The Battle of Samugarh (May 1658), a decisive battle in the war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons, was fought near:

The Battle of Samugarh was fought on 29 May 1658 at Samugarh, about 13 km east of Agra, between Aurangzeb (with his brother Murad Bakhsh) and the imperial army led by Dara Shikoh.

Background:

• When Shah Jahan fell ill in September 1657, rumours spread that he had died.
• His four sons, Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad Bakhsh, began fighting for the throne.
• Aurangzeb, then the viceroy of the Deccan, allied with Murad, the governor of Gujarat.
• Their combined army defeated the imperial forces at Dharmat (near Ujjain) in April 1658.
• They then marched towards Agra.

The battle:

• Dara Shikoh came out from Agra with a large army to meet them.
• The battle was fought in the intense heat of summer.
• Dara's army fought well at first, but Dara made a fatal mistake: he got down from his elephant to mount a horse.
• His soldiers, seeing his elephant without him, thought he had been killed, and fled in panic.
• Aurangzeb won a decisive victory.

Results:

• Dara fled to Agra and then to Delhi and Lahore.
• Aurangzeb captured Agra and besieged the Agra Fort, cutting off its water supply, until Shah Jahan surrendered.
• Shah Jahan was imprisoned in the Agra Fort, where he remained until his death in 1666.
• Aurangzeb then imprisoned his ally Murad, and crowned himself emperor in 1658.

Significance:

• The battle decided the war of succession in Aurangzeb's favour, though he had to fight his brothers again in 1659.
• Historians regard it as one of the most important battles in Mughal history.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Delhi and Lahore were places to which Dara fled.
• ✗Ujjain was near the earlier battle of Dharmat.