Ramgarhia Misl

The Ramgarhia misl was one of the Sikh confederacies of the eighteenth century. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism lists it as the eleventh of the eleven misls under the Dal Khalsa, one of the five Taruna Dal misls. It took its name from Ram Rauni, a mud fort at Amritsar, later called Ramgarh.

The fort: Sikh sardars gathered at Amritsar for Baisakhi in April 1748 and raised Ram Rauni near Ramsar to shelter scattered jathas. In October 1748 Mir Mannu, the Mughal governor of Lahore, moved against the Sikhs, and called Adina Beg from Jalandhar. Adina Beg blockaded the fort, where nearly 500 Sikhs had taken shelter. Jassa Singh, then a carpenter in Adina Beg's service, left to join them. Diwan Kaura Mal, Mir Mannu's minister, helped end the siege, which ran for some months, though the fort was destroyed. After Mir Mannu died in 1753 the Sikhs rebuilt it under Jassa Singh and renamed it Ramgarh. In 1758 Adina Beg's deputy Mir Aziz Bakhsh besieged it. The outnumbered Sikhs pulled out, then regrouped at Amritsar and retook it.

Jassa Singh Ramgarhia (1723 to 1803) was born at Ichogill, about 20 km east of Lahore, and died on 20 April 1803, aged about 80. His holdings in the Bari Doab included Batala, Kalanaur, Dinanagar, Sri Hargobindpur, Shahpur Kandi, Gurdaspur, Qadian, Ghuman and Mattewal. In the Jalandhar Doab they included Umarh, Sarhal, Miani, Gadhdiwala and Zahura. In 1770 he collected 200,000 rupees in tribute from the Kangra hill states, and Nurpur, Mandi and Chamba also paid him.

Key moments

• 1748: Ram Rauni raised, besieged and, after the siege, destroyed.
• 1770s: after Jassa Singh Ahluwalia took Zahura from him and Jai Singh Kanhaiya sided with Ahluwalia, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia was driven out of the Punjab. He took Hissar and raided as far as Delhi.
• 1783: Ahluwalia died in October and Ramgarhia returned with Sukerchakia help. In 1787 they defeated Jai Singh Kanhaiya at Batala, and he recovered his lands.
• 1803: his eldest son Jodh Singh succeeded him. Jodh Singh built the Ramgarhia Bunga on the Harmandar premises, was a friend of Ranjit Singh, who called him "Babaji", and died at Amritsar in August 1815.
• 1808: Ranjit Singh took possession of the misl's territories and captured Ramgarh, destroying the Ramgarhia citadels. Jodh Singh and his cousin Diwan Singh were given pensions.

Where it stands: the misl ended in 1808, when it, in the Encyclopaedia's words, collapsed under pressure of the rising power in the Punjab. The Ramgarhia Bunga at the Harmandar remains its mark.