Lohgarh - Khalsa Rajdhani, Lohgarh fort - Lohgarh Trust, S. Daljeet Singh Bajwa [early reader books .txt] 📗

British surveyors like Cunningham, Irvine and W. Crooke were appointed to do research on the Vanjaras. It appears that these surveyors presented adverse reports against the Vanjaras (who uprooted the Mughals Empire). To

 

 

preserve this community under control they were even brought under the Criminal Tribal Act, 1871. The world’s most socially, politically and economically advance community was put to house arrests for almost 75 years. They were de-notified in 1952, after the independence of the country. Now the Vanjara Sikhs are leading life in poverty and the community who fought for the country’s independence and for the cause of the humanity has become one of the most neglected communities of the nation. Even the Khalsa Rajdhani Lohgarh has been left abandoned by the Sikh organizations. It is only now that Lohgarh Trust and the Government of Haryana are making endeavours for the development of the area.

 

Gagandeep Singh DDPO Yamuna Nagar Government of Haryana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

LOHGARH FORT :

The Largest Fort of the World

 

 

Almost each and every historian has mentioned that a mammoth army of more than one hundred thousand soldiers led by the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah laid siege to the Lohgarh Fort on the 29th of November 1710 and captured it the very next day. This author (Harjinder Singh Dilgeer) too had said so in his earlier works, but when he visited the whole zone of and around the Lohgarh Fort, he wrote: “on the face of this propaganda of victory it seems that the Mughal army had made a great achievement, but, in fact this was just a funny claim. This gives the impression that as if Lohgarh Fort were just a small hill or a building which they had captured so easily. But, a survey of the geographical area and the structure of the Fort (from the remains of its ruins) proves that the Mughal claim was not only far from reality, but also exaggeration and fraud with history.”

Lohgarh Fort was not identified as such in 1710,in fact it had its birth in 1609 when Guru Hargobind had built a Fort in Guru-Da-Chakk (now Amritsar); nowadays a Gurdwara has been built at that site. This is the second Lohgarh Fort, which was built by Bhai Lakhi Rai Vanjara under the command of Guru Har Rai. The Guru monitored the construction of the Fort between 1645 and 1657, when he spent 12-13 years at Thapal (as mentioned by Maubad Zufiqar Ardastani in his work Dabistan-i-Mazahib). After this Guru Gobind Singh too supervised its construction during his stay at Paonta Sahib from 1685 to 1688. When Guru Gobind Singh returned to Chakk Nanaki (now a part of a greater Anandpur Sahib), he built another Fort of the same name there too, in 1689-90. At that Fort, the Guru had established a factory to manufacture

 

 

weapons. These arms were manufactured by the Sikligars and the Vanjara Rajputs, who had inherited this skill from their fathers and forefathers. It seems that the weapons manufactured here were sent to the Nahan state and the Lohgarh Fort of the hill zone also.

Geographical Map of Lohgarh Fort

Lohgarh Fort was not a bastion built on one or two hills; it was a large Fort built on dozens of hills, thus, this becomes the largest* Fort in the world.

Lohgarh Fort is about 29 kilometers from Nahan, Sadhaura and Paonta Sahib. Most of the area of this Fort lies in the erstwhile Nahan1 State. The epicenter of the Fort is spread in 7000 acres land of (Yamuna Nagar district) Haryana and (Sirmaur district) Himanchal states of India. Villages Lohgarh, Haripur, Jheel Bankebara, Mehtavali, Devavala, Palori, Sukron, Mehronvala, Charanvala, Jamni (Himanchal) and Bhagwanpur, Nathauri, Dhananura, Nagli, Mohindinpur (Haryana) etc were a part of Lohgarh Fort. In fact the Fort was spread from Udhamgarh (near Kala Amb) to Kalesar forest. Raipur Rani, Toka , Kala Amb and Pinjor have been part of this Fort. The area between Thaska and Tevar, and, Milkara, Taharpur, Darapur, Cheeka, up to Kalesar forest is about 40 to 50 kilometers in length and 10 to 15 kilometers in width. These hills are at a height of 1200 to 1900 feet from sea level.

According to Mohammed Qasim Aurangabadi, in November 1710, the Lohgarh Fort is spread on 16-17 hills and it is really difficult to climb these hills, and the Sikhs had established bastions in an area of 5 to 7 kms. Around the Lohgarh Fort, there are deep forests spread from Lohgarh village to Kalesar and Sukron, and, even today (in 2018), some ferocious animals still dwell there. This region is known as Dabar hills. If this was the state of affairs, how could the Mughal army capture the Fort in just one and a half day?

Most of the walls of Lohgarh Fort were two to four fold. There were walls after walls. Some of the walls were 2.5 to 3.5 meters in width. These walls had the filling of lime, material which gave still greater strength to the walls of this Fort. All this work could not have been

 

 

performed in few months or a span of years; it must have taken 70 to 80 years to achieve all this.

The rivers and rivulets divided the Fort into two parts. There was a deep water channel on all the sides of the Fort and these walls were protected by walls, which provided a great defense to the Fort. If the enemy crossed one wall, he had to face a great résistance before crossing the adjacent wall; and, there were walls after walls around each mound. In this land the enemy could not hope of getting any aid from those coming behind to supplement him.

The hills of the Fort were covered with thorny and thick bushes, cacti, other plants and even poisonous bushes; besides there were countless slippery slopes and tight passages from where neither horses nor men could pass with speed. This made capture of this Fort a very difficult task.

On the other hand, the Sikh soldiers had made secret passages to reach to the higher hills or to escape from the hills towards the rivulets or to flee towards the forest area. Such a place was good for guerrilla war (of which the Sikhs were expert). Therefore, this could get a graveyard for the enemy powers. Only, in case hundreds of thousands of military units attacked the Fort, they could capture it only after many years of warfare and that even after sustaining great casualties.

Amar Vails (Hanging Vines)

In the forests there are some hanging vines holding which one can fly from one tree to another or from one hill to a tree or another hill. Unlike branches of a tree, these vines are very strong and do not get decayed, damaged or broken with the passage of time. Guerrillas, monkeys and apes use these vines for jumping from one tree to another. At times these are very long. These vines have a very long life as well; sometimes hundreds of years. There were several such vines in the Lohgarh Fort (even now some such vines can be seen there). These vines generally are not found in this zone; hence it seems that Lakhi Rai Vanjara used to trade goods between Yaarkand and Samarkand (Central Asia) to Sri Lanka. He might have imported them from some other forests.

 

 

The Sikh soldiers used these vines for approaching various parts of the Fort. During the attack of an enemy, these vines proved very helpful.

Secret Passages

At the Lohgarh Fort, there were secret passages in the hills of the Fort. These passages were not carved in a couple of hills but in almost all the hills and at all the levels, throughout the Lohgarh Fort. Some of these were like proper rocks and/or brick roads. Though bushes, shrubs and trees have covered many of them, some of these are still in existence. These were well known to the Sikhs. These passages were set up in such a style that if a stranger tried to enter those paths, he would slip and fall down the hill and might even lose limbs or even life. Besides, the Sikh soldiers could hide in these passages and make a sudden attack when the enemy reached there or tried to pass through these passages. They could even trap the enemy and kill them.

Water system

The Lohgarh Fort had a great system of the supply of drinking water. There was a major river, Markanda on one side of the Fort. Besides, there were two small rivulets and more than 94 springs, falls and flows of water (like Lohgarh Khol, Haripur Khol, Nagli Ki Khol, Boli Khol, Asrodi Khol, Kaludeo Ka Khol, Guru Ki Khol etc.), in and around the Fort. Other than this, there were several dams and reservoirs where water was stored for drinking, bathing and irrigation purposes etc. More than 100 such dams are still in existence there.

Hand Mills, Oil-Pressers and Utensils

A very large number of clay utensils, hand mills, flour mill, oil presses have been found not only in some of the hills but in a large number of hills in various parts of the Fort also and, not only in lower hills but also in the higher hills. It proves that several villages existed on these hills and, a very large number of people used to live there. Families of the soldiers might have been living there. This also shows that the Lohgarh Fort was a very big Fort.

 

 

Food Grains

We have found evidence that there were great stores of food grains and lentils in and around the Lohgarh Fort. These were preserved in big clay drums. A few years back a big drum was found from a field in which a lot of lentils were still there; and, this seemed to be a couple of hundred years old.

Signs of Weapons Factory

A lot of scraps and fragments of iron and brass have been found in various parts of the Fort. These scraps and fragments have been found in an area of about two to two and a half kilometer. This can be seen there even in the form of lumps and clogs. From this we make presume that ores of iron and other metals etc. were brought here from the mines and after melting them at a very high temperature and moulding them in moulds and dies, weapons like swords, arrows, spears and even barrels of guns were manufactured. It seems they had a system of heating the metal ores and then cooling them in water or oil. The weapons manufactured in this manner were very strong and could not be broken easily. A lot of ores, scrap and fragments of brass too have been found in this area which shows that the caps of brass too were manufactured here, which were used for making bullets; and, probably even barrels of guns might also have been manufactured here.

The Sikligars, who had been associated with the Sikhs since the times of Guru Hargobind were experts on manufacturing weapons. It is possible that there weapons might have been manufactured since the time of Guru Hargobind. Even today, there are several Sikligar families living in many villages around the Lohgarh Fort Zone.

Weapon industries & Sikh Armouries were also set up in the villages of Bhawanpur,Vansantoor & Shahjadwala (In the present Yamuana Nagar District). The Sikh Tandas brought iron and copper ores here from Orissa mines. Damascened steel swords were fabricated here by Sikligars.

Production of toys

Fragments of broken toys of various types (e.g. Camels, elephants,

 

 

sparrows, parrots and dolls, etc.) have been found in a large part of the Lohgarh Fort. These can be seen lying in an