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Battle of Khurbura

VictorGorkha army of NepalAmar Singh Thapa; Hastidal Shah; Bam Shah
1804vs
Kingdom of GarhwalMaharaja Pradyumna Shah

The Gorkhas had already overrun Kumaon and then most of Garhwal. At Khurbura in the Doon valley the last king of undivided Garhwal made his stand and died.

Date: May 1804Where: Khurbura, Dehradun, UttarakhandType: Battle
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Khurbura.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-khurbura-1804/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Khurbura. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-khurbura-1804/

Result

The Garhwal army was beaten and Maharaja Pradyumna Shah was killed on the field; Garhwal passed under Gorkha rule.

01From Kumaon to the Doon

The Gorkha kingdom took Kumaon in 1790 and turned on Garhwal soon after. An earthquake in 1803 had left Garhwal shaken and poor. That year the Gorkha commanders crossed the Alaknanda, took Srinagar, the Garhwal capital, and drove Pradyumna Shah down into the Doon. He went to Saharanpur, pledged his family’s valuables and raised a fresh army, Rajput and Gujar levies among them, and came back up into the valley.

02The king falls

The armies met at Khurbura, then a village outside Dehradun, in May 1804. The Garhwal force fought for days but was outmatched by the Gorkha veterans, and Pradyumna Shah was killed in the fighting. One of his brothers, Pritam Shah, was taken to Nepal as a prisoner; his son Sudarshan Shah escaped to British territory. Garhwal was ruled from Kathmandu until the Anglo-Nepal War of 1814–16.

Battle of Nalapani (Khalanga)
Battle · 31 October – 30 November 1814Battle of Nalapani (Khalanga)On a wooded hill above Dehradun a few hundred Gorkha soldiers, with their women and children, held a half-built fort against a Company division for a month. The British raised a memorial to their own general and another to ‘our gallant adversary’.Read →
Why it matters

After the Gorkhas were driven out in 1815, Sudarshan Shah got back only Tehri Garhwal, west of the Alaknanda; the rest became British Garhwal.

Places near the battlefield 8

Surkanda Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Surkanda Devi Temple

Above the road from Mussoorie to Chamba, on a peak that looks out on the whole Garhwal snow range, Garhwal remembers the place where Sati’s head fell. It is one of the three Devi shrines of Tehri that pilgrims visit together.

Shakumbhari Devi Temple, SaharanpurStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Shakumbhari Devi Temple, Saharanpur

In the Durga Saptashati the Devi promises that in a time of drought she will feed the world with vegetables grown from her own body, and be called Shakambhari. Her seat in the Shivalik hills north of Saharanpur is one of the great Devi tirthas of western Uttar Pradesh.

Kunjapuri Devi TempleStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Kunjapuri Devi Temple

The nearest of the Tehri Devi shrines to Rishikesh, on a hill where Garhwal holds that the upper body of Sati fell. People climb it before dawn to see the sun rise over the Himalaya.

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near RishikeshStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, near Rishikesh

The forest shrine where, the temple’s tradition says, Mahadev sat in meditation after drinking the halahala poison of the Samudra Manthan. It stands where the Pankaja and Madhumati streams meet, in the hills across the Ganga from Rishikesh.

Mansa Devi Temple, HaridwarStanding
Independent Bharat

Mansa Devi Temple, Haridwar

The Devi shrine on Bilwa Parvat above Har ki Pauri, one of the three Siddha Peethas of Haridwar with Chandi Devi and Maya Devi, and one of the city’s Panch Tirthas.

HaridwarStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Haridwar

Gangadwara, the gate where the Ganga leaves the hills for the plains, and Mayapuri, one of the seven moksha-giving cities. The evening aarti at Har ki Pauri is watched by thousands every day.

Maya Devi Temple, HaridwarStanding
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Maya Devi Temple, Haridwar

Haridwar was once called Mayapuri after this Devi. She is the city’s presiding Devi and one of its three Siddha Peethas with Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi.

Lakhamandal Shiva TempleStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Lakhamandal Shiva Temple

A Shiva temple on the Yamuna in Jaunsar-Bawar, where a Sanskrit inscription of a princess of the Singhapura house records the building of a temple for her husband’s merit. The ASI has found hundreds of lingas and sculptures around it.