British Completing Surrounding Thapa’s Fort

  British Campaign for Capturing Himachal -5

            Nepal Rule over Kumaun, Garhwal and Himachal (1790-1815) -288

            History of Uttarakhand (Garhwal, Kumaon and Haridwar) -818          

                                                           

                          By: Bhishma Kukreti (A History Student)

              When Arnold captured Bilaspur city, the Bilaspur King Mahachand was in dilemma that British would hand over his Kingdom to other person.  There was marriage between Bilaspur King Family and Amar Singh Family. However, after British capturing Bilaspur, Mahachand left Amar Singh Thapa and took shelter under British. 1000 Bilaspur Kingdom Soldiers were helping Thapa and then after soldiers joined irregular British army. By help of Bilaspur soldier, Arnold captured Ratanpur Garhi two miles in north of Malau Garh. Now, the road for Amar Thapa towards north was also blocked by British. On first April, Cooper captured a Hill on the south of Malau Garh and blocked south way for Thapa. From that hill Surajgarh was two miles away. Bhaktivir Thapa the deputy of Amar Singh Thapa was camping in Suraj Garh.

                 British establishing Nasiri Battalion

       Now, British surrounded Malau Garh from all directions. There were 334 Gorkha soldiers in British camp in April beginning. Ochterlony appointed them in Nasiri (friendly) Battalion.

        British stopped food ingredients supply reaching to Malaugarh. Soldiers and other persons were feeling nervous due to non supply of food for many days. Daily, Gurkha soldiers were reaching to British camp from Malaugarh. British appointed them in Nasiri Battalion. Those soldiers were very helpful in building camps, fence, etc.

                       Attacking on Malaugarh

          The camp of Amar Singh Thapa in Malaugarh was at 4500 feet Height. Surajgarh was 4 miles away from Malaugarh. Bhaktivir Thapa was camping at Surajgarh hill. There were army camps built by mud, stone leaves, and wood. There were soldiers on those huts. Field Engineer found out that there were two such places in between Surajgarh and Malaugarh that there British could camp army. One place –hillock was Raila away from Surajgarh and other place was Diuthal one mile away from Malau Garh. Ochterlony planned that British army should had camps at both the places. The army at Raila would stop help of Bhaktivir Thapa to Amar Singh and army at Diuthal would stop help from Amar Singh Thapa to Bhaktivir Thapa.

         On 15^th April night, a British Battalion reached at Raila. And in morning two other battalions also reached there. Nasiri battalion and pioneers battalion started making fences as Gurkha used to build the fences at Raila camp. On the same day, two me battalions reached Diuthal. Around 4 Pm, British army took two 6 ponds Guns at Diuthal.  At the same time two British army battalions started attacking on Malau from two sides. The attacking force Malau took various losses but by that means, British army could captured Diuthal.

 (From writings of Atkinson, Preamble, Sanwal, Saxsena, Fraser, Princep, Maularam, Balchandra Sharma, Letter of Bamshah for Amar Singh Thapa etc) 

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti Mumbai, India, bckukreti@gmail.com 5/6/2016

History of Garhwal – Kumaon-Haridwar (Uttarakhand, India) to be continued… Part -819

*** History of Gorkha/Gurkha /Nepal Rule over Kumaun, Garhwal and Himachal (1790-1815) to be continued in next chapter

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

XX                    Reference           

                 

Atkinson E.T., 1884, 1886, Gazetteer of Himalayan Districts …

Hamilton F.B. 1819, An Account of Kingdom of Nepal and the territories

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Dr S.P Dabral, Uttarakhand ka Itihas part 5, Veer Gatha Press, Dogadda

Bandana Rai, 2009 Gorkhas,: The Warrior Race

Krishna Rai Aryal, 1975, Monarchy in Making Nepal, Shanti Sadan, Giridhara, Nepal

I.R.Aryan and T.P. Dhungyal, 1975, A New History of Nepal , Voice of Nepal

L.K Pradhan, Thapa Politics:

Gorkhavansavali, Kashi, Bikram Samvat 2021 

Derek J. Waller, The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia page 172-173

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Chaudhari , Anglo  –Nepalese Relations

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Pradhan , Kumar, 1991, The Gorkha Conquests , Oxford University  Press

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A.P Coleman, 1999, A Special Corps

Captain Thomas Smith, 1852,Narrative of a Five Years Residence at Nepal Vol.1

Maula Ram/Mola Ram  , Ranbahadurchandrika and Garhrajvanshkavya

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History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Garhwal, Kumaon, Uttarakhand Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal; Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Pauri Garhwal, Udham Singh Nagar Kumaon, Uttarakhand Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal; Sirmour Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Chamoli Garhwal, Nainital Kumaon, Uttarakhand; Kangara Himachal Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Rudraprayag Garhwal, Almora Kumaon, Uttarakhand; Baghat Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Tehri Garhwal, Champawat Kumaon, Uttarakhand Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal; Punar Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Uttarkashi Garhwal, Bageshwar Kumaon, Uttarakhand;  Nahan Himachal; History Gurkha /Gorkha Rule over Dehradun Garhwal, Pithoragarh Kumaon, Uttarakhand; History Himachal Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal;  History of Nepal, History of Doti Nepal, History of Nepalese/ Gurkha regime

Nepal Itihas, Garhwal Itihas, Kumaon Itihas, Himachal Itihas;  Gurkha/Gorkha ka Kumaon par  Adhikar Itihas , Gurkha/Gorkha Garhwal par Shasan Itihas Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal;  Gurkha/Gorkha Rule in Kumaon, Garhwal Uttarakhand; History Gurkha/Gorkha  Rule in Himachal Ruthless Gurkha/Nepalese Administration in Himachal