Draft:Kampu-i-mu'alla (second draft)
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Last edited by Citation bot (talk | contribs) 11 days ago. (Update) |
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The Kampu-i-mu'alla, the State Troops or the Royal Camp, was the trained division of the Sikh Khalsa Army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1822, after Ranjit Singh gave employment to the European mercenaries, the Fauj-i-Ain was divided into the Kampu-i-mu'alla and the Fauj-i-Khas. Till 1836, the Kampu-i-mu'alla was the larger unit of the Fauj-i-Ain and led by either a Hindu or a Sikh general, while the smaller unit, the Fauj-i-Khas, was commanded by Europeans. These troops were encamped in Lahore and moved according to the orders of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was the commander-in-chief of the Fauj-i-Ain.
Background[edit]
The Sukerchakia forces inherited by Ranjit Singh from his father and grandfather comprised irregular cavalry well-suited to meet the contingencies presented in the northwest frontier of the Indian subcontinent in the eighteenth century. The meteoric ascendance of the Company impressed upon Ranjit Singh the importance of learning the enemy's art of warfare, and on gaining control, the Sikh leader commenced training a section of his army in the art of European (British) warfare in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Kampu-i-mu'alla was in readiness to protect the eastern Satluj frontier of the Sikh Empire against invasion from the territories under the protection of the East India Company.[citation needed]
Formation[edit]
In the early years, Ranjit Singh's standing army comprised principally irregular cavalry with a small section of trained cavalry and infantry. The formal divisions in the Sikh Khalsa Army emerged after 1823, the year the Sikh army faced the challenge of the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Nowshera, fought in the trans-Indus region. Ranjit Singh's first-hand experience along this frontier made it clear that a single force would not be able to meet the challenge posed along the two frontiers of his empire.
Size[edit]
The earliest trained cavalry in the Sikh Khalsa Army were deserters from the Company's army. By 1808, a section of mounted troops in the Royal Camp went through a cavalry drill. Between 1819 and 1838, the strength of the trained cavalry in the Kampu-i-mu'alla saw a five-fold rise, from 837 to 4,090. The first mention of infantry in the Sikh Khalsa Army is in 1803. In three decades beginning 1811, the enrolment of foot soldiers saw a ten-fold rise, while the strength of the artillery increased fourfold.[1]
Battles[edit]
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Battle of Kashmir (1814)
Battle of Multan (1818)
Battle of Kashmir (1819)
Battle of Nowshera (1823)
Battle of Sirikot (1824)
Commanders[edit]
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According to Umdat-ut-tawarikh, Sohan Lal Suri's Lahore court chronicle, the following incumbents led the Lahore Troops:
Dewan Mokham Chand till his death in 1814
Lala Ram Dayal[2], grandson of Dewan Mokham Chand, till his death in1820
Misr Diwan Chand till his death in 1825
Misr Sukh Dayal, brother of Misr Diwan Chand, till 1824
Tej Singh, from 1834 to 1836
In 1836, Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave the joint command of the Kampu-i-mu'alla to Tej Singh and Ventura.
The Kampu-i-mu’alla and the Fauj-i-Khas played a supportive and maintenance role from 1824 till the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839.
References[edit]