The Battle of Ghaghra, fought in 1529, was a great battle for the conquest of India by the Mughal Empire. It followed the first Battle of Panipat in 1526 and the Battle of Khanwa in 1527. The forces of Mughal Emperor Babur of the emerging Mughal Empire were joined by Indian allies in battle against the Eastern Afghan Confederates under Sultan Mahmud Lodi and Sultanate of Bengal under Sultan Nusrat Shah.
Background
Sultan Mahmud Lodi, who aspired to the throne of Delhi and who had been declared the rightful heir to the Delhi Sultanate by the Western Afghan Confederates and aided by the Rajput Confederates, was put to flight after the defeat at the Battle of Khanwa in 1527. He took refuge in Gujarat. After trying to get in touch with his kinsmen in the east he managed to join them. He at the head of the Eastern Afghan Confederates took Bihar. When Sultan Muhammad Shah Lohani, the Pathan king of Bihar of the new dynasty, died, some time after Babur's expedition to Chanderi, he was succeeded by his son Sultan Jalal ud-Din Lohani, a minor, and the chief management of affairs at least in Bihar then devolved on that prince's mother Dudu and on Farid Khan, better known as Sher Shah Suri, who had already risen into distinction; that the country was distracted by the rival claims of the Lohani nobles related to the young king, of Baban and Bayezid whose influence was very extensive, of Sher Shah Suri and of other chiefs, and that these factions added to the effects of the discomfiture which the Pathans received in the preceding campaigns from the armies of Babur at length induced the young prince to take refuge in the territories of the Sultan of Bengal.
In this state of things the Afghans of Jaunpur and indeed of India in general, in order to avert the total ruin of their affairs and to unite all interests as far as was practicable, resolved to call in Sultan Mahmud Lodi who had already, with the support of Rana Sanga, made an effort to mount the throne of Delhi. When defeated in that attempt he had retired to Gujarat. Afterwards he proceeded to Panna in Bundelkhand where he remained waiting for some favorable change of affairs and now accepted the invitation to ascend the throne of Bihar and Jaunpur. He was speedily joined by his countrymen from every quarter and seems to have taken possession of nearly the whole of Bihar without opposition. What excites most surprise is the secrecy and success with which intrigues and movements so extensive appear to have been conducted, a fact explained perhaps by the deep interest which every Pathan felt in the national success and the fidelity which tribesmen show to their chiefs and to each other.
The day after receiving this news, Babur returned to Agra, where he told his council he would immediately assume command of the eastern army. Taking with him such troops as were at hand, he set out on February 2, 1529, and crossing the Doab, reached the right bank of the Ganges at Dakdaki on February 27, 1529. Here he was met by his son Humayun, General Askari, and several generals who came from the other side. He arranged with them that while his army marched down the right bank of the river theirs should march down the left and should always encamp over against his.
The information which he received here was but little satisfactory. He found that the Pathans who were straining every nerve to recover their military and political ascendancy had gathered around Sultan Mahmud Lodi to the number of 100,000 men. The Sultan had detached Baban and Sheikh Bayezid with a large force to Sirwar while he himself with Fateh Khan Shirwani, the minister of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Lodi and of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi in succession by whom Mahmud had been joined and who had now deserted Babur as he had done his first master, kept along the Bihar bank of the Ganges and was marching on Chunar. Sher Shah Suri, whom Babur had distinguished by marks of his favor having given him several parganas and entrusted him with a command, had joined the insurgents, had crossed the Ganges, and occupied Benares from which the officers of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, a descendant of the older dynasty of the country who held the city under Babur's authority had fled on his approach.
There were therefore at this time three competitors for the Eastern or Sherki kingdom
