Attack of Ali Muhammad Khan on Kumaon Kingdom

History accounts of Attack of Ali Muhammad Khan on Kumaon Kingdom

              (History of Kumaon from 1000-1790 AD)

                                      

         (History of Chand Dynasty Rule in Kumaon)

History of Uttarakhand (Garhwal, Kumaon, Haridwar) - Part 202

                                              By: Bhishma Kukreti

                  Brief about Rise of Ali Muhammad Khan

  Ali Mohammad khan was a Jat Muslim. However, the regional commander of Moradabad Daud Khan adopted   Al Muhammad Khan and Ali Muhammad Khan was counted as Rohila (Afghan decedent). Ali Mohammad khan left the service of Moradabad ruler and captured a territory near Chandausi. Within shortest period, Ali Mohammad Khan captured the pert of territories of Moradabad, Sambhal, Shahabad, and Shahjahanpur. Ali Muhammad Khan started paying tribute to minister of Delhi Mogul Emperor.

                      Through looted wealth, by 1742, he had huge army of thirty forty thousand Afghan soldiers. Now, Ali Muhammad Khan wanted to become Badshah as  Shershah Suri and Salim Shah the Afghan decedents. He planned to capture Awadh in east, Pathan rule in south and Kumaon in north. It was not easy to capture east and south and in west to attack on Delhi Mogul rule.  He first decided to attack on Kumaon in north as Kumaon kingdom was weak due to internal infighting problems. With the cause of killing of his father Daud Khan long back by Kumaon King and Himmat Gusain in his camp by spies of Doti Kalyan Chandra, Ali Mohammad Khan decided to attack on Kumaon.

                      Strategies for   Attacking on Kumaon by Ali Muhammad Khan  

   Ali Muhammad Khan took necessary steps for winning Kumaon hills. First he strengthened the war needs in Tarai of Kumaon that was captured by him.  Ali Mohammad khan collected necessary weapons and ammunitions for war in Kashipur (Kumaon). He well arranged transportation medium for those weapons to hills of Kumaon.  Ali Muhammad Khan appointed three generals Hafiz Rahmat Khan, Paidakhan and Bakshi Sardar Khan for Kumaon campaign. There were ten thousand Afghan soldiers under each general.  Muhammad Khan had strict instruction that no civilian would travel with the army.

         Rohila army was fearful from numbers of point of view. However, the Rohila army became stronger due to army management style too.  Every soldier of any brigade had a gun. At least for a hundred soldiers there was a supervisor. Each battalion of hundred soldiers or ten soldiers would have specific flag and the flag keeper would march in before the line of each battalion. The army was divided into small infantries. The micro level divisions were positive points to run such huge army. There were arrangements to motivate the soldiers.  The army was expert in flanking and guerilla wars. The army could attack collectively or attack individually as per need.  On that period, the army of Ali Mohammed Khan was controlled scientifically and motivated psychologically.

                    Ignorance and Sluggishness in Kumaon court

        The Kota -Bhabhar deputy in charge Ram Datt Adhikari sent message to Kumaon King Doti Kalyan Chandra about the preparation of Rohila army for attack on Kumaon. The Kota –Bhabhar in charge Shiv Datt Joshi sent message for money that because of money the attack of Rohila would be stopped. On that time it was custom and was easy to corrupt the enemy soldiers by tributes.  The selfish minister advised to the King that Shiv Datt Joshi was asking money for his own. Fadtyal group cut a few trees and destroyed a couple of bridges to stop future march by Rohila army.

          The selfish advisors and King did not pay attention on the messages of Shiv Datt Joshi and Ram Datt Adhikari.  Due to groups in the court no needed actions were taken to stop Rohila campaigns.

***  Read more about capturing of Kumaon kingdom by Ali Muhammad Khan in next chapter -203

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti -bckukreti@gmail.com 30/11/2013

                                      References

Dr. Shiv Prasad Dabral, Uttarakhand ka Itihas Bhag 10, Kumaon ka Itihas 1000-1790

Badri Datt Pande, 1937, Kumaon ka Itihas, Shri Almora Book Depo Almora

Devidas Kaysth, Itihas Kumaon Pradesh

Katyur ka Itihas, Pundit Ram Datt Tiwari

Oakley and Gairola, Himalayan Folklore

Atkinson, History of District Gazette

Menhadi Husain, Tuglak Dynasty

Malfujat- E Timuri

Tarikh -e-Mubarakshahi vol 4

Kumar Suresh Singh2005, People of India

Justin Marozzi, 2006, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam

Bakshsingh Nijar, 1968, Punjab under Sultans 1000-1526 

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume 13 page 52 

Bhakt Darshan, Gadhwal ki Divangit Vibhutiyan

Mahajan V.D.1991, History of Medieval India

Majumdar R.C. (edited) 2006, The Sultanate

Rizvi, Uttar Taimur Kalin Bharat

Tarikhe Daudi

Vishweshara nand , Bharat Bharti lekhmala

Aine-e Akbari

Akbari Darbar

Tareekh Badauni

Eraly Abraham, 2004 The Mogul Throne

The Tazuk-i-Jahangiri

Maularam- Gadh Rajvansh Kavya

Ramayan Pradeep

Annatdev’s Smriti-Kaustubh

Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb

Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzeb

(The History of Garhwal, Kumaon, Haridwar write up is aimed for general readers)

                           

History of Garhwal – Kumaon-Haridwar (Uttarakhand, India) to be continued… Part -203  

History of Kumaon (1000-1790) to be continued….

Himalayan, Indian History of Chand Dynasty rule in Kumaon to be continued…

  (Himalayan, Indian History (740-1790 AD to be continued…)