Bihar under the Sultanate and the Mughals

Medieval Bihar is often reduced in textbooks to a few names — Bakhtiyar Khalji, Sher Shah, Patna. But the six centuries between the end of Pala rule and the coming of the British shaped much of Bihar's culture: its Sufi shrines, its Sikh heritage, its urban life and its place in global trade.

The arrival of the Turks

• Around 1200, Ikhtiyar-ud-din Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, a commander in the service of the Delhi Sultanate's founders, raided south Bihar, including the great Buddhist monasteries (see our guide on Nalanda and Vikramshila), and then moved into Bengal.
• The town that grew near the site of Odantapuri came to be known as Bihar — from vihara (monastery) — and later Bihar Sharif. The name of the entire province, and later the state, comes from it.

Bihar between Delhi and Bengal

For the next three centuries, Bihar was a frontier between powers:

North Bihar (Mithila) was ruled for long periods by local dynasties such as the Karnatas and later the Oinwar (Onibar) dynasty, under whom Maithili culture and the poet Vidyapati flourished.

The Sufis of Bihar

Bihar became an important centre of Sufism.

• Sheikh Sharfuddin Ahmad Yahya Maneri (fourteenth century), a saint of the Firdausi order, lived and taught at Bihar Sharif. His letters (Maktubat-e-Sadi, the "Hundred Letters") are among the most important works of Indian Sufi literature.
• Maner Sharif (Patna district) — the dargah of Makhdum Yahya Maneri and the Choti Dargah of Shah Daulat, a notable Mughal-era monument.
• Sufi shrines became places of worship for people of all faiths, contributing to Bihar's syncretic culture.

Sher Shah and the Surs

See our guide on Sher Shah Suri — the administrator from Sasaram, whose reforms shaped Mughal administration and who revived Patna.

The Mughal subah of Bihar

• Akbar organised the empire into subahs (provinces) in 1580; Bihar became one of them, with Patna as its capital.
• Governors included Man Singh, who also held Rohtasgarh fort.
• The revenue system followed Todar Mal's zabt methods.

Patna becomes Azimabad

• In the early eighteenth century, the governor Prince Azim-us-Shan (a grandson of Aurangzeb) renamed Patna Azimabad.
• Patna flourished as a centre of trade, administration and Persian and Urdu culture.

Guru Gobind Singh and Patna Sahib

• The tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, was born in Patna in 1666.
• Guru Tegh Bahadur, his father, had visited and stayed in Bihar.
• Takht Sri Harmandir Ji, Patna Sahib — one of the five Takhts (seats of authority) of Sikhism — marks his birthplace.
• In 2017, the 350th anniversary of his birth (Prakash Parv) was celebrated in Patna on a large scale.

Europeans and saltpetre

Bihar was a major source of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), essential for gunpowder — in high demand in Europe.

• The English East India Company set up a factory at Patna in the seventeenth century (its first attempt was in 1620); the Dutch also had a strong presence.
• Other exports included opium, textiles and sugar.
• Patna's position on the Ganga made it a trading hub linking north India with Bengal and the sea.

This commercial importance drew European powers deeper into Bihar's politics — leading, in the eighteenth century, to the Battle of Buxar (1764). See our guide on Bihar under Company rule.

Architecture

Society and culture

• Maithili literature — Vidyapati (fourteenth–fifteenth century), the great poet of Mithila, wrote in Maithili, Sanskrit and Avahatta; his songs remain popular.
• Persian and Urdu literary culture in Patna.
• Syncretic traditions — Sufi shrines and Bhakti poetry drew people across communities.

Practice

Prelims-style:

1. From which word is the name "Bihar" derived?
2. To which Sufi order did Sharfuddin Maneri belong?
3. Who renamed Patna as Azimabad?
4. Where was Guru Gobind Singh born, and when?
5. Which commodity drew European traders to Bihar?

Mains-style:

• "Medieval Bihar was a meeting ground of cultures." Discuss with reference to Sufism, Sikhism and Maithili literature.
• Examine the economic importance of Patna in the Mughal period.