Battle of Shopian
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Shopian took place on 3 July 1819 between an expeditionary force from the Sikh Empire and Jabbar Khan, the governor of the Durrani Empire
province of Kashmir
. It was the decisive battle in the 1819 Kashmir expedition
and its local allies reduced Sikh influence on the hill states around Kashmir
. From 1814 to 1819, the Sikh Empire was forced to send successive punitive expeditions against the hill states of Bhimber
, Rajauri
, Poonch
, Nurpur
, and others. By subduing rebellions in these states the Sikh Empire was attempting to keep control of the routes through the Pir Panjal range
and into Kashmir. However the Durrani Empire kept de facto
control of the areas because the Pir Panjal Range blocked supplies and fresh troops to the Sikh armies.
By 1819, Azim Khan
had taken a force of troops to Kabul
. Birbal Dhar, Azim Khan's revenue minister, traveled to Lahore
, the capital of the Sikh Empire, and asked Maharaja Ranjit Singh
to annex Kashmir from the Durrani Empire. He informed Ranjit Singh that Azim Khan was no longer leading the Durrani forces in Kashmir, and supplied information on invasion routes into Kashmir.
for the expedition at Gujrat
and Wazirabad
. On 20 April, Ranjit Singh ordered 30,000 men from Lahore to the hill states at the foot of the Pir Panjal range. The expedition was split into three columns: Dewan Mokham Chand
commanded the advance force, Kharak Singh commanded the rear guard, and Ranjit Singh commanded a reserve of 10,000 troops protecting the supply train. The expeditionary force marched to Bhimber
and resupplied, capturing the fort of a local Hakim
without resistance. On 1 May, both columns of the Sikh Army reached Rajouri and its ruler, Agar Khan rebelled and forced a battle. Hari Singh Nalwa
took command of a force and routed his army, which offered an unconditional surrender
after losing most of its men and war supplies. Agar Khan was caught attempting to escape and sent to Bhimber, where Ranjit Singh
was holding his Durbar (court). His brother, Rahimullah Khan, was appointed the raja
of Rajauri
in return for assistance in navigating the Behram Pass.
Once the Sikh forces reached the Behram Pass, the Durrani-appointed faujdar
charged with guarding it fled to Srinagar
. Mir Mohammad Khan, the kotwal
of Poonch
, and Mohammad Ali, the kotwal of Shopian, attempted a defense at the Dhaki Deo and Maja passes but were defeated and surrendered to Dewan Mokham Chand on 23 June 1819. Kharak Singh now advanced to Surdee Thana. while Dewan Mokham Chand split his force into three divisions and ordered them to cross the Pir Panjal Range through different passes.
itself in preparation for the Sikh artillery
attack and brought heavy artillery, which the Sikhs were unprepared for because they had brought only light guns.
Once his artillery was in range, Dewan Mokham Chand opened the battle with an artillery barrage
and multiple infantry and cavalry charges. The Durrani army was able to hold back the Sikh attempts to storm their lines until the Sikhs began moving their guns forward. However, when Dewan Mokham Chand was overseeing the movement of guns on the Sikh left flank, Jabbar Khan saw an opening and led the Durrani right flank which stormed Dewan Mokham Chand's artillery battery
, captured two guns, and threw the Sikh left flank in "dissaray". However the Durrani force attacking the Sikh left flank was exposed from their left and Akali Phoola Singh, the commander of the Sikh right flank, rallied his troops and led his command in a charge across the battlefield to the artillery battery. After a close quarters fight which resulted in both sides resorting to using swords and daggers, sections of the Durrani force began to retreat and Jabbar Khan was wounded while escaping the battlefield.
-making industry, was also the center of trade between Panjab
, Tibet
, Iskardo, and Ladakh
.
After taking Srinagar, the Sikh army faced no major opposition in conquering Kashmir
. However, when Ranjit Singh installed Moti Ram, the son of Dewan Mokham Chand, as the new governor of Kashmir, he also sent a "large body of troops" with him to ensure tribute from strongholds within Kashmir that might attempt to resist Sikh rule. The conquest of Kashmir marked an "extensive addition" to the Sikh Empire and "significantly" increased the empire's revenue.
Durrani Empire
The Durrani Empire was a Pashtun dynasty centered in Afghanistan and included northeastern Iran, the Kashmir region, the modern state of Pakistan, and northwestern India. It was established at Kandahar in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander under Nader Shah of Persia and chief...
province of Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. It was the decisive battle in the 1819 Kashmir expedition
Background
The defeat of the Sikh forces during the 1814 Invasion of Kashmir by the Durrani EmpireDurrani Empire
The Durrani Empire was a Pashtun dynasty centered in Afghanistan and included northeastern Iran, the Kashmir region, the modern state of Pakistan, and northwestern India. It was established at Kandahar in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander under Nader Shah of Persia and chief...
and its local allies reduced Sikh influence on the hill states around Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. From 1814 to 1819, the Sikh Empire was forced to send successive punitive expeditions against the hill states of Bhimber
Bhimber
Bhimber is the chief town of Bhimber District, Azad Kashmir. The town is situated on the border between Azad Kashmir and Pakistan at a distance of about 50 km from Mirpur, about 48 km from Gujrat and about 166 km from Islamabad.-History:...
, Rajauri
Rajauri
Rajouri is a town and a notified area committee in Rajouri district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.- Introduction :The District drives its name from Rajouri town which itself had been historically known as Rajapuri/Rajapura. Rajouri District had been part of Poonch district prior to 1967...
, Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
, Nurpur
Nurpur
Nurpur is a city and a municipal council in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It was formerly a Kingdom ruled by the Pathania clan of Rajputs, since the 11th century AD. The capital of the Kingdom was at Pathankot, now in Punjab....
, and others. By subduing rebellions in these states the Sikh Empire was attempting to keep control of the routes through the Pir Panjal range
Pir Panjal Range
The Pir Panjal ranges lie in the Inner Himalayan region, running from east southeast to west northwest across the states of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir in India as well as Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where the average elevation varies from to . The Himalayas show a gradual elevation towards...
and into Kashmir. However the Durrani Empire kept de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
control of the areas because the Pir Panjal Range blocked supplies and fresh troops to the Sikh armies.
By 1819, Azim Khan
Azim Khan
Azim Khan was an ethnic Pashtun and the governor of Kashmir during the period 1810-1816. Prior to him the governor was Abdullah Khan Alukzai .Azim Khan owed Ranjit Singh an annual tribute of 8 lakh rupees...
had taken a force of troops to Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
. Birbal Dhar, Azim Khan's revenue minister, traveled to Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, the capital of the Sikh Empire, and asked Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...
to annex Kashmir from the Durrani Empire. He informed Ranjit Singh that Azim Khan was no longer leading the Durrani forces in Kashmir, and supplied information on invasion routes into Kashmir.
1819 Kashmir expedition
The Sikh expeditionary force established two armoriesArmory (military)
An armory or armoury is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
for the expedition at Gujrat
Gujrat
Gujrat is a city in Pakistan. It is the capital of Gujrat District and the Gujrat Tehsil subdivision in the Punjab Province. People living in Gujrat refer to themselves as Gujratis, which sometimes leads to confusion with people from the Indian state of Gujarat which adjoins Pakistan...
and Wazirabad
Wazirabad
AYAZ KHANWazirabad is an industrial city located in Gujranwala District, Punjab, Pakistan. Wazirabad is situated on the banks of the Chenab River nearly 100 kilometres north of Lahore on the Grand Trunk Road. It is 45 kilometres from Sialkot, 30 kilometres from the district capital - Gujranwala...
. On 20 April, Ranjit Singh ordered 30,000 men from Lahore to the hill states at the foot of the Pir Panjal range. The expedition was split into three columns: Dewan Mokham Chand
Dewan Mokham Chand
Ranjit Singh had seen him in action at Akalgarh three years earlier and again in the fight against the Bhangi Sardar of Gujarat. Mokham Chand had fallen out with his Bhangi master and had come to Ranjit for employment. Ranjit welcomed him with handsome gifts of an elephant and horses and granted...
commanded the advance force, Kharak Singh commanded the rear guard, and Ranjit Singh commanded a reserve of 10,000 troops protecting the supply train. The expeditionary force marched to Bhimber
Bhimber
Bhimber is the chief town of Bhimber District, Azad Kashmir. The town is situated on the border between Azad Kashmir and Pakistan at a distance of about 50 km from Mirpur, about 48 km from Gujrat and about 166 km from Islamabad.-History:...
and resupplied, capturing the fort of a local Hakim
Hakim (title)
' and ' are two Arabic titles derived from the same triliteral ḤKM "appoint, choose, judge". Compare the Hebrew title hakham.-Hakīm :...
without resistance. On 1 May, both columns of the Sikh Army reached Rajouri and its ruler, Agar Khan rebelled and forced a battle. Hari Singh Nalwa
Hari Singh Nalwa
Hari Singh Nalwa was Commander-in-chief of the Khalsa, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Multan, Kashmir, Attock, and Peshawar. He led the Sikh Army in freeing Shah Shuja from Kashmir and secured the Koh-i-Nor diamond for Maharaja Ranjit Singh...
took command of a force and routed his army, which offered an unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological...
after losing most of its men and war supplies. Agar Khan was caught attempting to escape and sent to Bhimber, where Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...
was holding his Durbar (court). His brother, Rahimullah Khan, was appointed the raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
of Rajauri
Rajauri
Rajouri is a town and a notified area committee in Rajouri district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.- Introduction :The District drives its name from Rajouri town which itself had been historically known as Rajapuri/Rajapura. Rajouri District had been part of Poonch district prior to 1967...
in return for assistance in navigating the Behram Pass.
Once the Sikh forces reached the Behram Pass, the Durrani-appointed faujdar
Faujdar
Faujdar/Fouzder/Fouzdar/Foujdar was a title awarded by Muslim rulers to people who had responsibility of protecting some territory.In pre-Mughal times, the term referred to a military officer but did not refer to a specific rank. With the administrative reforms performed by Mughal emperor Akbar,...
charged with guarding it fled to Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
. Mir Mohammad Khan, the kotwal
Kotwal
Kotwal was a title used in medieval India for the leader of a Kot or fort. Kotwals often controlled the fort of a major town or an area of smaller towns on behalf of another ruler. It was similar in function to a British India Zaildar From Mughal times the title was given to the local ruler of a...
of Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...
, and Mohammad Ali, the kotwal of Shopian, attempted a defense at the Dhaki Deo and Maja passes but were defeated and surrendered to Dewan Mokham Chand on 23 June 1819. Kharak Singh now advanced to Surdee Thana. while Dewan Mokham Chand split his force into three divisions and ordered them to cross the Pir Panjal Range through different passes.
Battle
The army regrouped at Surai Ali on the road to Shopian. On 3 July 1819, the Sikh army attempted to march through Shopian to Srinagar]] but was stopped by a Durrani army headed by Jabbar Khan. The Durrani force had heavily entrenchedFortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
itself in preparation for the Sikh artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
attack and brought heavy artillery, which the Sikhs were unprepared for because they had brought only light guns.
Once his artillery was in range, Dewan Mokham Chand opened the battle with an artillery barrage
Barrage (artillery)
A barrage is a line or barrier of exploding artillery shells, created by the co-ordinated aiming of a large number of guns firing continuously. Its purpose is to deny or hamper enemy passage through the line of the barrage, to attack a linear position such as a line of trenches or to neutralize...
and multiple infantry and cavalry charges. The Durrani army was able to hold back the Sikh attempts to storm their lines until the Sikhs began moving their guns forward. However, when Dewan Mokham Chand was overseeing the movement of guns on the Sikh left flank, Jabbar Khan saw an opening and led the Durrani right flank which stormed Dewan Mokham Chand's artillery battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
, captured two guns, and threw the Sikh left flank in "dissaray". However the Durrani force attacking the Sikh left flank was exposed from their left and Akali Phoola Singh, the commander of the Sikh right flank, rallied his troops and led his command in a charge across the battlefield to the artillery battery. After a close quarters fight which resulted in both sides resorting to using swords and daggers, sections of the Durrani force began to retreat and Jabbar Khan was wounded while escaping the battlefield.
Aftermath
Although both sides sustained heavy losses, Jabbar Khan and his army retreated from the battlefield and fled in disorder from Kashmir over the Indus river. When the Sikh army entered the city of Srinagar after the battle, Prince Kharak Singh guaranteed the personal safety of every citizen and ensured the city was not plundered. The peaceful capture of Srinagar was important as Srinagar, besides having a large ShawlShawl
A shawl is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape...
-making industry, was also the center of trade between Panjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, Iskardo, and Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
.
After taking Srinagar, the Sikh army faced no major opposition in conquering Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
. However, when Ranjit Singh installed Moti Ram, the son of Dewan Mokham Chand, as the new governor of Kashmir, he also sent a "large body of troops" with him to ensure tribute from strongholds within Kashmir that might attempt to resist Sikh rule. The conquest of Kashmir marked an "extensive addition" to the Sikh Empire and "significantly" increased the empire's revenue.