Person · Sur wazir & claimant emperor · India
Hemchandra Vikramāditya (Hemu)
Also known as Hemu, Hemachandra, Vikramaditya, Hemu Baqqal
A Rewari saltpetre trader who rose through the Sur administration to become Adil Shah Suri's wazir and commander, won twenty-two engagements in succession, took Agra and then Delhi in October 1556, and had himself crowned there as Vikramaditya — the one non-dynastic claimant to hold the throne of Delhi between the Lodis and the Mughals.
- Date
- 1501–1556
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 28.609, 77.243
Worth knowing
He was captured wounded at the second battle of Panipat a month later and killed; his head was sent to Kabul and his body displayed at Delhi. Fourteen-year-old Akbar's reign effectively begins with his defeat, which is why Hemu appears in Mughal chronicles only as a rebel.
About the place
Placed at Purana Qila in Delhi, where he was crowned Vikramaditya in October 1556 after taking the city from Akbar's governor.
Connections (2)
- Imperial administration ofIndraprastha / Purana Qila
Hemu defeated Akbar's governor Tardi Beg outside Delhi in October 1556, occupied the city, and was crowned in the fort Humayun had built as Dinpanah and Sher Shah had rebuilt as Shergarh. He struck coin and assumed the title Vikramaditya. It is the one moment between 1526 and 1857 when Delhi was held by neither a Mughal nor an Afghan dynasty.
- CampaignPanipat
Bairam Khan marched on Delhi within weeks and met Hemu at Panipat on 5 November 1556. Hemu's elephants and superior numbers were winning until an arrow took him in the eye; his army dissolved when he fell. He was brought before the fourteen-year-old Akbar and executed. Mughal rule in India dates from this battle rather than from 1526.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hemu”. Abu'l-Fazl, Akbarnāma, vol. II; Badauni, Muntakhab al-Tavārīkh.
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