Did You Know Delhi Once Had A Hindu King? Inside The Life Of King Hemu Vikramaditya, A Trader's Son Who Won 22 Battles To Rule Delhi Before Mughals...

Delhi

is synonymous with Mughal grandeur—from Shah Jahan's Red Fort to Aurangzeb's expansions—but not many know about one Hindu King who managed to seize the throne after rising the ranks, and defeated Mughals and Afghans rebels when they were vying for power across North India. His name was Hemachandra Vikramaditya, or Hemu Vikramaditya, the last Hindu ruler of this sprawling city before two centuries of Mughal dominance.

Hemu Vikramaditya's Rise

Hemu Chandra Vikramaditya, born around 1501 in Rewari as a trader's son, began as a superintendent of weights and measures under Afghan rulers. Reports suggest that he was born in the village Machheri, three miles away from Rajgarh in the region of Alwar (Rajasthan) in Dhusar Brahmin (Bhargava) family. Some say that he was born in a Baniya family.He entered military service for Adil Shah Suri, suppressing revolts and defeating rivals across Punjab, Bengal, Agra, and Bayana. In October 1556, after Humayun's death, he crushed Akbar's governor Tardi Beg Khan at the Battle of Delhi (Tughlaqabad), seizing the throne and declaring himself emperor with the ancient title Vikramaditya. Reports suggest that it was after 350 years of almost unbroken Afghan rule, an Indian king had entered Delhi and ruled over it!

Brief Rule Over Delhi

His reign from October 7 to November 5, 1556, marked the last Hindu control of Delhi in centuries. Crowned at Purana Qila with Vedic rituals, Hemu issued coins in Sanskrit and Persian, reformed the army on merit, curbed corruption by replacing officials, boosted trade, banned hoarding, and prohibited cow slaughter. These moves aimed at fair governance during his one-month tenure.

Fall at Panipat

On Nov 5, 1556, Mughal army led by young Akbar and his guardian and chief military strategist, Bairam Khan, attacked to reclaim Delhi. Advancing against Akbar's forces, Hemu led 50,000 troops and elephants into the Second Battle of Panipat on November 5, 1556. A stray arrow to his eye left him unconscious and captured; Akbar ordered his beheading, which was reportedly undertaken by Bairam Khan.

On Panipat's official page, historian A.L.Srivastava's words about Hemu are quoted. He writes, “Modem European writers have joined the medieval chronicles (whose prejudice to a Hindu, who made any attempt to free his country from foreign yoke is obvious) in finding fault with him. No impartial student of history, however can fail to admire Hemu’s qualities of leadership, and the promptitude with which he seized the opportunity of banishing alien rule from the capital. If foreigners like Humayun and the descendants of Sher Shah could advance claims to the sovereignty of India, Hemu who was a real native of the soil, had an equally legitimate, if not better, claim to rule over his ancestral land.”

Similarly R.C.Majumdar reasonably writes, “there is nothing unreasonable or immoral in the aspirations of Hemu… it may not be altogether wrong to think that he was inspired by the ideas of founding a Hindu Raj.”