Raja Ganesha and the Jaunpur invasion of Bengal

Raja Ganesha, Hindu ruler of BengalRaja Ganesha (Danujamardana Deva)

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Sharqi Sultanate of Jaunpur, called in by the Sufi Nur Qutb AlamIbrahim Shah Sharqi

Raja Ganesha, a Hindu noble, took control of the Bengal Sultanate. A leading Sufi appealed to the Sharqi sultan of Jaunpur, who invaded. The crisis ended with Ganesha’s son converting and taking the throne, so the outcome is entered as mixed.

Date: c. 1414–1415 CEWhere: Pandua and north BengalType: Campaign

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Cite

MLA

“Raja Ganesha and the Jaunpur invasion of Bengal.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/raja-ganesha-and-the-jaunpur-invasion/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Raja Ganesha and the Jaunpur invasion of Bengal. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/raja-ganesha-and-the-jaunpur-invasion/

Result

Ibrahim Shah withdrew after Raja Ganesha’s son was converted and placed on the throne; Ganesha later took back power.

01A Hindu ruler in Bengal

Ganesha was a landholder of Bhaturia in north Bengal who rose to dominate the weak Ilyas Shahi sultans. Around 1414 he took power himself. The Sufi saint Nur Qutb Alam of Pandua, angered at his treatment of Muslim divines, wrote to Ibrahim Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur urging him to invade. Letters of the Sufi Ashraf Jahangir Simnani to Ibrahim survive and confirm the appeal. Ibrahim marched into Bengal with an army.

02The settlement

Rather than fight, Ganesha came to terms with Nur Qutb Alam: his twelve-year-old son Jadu was converted and placed on the throne as Jalal al-Din Muhammad Shah, and the Sufi persuaded Ibrahim to go home. Once the Jaunpur army had left, Ganesha took power again and issued coins in his own name as Danujamardana Deva, with the title found on coins from Pandua and Chittagong. Jalal al-Din later ruled in his own right.

Why it matters

It is the one episode in which a Hindu ruler held the Bengal Sultanate, and shows how religion and power were bound together in that age.