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Battle of Sirpur (Sherpur)

VictorEast India Company and the Nawab of BengalMajor John Caillaud; Miran, son of Mir Jafar
1760vs
Mughal prince Ali Gauhar (Shah Alam II)Shah Alam II

The fugitive Mughal prince Ali Gauhar, who proclaimed himself emperor as Shah Alam II, tried to win Bihar. Caillaud and Miran beat his army near Patna.

Date: February 1760Where: Near Patna, BiharType: Battle
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Sirpur (Sherpur).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-sirpur-1760/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Sirpur (Sherpur). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-sirpur-1760/

Result

The prince’s army was defeated and retreated, though he slipped away towards Bengal and was not captured.

01A prince without a throne

Ali Gauhar, eldest son of Alamgir II, had fled Delhi to escape the wazir Imad-ul-Mulk. With help from chiefs in Awadh and Bihar he marched on Patna in 1759 to claim the eastern provinces, and was driven off by Clive. He came back early in 1760. Hearing that his father had been murdered in Delhi, he crowned himself Shah Alam II and again advanced on Patna, held for Mir Jafar by the deputy governor Ramnarayan.

02Caillaud and Miran

Ramnarayan came out and was beaten. Major John Caillaud, now commanding the Company’s Bengal troops, marched up the Ganga with Miran, Mir Jafar’s son, and met the prince’s army in February 1760. The Company sepoys and the Nawab’s horse defeated it, and the prince fell back. He then gave his pursuers the slip and made a dash across the hills towards Murshidabad itself, before turning back once more to besiege Patna, which Captain Knox relieved.

Why it matters

Sirpur kept Bihar in Company hands for Mir Jafar. Shah Alam’s war in the east dragged on until Carnac beat him at Suan in January 1761.

Places near the battlefield 8

Odantapuri MahaviharaDestroyed
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Odantapuri Mahavihara

A Pala-era monastery at what is now Bihar Sharif, whose plan served as the model for Samye, the first monastery of Tibet. It is the vihara most scholars identify in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri’s account of Bakhtiyar Khalji’s sack of ‘the fort of Bihar’.

Nalanda MahaviharaExcavated
The Gupta Age

Nalanda Mahavihara

For some seven centuries the greatest seat of learning in Asia, with thousands of monks and teachers, libraries and royal grants from Kanauj to Sumatra. It was ruined in the raids on Bihar around 1200 and its brick courts were dug out from 1915.

Takht Sri Patna SahibRebuilt
The Mughal era and the resistance

Takht Sri Patna Sahib

Takht Sri Harimandir Ji in old Patna marks the house where Guru Gobind Singh was born in 1666 and spent his first years. It is one of the five Takhts, the seats of authority of the Khalsa Panth.

Pawapuri (Pavapuri)Standing
Janapadas and the Rise of Magadha

Pawapuri (Pavapuri)

The place where, by Jain tradition, Bhagwan Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, gave his last sermon and attained nirvana in 527 BCE. The white Jal Mandir stands in the middle of a lotus tank, reached by a long causeway.

Badi Patan Devi Temple, Patna (Magadh Shakti Peetha)Standing
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Badi Patan Devi Temple, Patna (Magadh Shakti Peetha)

The guardian Devi of Patna, whose seat is counted as the Magadh Shakti Peetha, where Sati’s right thigh fell. Some lists count it as the 52nd peetha, beyond the 51.

PataliputraExcavated
The Maurya Empire

Pataliputra

Capital of Magadha, of the Nandas, the Mauryas and the Guptas, on the Ganga where the Son once joined it. Under modern Patna lie the timber palisade Megasthenes described and the pillared hall of the Mauryas.

Mahavir Mandir, PatnaRebuilt
Independent Bharat

Mahavir Mandir, Patna

The Hanuman temple at the gate of Patna Junction, the busiest temple in Bihar, famous for its naivedyam laddu. Its trust, long led by Acharya Kishore Kunal, runs cancer and children’s hospitals from the offerings.

Harihar Nath Temple, SonepurStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Harihar Nath Temple, Sonepur

The temple of Harihar Nath at Sonepur, where the Gandak meets the Ganga and where the Puranic katha of Gajendra Moksha is placed. Its Kartik Purnima bath begins the Sonepur Mela, long the biggest animal fair in Asia.