The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c14.18

v4.c14.18

Sultān Mahmūd now sent a fresh army to avenge the earlier defeat. The jealousies of the Lohānī tribe blinded them to their own interests as well as to those of their sovereign and they persuaded Jalāl Khān to rid himself of Sher Khān at all costs. He therefore ordered Sher Khān to return to his charge, on the pretext that the Lohānīs were unwilling to fight under his orders. Sher Khān retired to Sasarām, and Jalāl Khān allowed himself to be persuaded to join the army of Mahmūd of Bengal, and ceased to be king of Bihār. Sher Khān rejoiced at the news. There were now, he said, no divisions in the army of Bihār, and the land, by Jalāl Khān’s desertion, was his. He enlisted more troops and advanced against the army of Bengal, but, owing to his numerical inferiority, entrenched himself and refrained from attacking the enemy in force. Reinforcements were summoned from Bengal, and Sher Khān found it necessary to give battle before these should arrive. By the well-known stratagem of a feigned flight his first line drew the enemy’s cavalry away from his artillery and elephants, and Sher Khān then fell on it with his reserves and routed it. The commander was slain while attempting to flee, Jalāl Khān escaped with great difficulty into Bengal, and the treasure, the elephants and the artillery of Bengal fell into the hands of Sher Khān, who was now the unquestioned sovereign of Bihār.