The Last Echoes

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The Glory Devoured 

    The armies of Bahadur Shah and Humayun clashed at the battle of Mandsor 1535 where the defection of a trusted general Rumi Khan to the Mughal side resulted in the defeat of Sultan Bahadur.

        Following his defeat Bahadur Shah fled to Mandu, the capital of Malwa at the time. But the Mughal Badshah was determined to exterminate his enemy. 

     The Sultan was relentlessly pursued by Humayun like a bloodthirsty hound chasing down a hare all the way from Mandu, crossing Pavagadh and Khambhat till Diu on the Kathiyawad coast.

   Humayun's chase of the Sultan finally came to an end upon the arrival of news of the rise of Sher Shah Suri in far off Bihar. Little did Humayun know that his own dynasty would soon spiral down into an abyss for years to come! 


Bahadur Shah fleeing
 from Khambhat 

The Portugese Affair 

     Bahadur Shah while battling Humayun had sought the help of Portuguese who had become a dominant power in the Indian Ocean region due to their naval supremacy. 

    The treaties of Bassein(1534) and Diu(1536) between Sultan Bahadur Shah and King John of Portugal had ceded those towns to Portuguese, even allowing them to undertake their fortifications. This significantly enhanced Portugese dominance in the region.

      After Humayun's retreat from Gujarat, the relations between Bahadur Shah and the Portuguese started to sour as the Sultan realised his increasingly disadvantageous position. 

A Fatal Misunderstanding 

      On a fateful day in January 1537, Bahadur Shah invited the Portugese governor of Diu Nuna Da Cunha for a feast. The Governor finding it fishy, declined the invitation citing his bad health. The Sultan decided to pay a personal visit to the Governor's ship. 

        Sultan's sudden arrival on the ship made the atmosphere extremely tensed. Even Bahadur Shah felt uneasy and ordered his men to retreat back to the coast. Nuna sent two boats instructing his men to inform the Sultan to wait for him at Diu fort. 

             When one of the Portugese man tried to hop into Sultan's boat, he slipped into the water. Sultan's men tried to pull him out. The commotion exacerbated the tension and confusion among the Portuguese and some of them started firing at Sultan's boat. 

        Soon the skirmish turned gory. Suddenly a gleaming sword appeared against the Sun and hacked down Bahadur Shah, killing him instantly. Sultan's body vanished into the Arabian sea off the coast of Diu never to be found again! This was the end of Gujarat as a dominant native power in the history of India. 

Drowning of Bahadur Shah at Diu

     Thus with the mortal body of Sultan Bahadur Shah, also sank the glory of Gujarat. The region was subsequently ruled by some petty Sultans until it was engulfed by the mighty empire of the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1573.




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