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Siege of Mankot

VictorMughal army of AkbarAkbar; Bairam Khan
1557vs
Sur AfghansSikandar Shah Sur

The last of the Sur claimants in the Punjab held out in the hill fort of Mankot. Akbar’s army sat before it for months, and in July 1557 Sikandar Shah gave up.

Date: Early to July 1557Where: Mankot (Ramkot), Jammu hillsType: Siege
Photo: Gbaadkar · CC BY-SA 3.0
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Cite

MLA

“Siege of Mankot.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-mankot-1557/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Siege of Mankot. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/siege-of-mankot-1557/

Result

After a siege of several months Sikandar Shah surrendered the fort and was given a fief in the east.

01The last Sur in the north

Sikandar Shah Sur, beaten at Sirhind in 1555, had escaped into the Siwalik hills. While Akbar’s officers dealt with Hemu at Panipat in November 1556, Sikandar came down again into the Punjab. Akbar and Bairam Khan marched against him, and he shut himself up in Mankot, a strong fort in the hills on the Jammu side built by Islam Shah Sur. The Mughals invested it and brought up guns, and the young emperor stayed in the camp through the siege.

02Surrender

The siege dragged on through the spring. Food ran short inside, and many of Sikandar’s men slipped away. In July 1557 he sent his son to the Mughal camp and asked for terms. Akbar let him go with his family and gave him a fief in Bihar, where he died about two years later. Mankot was handed over. With Sikandar gone and Hemu dead, no Sur prince was left in the field in the north.

Why it matters

Mankot ended the Sur challenge in the Punjab and secured the young Akbar’s throne.

Places near the battlefield 5

Sukrala Mata Temple, BillawarStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Sukrala Mata Temple, Billawar

The Devi of the Kathua hills, worshipped as Sharada who came down from Kashmir. Dogra families of the Billawar area count her their kuldevi.

Sudh Mahadev, ChenaniStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Sudh Mahadev, Chenani

A Shiva temple in the hills beyond Patnitop, where pieces of a great trishul are kept and worshipped. The Shravan Purnima mela here is one of the oldest fairs of the Jammu hills.

Bawe Wali Mata (Mahakali), Bahu Fort, JammuStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Bawe Wali Mata (Mahakali), Bahu Fort, Jammu

The Kali temple inside Bahu Fort, on the cliff above the Tawi, is the guardian goddess of Jammu. Jammu people call her Bawe Wali Mata, and after Vaishno Devi she draws the largest crowds in the region.

JammuStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Jammu

The city of temples on the Tawi, seat of the Dogra rajas from whom Gulab Singh built a Himalayan state reaching Ladakh, Baltistan and Kashmir. Its Raghunath temple, begun in 1835, holds one of the great Sanskrit manuscript libraries of the north.

Raghunath Temple, JammuStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Raghunath Temple, Jammu

A complex of seven shrines in the heart of Jammu, raised by the first two Dogra Maharajas, whose gilded spires gave Jammu the name City of Temples. Its library of Sanskrit manuscripts is one of the great collections of the north.