Hemachandra Vikramaditya (Hemu)

Raja Hemchandra Vikramaditya or as popularly referred to as Hemu, was the Wazir at the court of the fourth Sultan of the Sur Dynasty, Adali or Muhammad Adil Shah

Very little is known about Hemu. Whatever little information we have, is through contemporary Mughal historians. Needless to say it's extremely biased but does give us an idea about him.

Tabakat-i-Akbari by Nizamuddin Ahmed mentions that Hemu was a Hindu shopkeeper (bakkal) in the town of Rewri, Mewat. His rise through the ranks was swift and merit based. He became the superintendent of the markets and then the director-general of the army.

Eventually he rose to become the Wazir of Adil Shah.
He fought many battles for Adil Shah and won all of them. Most of the other contemporary chroniclers agree on his humble beginnings and swift rise through the ranks. Adil Shah ruled for all of three years.

So Hemu's rise from a shopkeeper to Hemachandra Vikramaditya (although he assumed this title for a very brief period) was very swift.

Although he has fought many battles, not many details are available to us.

His last battle, which he fought at Panipat against the imperial troops led by Bahiram Khan has been, to some extent, described in detail by various contemporary chroniclers and Mughal court historians.

Most details are provided by Ahmed Yadgar, an Afghan chronicler who has written about the Afghan rulers in India. His book Tarikh-i-Salatin-i-Afghana ends with Hemu's death and a short footnote as to how Adil Shah met his end.

In the next thread I will attempt to describe the last battle of Hemachandra Vikramaditya's life, i.e. the second battle of Panipat fought against the imperial troops of Akbar under the command of Bahiram Khan and Khan Zaman I.

Picture is from the net. I think this is Hemu reimagined by someone much later. Not sure though. If anyone has any information regarding this image, please let me know.