Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and Reasons for Defeat of Collected Kumaon –Garhwal Armies from Rohilas

Reasons for  Defeat of   Collected Kumaon –Garhwal Armies from Rohilas

                   (History of Kumaon from 1000-1790 AD)

                                      

         (History of Chand Dynasty Rule in Kumaon)

History of Uttarakhand (Garhwal, Kumaon, Haridwar) - Part 206

                                              By: Bhishma Kukreti

                     The present and future citizens of Kumaon, Garhwal and Hardwar regions should study the aspects of History of defeat of collective Kumaon –Garhwal armies from the hands of Rohilas around 1743. Today, politicians and administration of Uttarakhand are ignoring the hills of Uttarakhand. The present reasons for ignoring to hills are hidden in the history of battle between Rohilas and collective armed forces of Garhwal and Kumaon kingdoms.

                How come armed forces of Rohilas inexperienced about hills of Kumaon defeated Kumaon and Garhwal armed forces?  How come the Garhwal and Kumaon soldiers did not defeat Rohilas in the hills?

 The reasons are simple.

         First of all Garhwal and Kumaon kings never thought about changing taking place into other territories. In sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in plains of India, the new ways of ammunition was being introduced into army and Garhwal-Kumaon army was equipped with Stone Age weapons and strategies.

  The war strategies in plains of India were taking new shapes and modernization was the key factors. However, Garhwal-Kumaon Kingdoms were relying on old way of defense.

  The Kumaon-Garhwal kings started copying the Mogul architecture and culture but did not do anything modern in selection, training and promotion of armed forces. There was no motivating salaries system for Kumaon-Garhwal soldiers.

       Each Rohila soldier had a gun but Garhwal-Kumaon soldiers were just equipped with sword or dagger. Rohila were having gun powder bunch at the end of dagger. The Garhwal-Kumaon army was using arrow and bow.

               Kumaon and Garhwal kings were busy for infighting with each other and for taking revenge they became slaves of Mogul empire.  By nature proud community of Garhwal-Kumaon had already lost the self esteem and so was the case of armies.

                   There was conspiracy, mistrust among soldiers, courtiers and people for each other in Kumaon. Therefore, there was no time with Kings to modernize army and to take social benefit works.

                 Due to internal jealousy, weak commanders and weak administrator took the administration of Kumaon Kingdom. The weak commanders and weak administrator never could see the future.

  The administrators of Kumaon coroneted Kings not by their positive characters but for their own self interests and such weak kings destroyed Kumaon. Those weak kings were made due to conspiracy and self interest by selfish people, therefore, those kings and their mentors were busy in propagating self interest characteristics and conspiracy only.

                     The weakest point in Garhwal and Kumaon at that time of 1743, was that the outsider Kings (Chand and Panwar) ignored local talents (Khas –Kirat etc) and brought outsiders to administrate.  Instead of appointing training devoted to hills Khas and Kirat soldiers Garhwal and Kumaon Kings brought outsiders as Nagarkotiya, Badhapuria, Dilwali, Diswali soldiers from plains of India.  These soldiers were not devoted to hills but were greedy for money only. These soldiers did not have any love for hills except getting money. There were no soldiers against Rohilas who were ready to die for motherland in Garhwal-Kumaon Kingdoms. The local soldiers were brave and patriotic soldiers but outsider soldiers were just greedy. By promoting outsiders against local talent the Garhwal-Kumaon kings paved the way for outsiders to attack on Garhwal-Kumaon.

             Kings as Doti Kalyan Chand did not have any knowledge of border and defense of bordering territories.  Joshi from Tarai-Bhabhar requested repeatedly money from the Kumaon King to defend the border from Rohilas and the foolish King Doti Kalyan Chand ignored valuable request of local administrator Shiv Datt Joshi. History will never forgive the groups who brought Doti Kalyan Chand and the king Kalyan Chand.

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti -bckukreti@gmail.com 4/12/2013

                                      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

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Sailendra Nath Sen, 2010, An Advanced History of Modern India

William Crooke, 1897, The North Western Provinces of India, page 116

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

                           

History of Garhwal – Kumaon-Haridwar (Uttarakhand, India) to be continued… Part -207  

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…)

Notes on Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Kumaon; History of Pithoragarh Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Champawat Kumaon; Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Bageshwar, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Mahargaon, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of  Chaukhitiya, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of badaiti, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Dwarhat, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Doonagiri, Kumaon; Reasons for Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Kaindari, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal collective armies from Rohilas and History of Borari ,Kumaon; Reasons for Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Ghirmundi, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Dungari hill, Kumaon; Reasons for  History of Almora, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Nainital, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Udham Singh Nagar, Kumaon; Reasons for Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Kashipur, Kumaon; Reasons for  Defeat of Kumaon-Garhwal  collective armies from Rohilas and History of Rudrapur, Kumaon