Bahadurpur, Battle of

▪ Indian history [1658]

      (Feb. 24, 1658), conflict that helped decide the war of succession among the sons of Shah Jahān (Jahān Shāh), Mughal emperor of India (1628–1657/58). When Shah Jahān fell ill in 1657, his four sons—Dārā Shikōh, Shāh Shujāʿ, Aurangzeb, and Murād Bakhsh—fought for power: Shujāʿ, the second son—who had quickly set himself up as the independent governor of Bengal—was defeated at Bahadurpur, 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Benares (now Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh state, by Dārā's son Sulaymān Shikōh. Shikōh was later captured and executed by his uncle Aurangzeb, who in June 1658 imprisoned Shah Jahān and a month later crowned himself emperor. Aurangzeb also defeated Dārā, Murād, and Shujāʿ (who became a fugitive and died in Myanmar [Burma] in 1660).

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