Danshahi Singh Deede
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Danshahi Singh Deede was a Jat warrior born in the ruling Deede Jat Family of Kotban, Mathura. Danshahi was the elder son of Raja Sitaram Deede of Kotban. His sister Acchan Kaur was married to Maharaja Nawal Singh son of Maharaja Suraj Mal.
Variants of name
- Dan Sahi (See History of the Jats:Dr Kanungo appointed Regent for Kheri Singh, 130; serves under Nawal Singh, 133; defeated at Dankaur, 146-147; date of his death, 155n.)
Genealogy
History
Danshahi proved himself as a capable leader in many campaign against Afghans, Mughals and Marathas.
After the sudden deaths of Maharaja Jawahar Singh and Maharaja Ratan Singh of Bharatpur in 1768 and 1769 respectively, Danshahi became the Prime Minister and regent to infant Maharaja Kehri Singh on 12 April 1769. He became most powerful person in the Bharatpur State and led the Jats in the Civil War and defeated Ranjit Singh (who later became the King) And Marathas. He also led Jats against Mughal Empire (Mirza Nazaf Khan). He received severe wound at the Battle of Dankaur, 1773 against Mughal Army, led by Najaf Quli and died because of those wound. After his death the Bharatpur Kingdom collapsed.
Source - Jat Kshatriya Culture
Mirza Najaf Khan's first campaign against the Jats
Qanungo[1] mentions....Mirza Najaf khan, who had fallen under the momentary displeasure of the Emperor, and been banished from the Court through the intrigue of Hisam-ud-din, returned to Delhi three months after (end of May, 1773), with his reputation and power greatly increased by serving as a condottiere general in the Maratha service in their campaign against the Nawab of Oudh and Hafiz Rahamat Khan. About this time Abdul Ahad Khan, a disaffected subordinate and an apt pupil of Hisam-ud-din in the art of intrigue, joined hands with Najaf Khan for the overthrow of his master. Matched in cunning and excelled in warlike fame by these two redoubtable adversaries, poor Hisam-ud-din lost his hold upon the Emperor's mind and with it his place and fortune. The Emperor cast him away with as little compunction as a man feels in making fuel of a broken stick. Abdul Ahmad Khan became naib-uiazir in his place and was given the title of Majd-ud-daula. Mirza Najaf Khan was
[p.145]: created Second Bakhshi and exhalted to the rank of Amir-ul-umra (June 5, 1773).3 Raja Nawal Singh, alarmed at the re-appearance of the Mirza at Delhi, opened negotiations with the Sikhs to secure their help against the Mughals. He planned a campaign against the imperial territories to be fought simultaneously in three important theatres: one division of his army was to act in the region to the west of Delhi from a base at Farrukhnagar4, another division was to ravage the Doab fro Aligarh, while the main army under him was to threaten Delhi from Ballamgarh. The Sikhs were expected to reinforce and act in concert with the Jat army in Haryana and in the Doab Mirza Najaf Khan pitched his camp at Badarpur (?),514 miles south of Delhi, blocking the great road leading to Delhi from Ballamgarh. About six miles to the west of the Mughal encampment, there was a small Jat fort called Maidangarhi built in the time of Suraj Mal and still held by a Jat garrison. One day the Jats out of sheer bravado drove away some cattle and horses of the Mughals. Mirza Najaf Khan at once ordered an assault upon the garhi, which was captured after several hours of tough fighting. "This victory proved" as Khair-ud-din says "the title page
3. Mirza Najaf Khan returned to Delhi at the beginning of Rabi I. 1187 H. Hisam-ud-din was removed from the office of naib-wazir in the first week of that month. On the 14th Rabi 1. (June 5, 1773) Najaf Khan was created second Bakshi, and on that very day Hisam-ud-din was arrested who remained in captivity in the house of Najaf Khan for about five years. His property, worth nine lakhs in cash and goods, was confiscated: one-third of this amount was given to Najaf Khan as a token of the Emperor's favour: the remainder went to the imperial treasury (Waza, 270- 273).
4. Farrukhnagar (lat 28°"-35'; long. 75°"-10') is situated on the Rajputana- Malwa Railway about 10 milles from Garhi Harsaru Junction.
5. The Waqa names the place of Najaf Khan's encampment as Badarpur or Baranpur which cannot be identified in the map. Khair-ud-din calls it Barahpula (i.e., the bridge of twelve arches near Humayun's tomb); but he is not very accurate. Badarpur is mentioned as one of the stages on the Agra-Delhi road in the Chahar Gulshan [Prof. J. N. Sarkar's India of Aurangzeb, XCVII]. We take it to be the same place as Madanpur, which lies two miles to the east of Tughlaqabad.
[p.146]: of Mirza Najaf Khan's record of victories and the first rung in the ladder of his fortune" [Ibratnama, MS., p. 212]. We may, with as much truth call it the ominoius presage of an era of misfortune for the house of Bharatpur.6
Hostilities were thus precipitated before the rainy season was hardly over. It was only the beginning of September and the Sikhs were wholly unprepared to take the field in such an early season. But Nawal Singh's blind fury could brook no delay in retaliating for this defeat. He sent under the command of his brother-in-law Dan Sahi, a strong division to reinforce Durjan Singh Gujar and Chandu [Chandan] Gujar, his own governors at Atrauli and Ramgarh (modern Aligarh). Dan Sahi and other Jat and Gujar chiefs mustered about 20,000 men under their command and began to ravage the Doab. They plundered Sikandrabad7 and other parganas as far as Ghaziabad,8 and were literally carrying out the command of Nawal Singh to "hang every Mughal official who would resist his authority" [Ibratnama MS., p. 212]. In the western theatre another Jat army' under Shankar Jat from its base at Farrukhnagar, overran the greater portion of the open country around it, and laid siege to Garhi Harsaru. The situation became so desperate for the
6. Maidangarhi (Ibratnama, MS., p. 212) is situated 2 miles to the south of Tughlaqabad and 6 miles south-west of Madanpur. Khair- ud-din's narrative, though well written, is inaccurate and sometimes deceptive. He says that the capture of Maidangarhi and the defeat of Dan Sahi and Chandu Gujar near Dankaur took place before the siege of Delhi by Tukoji Holkar [December, 1772- March 1773]. This is simply absurd, being opposed to every other authority Persian and English. His story of the opening of fire by the Jat garrison upon the cavalcade of Najaf Khan while proceeding from Delhi on a pilgrimage to Qutb-ud-din's shrine, appears to be baseless. We hold, on the authority of the Chahar Gulzar-i-Shujai, that the hostilities were precipitated by the carrying off of cattle by the Jats. I have to reject in many places the details of this campaign of Mirza Najaf Khan against Nawal Singh published in my paper in the Proceedings of the Fifth meeting of Indian Historical Records Commission, because it was based mainly on the narrative of Khair-ud-din.
7. Sikandrabad lat. 28°-25', long. 77°"-45'.
8. Ghaziabad (on E. L. Ry.) about 20 miles east of Delhi.
[p.147]: imperialists that the Emperor wrote to the Governor of Bengal a letter9 asking for his help. Mirza Najaf Khan refused to move from his encampment at Madanpur. He despatched several Turani and Baloch chiefs such as Niyaz Beg Khan, Taj Muhammad Khan Baloch and others with ,five thousand horse against Dan Sahi. They were reinforced by the Emperor with one regiment of Lal Paltan and several pieces of artillery under the command of Ramu Kamadan [commandantj.10 At the approach of Mughal commanders, having made a forced march of 10 or 12 kos, surprised him at night when he was encamped carelessly near that place. The Jats retreated to Dankaur, 25 miles south-west and in its neighbourhood offered battle to the enemy on 15th September, 1773. Chandu Gujar, who was the commander-in-chief of the Jat army, led the Van and attacked the sepoy regiments and the artillery of the Mughals. With an intrepidity which astonished even the veteran Mughal cavaliers, the valiant Gujar chief charged the enemy's artillery at full gallop, animating his brave followers. But the volleys of musketry and artillery fearfully shattered the attacking column; only a small body of troopers headed by their wounded leader succeeded in penetrating the lines of the sepoys and fell there pierced by bayonets after performing prodigies of valour. The battle raged furiously for two or three hours; it was an awful struggle of the native valour of man against science and discipline. Undaunted by the fate of Chandu Gujar, the son of Rao Durjan Singh Gujar (Governor of Atrauli) led his risala of five hundred horse to the attack and lost two hundred men. Two Jat leaders of cavalry, each at the head of three hundred
9. It runs as follows: "The Jats have rebelled round the capital, and have sent their army to Sikandrabad. Having committed depredations and outrages upon the inhabitants they have advanced to oppose the royal army and reached close to it. They have also invited the Sikhs to join them .... Desires the Governor to sent immediately an English army under the command of brave officers." This is entered under the date September 22, 1773, Calcutta. [Pers. Cor: MS.]
10. Waqa, p. 282; Ibratnama, p. 212, says "two regiments of sepoys"; Chahar mentions Lal Paltan; Ramu Kamadan's name is mentioned in the Shah Alam-nama (MS., p. 34) of Ghulam All.
[p.148]: men, next delivered determined charges with equally disastrous results; these bands also were slain to a man. Dan Sahi, the second in command on that day, was severely wounded and forced to take shelter in a small mud-fort (where he died two days after). The remnants of the Jat army broke and fled across the Jamuna. Besides heavy losses in the field, the river exacted a further toll of two hundred lives during the passage.11 Greater disasters awaited the arms of Nawal Singh in other quarters.
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