgram also known as Battle of Ganges took place at Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India between Sher Shah Suri and Humayun on 17 May 1540. This conflict occurred near Bilgram, where Humayun was defeated.

Background

On 26 June 1539, the army led by Sher Shah Suri destroyed the Mughal forces which were led by Humayun at the Battle of Chausa. Mughal Emperor Humayun fled the incident jumping in the Ganges and saved his life somehow. Losing at the battle of Chausa, Humayun came back to Agra asking for assistance of his brothers to challenge Sher Shah Suri again. One of his brothers Hindal Mirza assured Humayun to support with his army. But Humayun's other brother named Kamran Mirza did not agree to send his army while Humayun was commanding, because Kamran Mirza wanted to take control of the throne himself. Afterwards, Kamran could not manage to take control of the power from his brother Humayun and moved to Lahore taking his army with him. Yet Humayun gathered quite sufficient forces to fight against Sher Shah Suri. Sher Khan declared himself Sultan with the victory in the battle of Chausa.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Battle of Kannauj” as 1540 battle during Sur campaigns against the Mughal Empire. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Battle, Kannauj and battle.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1540, 1539—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Battle, Kannauj and battle providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Battle of Kannauj”, the useful work is to connect “1540 battle during Sur campaigns against the Mughal Empire” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108485662. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1540 and 1539.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Battle of Kannauj” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.