| Siege of Ram Rauni | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mughal-Sikh Wars andHill States-Sikh Wars | |||||||
 One of the very rare photographs taken of Qila Ram Rauni of Ramgarh. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Dal Khalsa |  Mughal EmpireRajas ofSivalik Hills | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jassa Singh ThokaJassa Singh AhluwaliaJai Singh Kanhaiya | Mir MannuAdina Beg DewanKaura Mal Mirza Aziz Khan Bakhshi Nasir Ali Khan Jalandri Sadiq Khan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 500–900 | 30,000 Several Artillery Guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 200 | Massive | ||||||
Thesiege of Ram Rauni was a 4 months siege fought between the Sikh forces led byJassa Singh Ahluwalia and theMughal forces ofAdina Beg,DewanKaura Mal, Mirza Aziz Khan and Bakhshi Nasir Ali Khan Jalandri.
During the first invasion ofAhmad Shah Abdali, the Sikhs had constructed a mud fort near Amritsar which had been named Ram Rauni.[1][2] In October 1748, the Sikhs assembled atAmritsar to celebrateDiwali.[3]Mir Mannu, in a bid to defeat and destroy the Sikh, orderedAdina Beg to march against them.[4][5] He also ordered forces under Dewan Kaura Mal, Mirza Aziz Khan and Bakhshi Nasir Ali Khan Jalandri to besiege Ram Rauni.[6]
The Mughal commanders pushed towards Ram Rauni . The Sikhs realized that they were heavily outnumbered took positions in the fort.[7] There were only 500 Sikhs at the time who were taking shelter (Persian sources suggest 900).[8] The Mughals had decided to blow up Ram Rauni byfilling gun-powder in the underground tunnels. The Singhs decided to dig a deep moat, and decided to take positions in it, which prevented the progress of the plans of the Mughal.[6] The siege continued for four months with daily skirmishes taking place.[9] During the 4 moths, 200 Sikhs out of the garrison were killed.[10] According to Panth Prakash, Sikhs in groups of 10 troops came outside the fort and slaughtered the Mughals. Only an odd number of survivors ever returned to the fort.[7] Many Sikhs wrote toJassa Singh Thoka who was a carpenter in the service ofAdina Beg that he being on the side of the Muslims, was the cause of the ruin of the Sikhs, and if he did not come that day to their help he would never be allowed into the Khalsa Panth.[9] So he sent a message to Diwan Kaura Mal and he asked Mir Mannu to end the siege.
Mir Mannu offered to lift the siege because Ahmad Shah Abdali was planning to invade India for the second time.[3] Jassa Singh Thoka remained in the fort for a quite sometime. He repaired the fort and established a misl namedRamgarhia Misl. He would later be known asJassa Singh Ramgarhia and went on to be one of the greatest Sikh generals.[5]
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