Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2020

The Ballad of Raja Malhi Prakash and Sirmour's History - Some Scrambled Thoughts

I was just walking through some documents I had saved over the years, when it struck me that there has been very little new research work or relook into the history of the hill states. One particular format has been the examination of oral ballads, very few of which seem to be available in popular culture today. However, that was certainly not the case in the British era, when much field work seems to have been done by scholars of Europe on the subject, as they panned across the state of the Lahore kingdom and their adjunct territories. Sirmour was a Small Princely state along the Yamuna river's course While their purpose may have been malevolent in nature, many interesting insights got captured over the course of their work, and replication or improvement on the same seems to be rather scarce, especially in the context of what the European scholars used to call the "Punjab Hill States". One such case was on Sirmour, where very little information can be found in the publi...

The Irishman Who Served Kangra - Thoughts on Militaristic Influences of European Mercenaries

Sansar Chand With O'Brien (Source: Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery) Going through some Kangra paintings, I was a little surprised to see a man dressed like a British soldier serving the great monarch of Kangra Maharaja Sansar Chand Katoch. This was quite surprising, given the period’s turbulence and the ongoing tussles of the Lahore Darbar, to which he was also a feudatory, and the British East India Company (EIC). The painting, on prominent display in the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery, actually turned up in my searches as a result of their official handle’s tweet that mentioned briefly his contribution (on a side note, do follow for some wonderful material they tweet out time to time).  'Sansar Chand and O'Brien',Kangra,c.1810(240) O’Brien was described as “a European adventurer...who established a factory of small arms and raised a disciplined force of 1400 men” for the raja #kangra #portrait #painting #pahari #arthistory #indianart #history #royalty #...

Perspective on the India-Nepal Border Dispute - a Brief on its Historical Context

Bhimsen Thapa's troops, right, at Sugauli, 1816, with India Pattern Brown Bess muskets and chupi bayonets (Source: Wikimedia Commons) While many would feel that the India-Nepal dispute is something new, detailed examination would tell that the problem actually goes back to the British East India Company's days. In the 1799, the Ranas of Nepal, having united under a single banner and undertook an expansionist policy. One must commend the strength, maneuverability and the resilience of the Gorkha forces who managed to expand on both sides of the country, crossing Sikkim on the east and reaching upto the watershed of the Beas river on the west. Several forts of the Gorkhas still mark the memory of their presence, identifiable by their distinct style of construction. One particular fort, which was in fact the largest Gurkha fortification can still be seen in Parwanoo in the Kasauli region.  Doorway of Gurkha Fort in Parwanoo  The period of the Gurkhas is remembered not with much p...