Purbiya (or Purabia) was a common term used in medieval India for Rajput and Brahmin mercenaries and soldiers from the eastern Gangetic Plain - areas corresponding to present-day western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. [1] [2] The Purbiyas played a significant role in the militaries of various principalities in Western India including the Marwar army as well at the Gujarat Sultanate and Malwa Sultanate. [3] [4]
The area around Bihar was famous for a high concentration of saltpetre, meaning that many mercenaries from this region were experts in the use of muskets. [5]
The core region for Purbiya recruitment was the Bhojpur region of modern-day Western Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. [6] The Ujjainiya clan of Rajputs were the main territorial lords of this region and they played the role of specialised recruiting agents and commanders of these Purbiya soldiers who were usually young peasant men native to Bhojpur. [6] The soldiers gained a great reputation among the lords and kings of Northern and Western India and the Ujjainiyas used this to raise their status among other Rajput clans. [6]
Many future Purbiya mercenaries would carry out a pilgrimage to Buxar in modern-day Bihar where they would immerse themselves in a tiger tank. During this process, the young peasant would see themselves as being reborn as a "fearless warrior". [6]
The Mughals were among the first groups to enter into the military labour market and start recruiting Purbiyas. Mughal sources detail a diwan of Bihar subah attempting to collect soldiers in Buxar to serve the emperor. [7]
The rulers of Malwa were also keen recruiters due to Purbiyas' expertise with firearms. This expertise may have been gained due to the easy availability of saltpetre in their native areas. [8] Most Purbiyas were mercenaries and were paid for their services but some were actual kings of smaller principalities. [2] [9] [ page needed ] This recruitment drive from Malwa saw the large influx of Purbiya soldiers into the region. Many of the local chieftains in Malwa depended heavily on Purbiya soldiers such as Silhadi who eventually became known as a Purbiya himself. [7] The presence of Purbiya mercenaries in Gujarat are referenced in 16th and 17th century Persian chronicles including many Purbiya gunners serving in the army of Bahadur Shah of the Gujarat Sultanate in 1535. [10]
Purbiyas had a long tradition of being recruited as mercenaries for various rulers such as the British [11] [12] and the Marathas. [1] Purbiyas made up the majority of the Bengal Army. [12] Prior to 1857, the British East India Company preferred to recruit Purbiya soldiers, who they designated as "The fighting tribes of the Hindoos and the Musselmen", or simply "Easterners". [13] [14] The Bengal Army of the East India Company preferred to recruit its sepoys from the Brahmins and Rajputs of Awadh and Bihar, in part because they had an average height of 5'8", an important consideration in an army that valued impressive appearance amongst its soldiers. [15] Despite its name the Bengal army, created first, mostly recruited Brahmins, Rajputs, and Bhumihars from Awadh and Bihar. [16] [17]
Prior to 1857, company military service was most popular in the zamindaris of North and South Bihar with the East India Company signing contracts to raise levies of troops from them. [18] Recruits from the Rajput and Bhumihar caste were common and they would use service in the Bengal Army as an opportunity to raise their wealth and status and for this reason, the Bhumihar zamindaris of Bihar became "prime recruiting grounds" for the Army. [18] In the 1780s, the Company maintained a major recruiting station in Buxar with six companies under a Captain Eaton. These recruiting stations in Bihar were kept as "nurseries" which supplied battalions when drafts were made. Other recruiting centres were located in Bhagalpur, Shahabad, Monghyr, Saran and Hajipur. [18]
Brigadier Troup, who served as the commander of Bareilly, stated of recruitment that the ‘Bengal native Infantry came chiefly from the province of Awadh, Buxar, Bhojpur and Arrah.’ [18] In 1810, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton noted in his account of the districts of Bihar, that the number of men absent from Shahabad to serve in the Army was 4680. The Ujjainiya zamindar of Bhojpur also informed him that 12000 recruits from his district had joined the Bengal Army. [18]
The Purbiya units of the Bengal Army played a major role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British. Mangal Pandey, a notable figure during the start of the mutiny, was a Purbiya serving in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry. Following the suppression of the uprising, British authorities decided not to recruit troops from the eastern plains, and the new Bengal Army was to be recruited primarily from the North Western ethnic groups which had Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities of the Punjab and North-west frontier province. [19] [20] Purbiya recruitment from the western regions of the United Provinces and the Delhi region continued but on a much smaller scale (two out of sixty-four regiments by 1893). [21]
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east. The rebellion posed a military threat to British power in that region, and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859.
Sepoy, related to sipahi, is a term denoting professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire and the Maratha Army.
Rajput, also called Thakur, is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities.
Martial race was a designation which was created by army officials in British India after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which they classified each caste as belonging to one of two categories, the 'martial' caste and the 'non-martial' caste. The ostensible reason for this system of classification was the belief that a 'martial race' was typically brave and well-built for fighting, while the 'non-martial races' were those races which the British considered unfit for battle because of their sedentary lifestyles. However, the martial races were also considered politically subservient, intellectually inferior, lacking the initiative or leadership qualities to command large military formations. The British had a policy of recruiting the martial Indians from those who has less access to education as they were easier to control.
The Battle of Buxar was fought between 22 and 23 October 1764, between the forces under the command of the British East India Company, led by Hector Munro, and the combined armies of Balwant Singh, Raja of Benaras; Mir Qasim, Nawab of Bengal; the Nawab of Awadh, Shuja-ud-Daula; and the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II. The battle was fought at Buxar, a "strong fortified town" within the territory of Bihar, located on the banks of the Ganges river about 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Patna; it was a challenging victory for the British East India Company. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. The defeated Indian rulers were forced to sign this treaty, granting the East India Company diwani rights, which allowed them to collect revenue from the territories of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa on behalf of the Mughal emperor. This gave the company immense economic control, enabling them to pass financial policies to exploit the resources of the region for their own benefit.
Raja Shiladitya Tomar, also called Silhadi Tomar, was a chieftain of northeast Malwa in the early decades of 16th century Indian. He become vassal of Sanga of Mewar and remain as an ally and Sanga helped him and Medini Rai in various battles and in conquering Malwa from Sultans. He joined the Rajput Confederacy with garrison of 30,000 Rajputs at the Battle of Khanwa which was fought for supremacy of Northern India between Rajputs and Mughals.
The Bihar Regiment is an Indian Army infantry regiment. It traces its origins back to the British Indian Army. The Bihar Regiment was formed in 1941 by regularising the 11th (Territorial) Battalion, the 19th Hyderabad Regiment, and raising new battalions. The Bihar Regimental Centre (BRC) is located at Danapur Cantonment, Patna, the second oldest cantonment of India. INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy's largest ship and one of its two aircraft carriers is affiliated to the Bihar Regiment, Indian Army's highly decorated and battle-hardened unit.
The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire.
Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, is a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar, the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.
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Kunwar Singh, also known as Babu Kunwar Singh, was a leader and military commander during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He led a selected band of armed soldiers against the troops under the command of the British East India Company. He was the chief organiser of the fight against the British in Bihar.
Jagdishpur is a nagar panchayat town of the district Bhojpur of the state of Bihar in eastern India. It was the capital of the eponymous Jagdishpur estate, ruled by Rajputs of the Ujjainiya clan. One of its rulers, Kunwar Singh, was a major figure in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, considered the leader of the rebellion in Bihar.
The Ujjainiya Parmār are a Rajput clan that inhabits the state of Bihar.
The Battle of Chausa was a notable military engagement between the Mughal Emperor, Humayun, and the Afghan warlord, Sher Shah Suri. It was fought on 26 June 1539 at Chausa, 10 miles southwest of Buxar in modern-day Bihar, India. Sher Shah Suri was assisted by his allies, the Ujjainiya Rajputs of Bhojpur and Gautam Rajputs who were led by the commander, Gajpati Ujjainia. Humayun escaped from the battlefield to save his life. Sher Shah was victorious and crowned himself Farīd al-Dīn Shēr Shāh. Babur's cousin, Mirza Haidar asserted that the armies might have numbered over 200,000 troops.
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Dumraon Raj was a zamindari fedual state in the erstwhile Shahabad district in the present-day Buxar district of Bihar ruled by the Ujjainiya dynasty. The name Dumraon Raj came from the capital town of Dumraon. During the time of Indian independence, Dumraon Raj covered an area of 2,330 km2 which streched from Buxar district in west Bihar to Ballia district in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. In Ballia district, Dumraon Raj covered rights of more than 70 villages which are located on the banks of the Ganga river.
The Jaunpur-Bhojpur war, refers to the conflict between the Jaunpur Sultanate and the Ujjainiya Rajput chiefs of the Bhojpur region of Bihar.
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