हिंदीOn this day

Dogras of Jammu and Kashmir

Gulab Singh, a Dogra Rajput in Ranjit Singh’s service, was made Raja of Jammu in 1822 and Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir by the treaty of Amritsar in 1846. His general Zorawar Singh carried the Dogra flag across Ladakh to the edge of Tibet, and his great-grandson Hari Singh signed the state into India in October 1947.

  1. Gulab Singh1822–1857
  2. Ranbir Singh1857–1885
  3. Pratap Singh1885–1925
  4. Hari Singh1925–1952
Period: 1822–1952 CE (Maharajas of Jammu and Kashmir from 1846)Region: Jammu, the Kashmir valley, Ladakh, Baltistan and GilgitCapitals: Jammu, Srinagar (summer)
Photo: Unknown (production) · Public domain

01Gulab Singh and Zorawar Singh

Gulab Singh and his brothers Dhian Singh and Suchet Singh rose high at the Lahore court, and in 1822 Ranjit Singh made Gulab Singh Raja of Jammu, marking his forehead with the tilak at Akhnoor. From 1834 his general Zorawar Singh led small Dogra armies over the high passes into Ladakh, then Baltistan in 1840, and in 1841 into western Tibet as far as Taklakot near Mansarovar. Caught by winter and a Tibetan counter-attack, Zorawar Singh was killed at To-yo in December 1841. The treaty of Chushul in 1842 kept Ladakh with Jammu.

02The treaty of Amritsar, 1846

After the first Anglo-Sikh war the British took Kashmir from Lahore as part of the war indemnity and, by the treaty of Amritsar of 16 March 1846, handed it to Gulab Singh for seventy-five lakh rupees. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and the hill country between were joined under one ruler for the first time. His son Ranbir Singh finished the Raghunath temple at Jammu in 1860, set up a translation bureau and a Sanskrit library there, and issued a law code, the Ranbir Dand Vidhi. Gilgit was brought under Dogra control in his reign.

Mata Vaishno Devi
Place · Ancient cave shrine in the Trikuta hillsMata Vaishno DeviThe cave of the Devi in the Trikuta hills above Katra, where she is worshipped as three natural rock pindis, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. It is among the most visited tirthas of Bharat.Read →

03Hari Singh and 1947

Hari Singh came to the throne in 1925. When Pakistan-backed tribal lashkars invaded the state on 22 October 1947 and reached Baramulla, he signed the Instrument of Accession to India on 26 October 1947, and Indian troops were flown into Srinagar the next morning. He left the state in 1949, and the monarchy was formally ended by the state’s Constituent Assembly in 1952.

The rulers

  1. 1Gulab SinghRaja of Jammu 1822; Maharaja of J&K 18461822–1857
  2. 2Ranbir SinghFinished the Raghunath temple, Jammu1857–1885
  3. 3Pratap Singh1885–1925
  4. 4Hari SinghSigned the Instrument of Accession, 26 October 19471925–1952

What they left

  • The Raghunath temple and its manuscript library, Jammu
  • Ladakh joined to Bharat by Zorawar Singh’s campaigns
  • The state of Jammu and Kashmir as one unit, 1846
  • The Instrument of Accession of 1947

People

Maharaja Ranjit SinghRuler
1780–1839 CE; Maharaja 1801–1839

Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Founder of the Sikh empire

Zorawar Singh KahluriaWarrior
1784–1841 CE

Zorawar Singh Kahluria

Dogra general who won Ladakh and Baltistan

Places

Mata Vaishno DeviStanding
Independent Bharat

Mata Vaishno Devi

The cave of the Devi in the Trikuta hills above Katra, where she is worshipped as three natural rock pindis, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati. It is among the most visited tirthas of Bharat.

Amarnath CaveStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Amarnath Cave

A cave at about 3,888 metres in the mountains of Kashmir where a linga of ice forms each year. Here, the pilgrims say, Bhagwan Shiva told Mata Parvati the secret of immortality.

Srinagar (Pravarapura)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Srinagar (Pravarapura)

The city of Shri, Lakshmi, on the Vitasta. Kalhana’s Rajatarangini records its founding by Pravarasena II; it was the seat of Kashmir’s Hindu kings, then of sultans, Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and the Dogras.

Bawe Wali Mata (Mahakali), Bahu Fort, JammuStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Bawe Wali Mata (Mahakali), Bahu Fort, Jammu

The Kali temple inside Bahu Fort, on the cliff above the Tawi, is the guardian goddess of Jammu. Jammu people call her Bawe Wali Mata, and after Vaishno Devi she draws the largest crowds in the region.

KishtwarStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Kishtwar

A town on a high shelf above the Chenab, once the seat of its own rajas, from which Zorawar Singh led the Dogra army over the passes into Ladakh in 1834. The Machail Mata yatra climbs up from its district every summer.

JammuStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Jammu

The city of temples on the Tawi, seat of the Dogra rajas from whom Gulab Singh built a Himalayan state reaching Ladakh, Baltistan and Kashmir. Its Raghunath temple, begun in 1835, holds one of the great Sanskrit manuscript libraries of the north.

LehStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Leh

The old caravan town under its nine-storey palace, capital of the Namgyal kings, which Zorawar Singh brought under Jammu in the 1830s and from which he marched into Tibet in 1841. In 1948 an Indian Dakota landing here helped save Ladakh.

Raghunath Temple, JammuStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Raghunath Temple, Jammu

A complex of seven shrines in the heart of Jammu, raised by the first two Dogra Maharajas, whose gilded spires gave Jammu the name City of Temples. Its library of Sanskrit manuscripts is one of the great collections of the north.

Skardu and the Kharpocho FortStanding
Company rule and the war of 1857

Skardu and the Kharpocho Fort

The chief town of Baltistan on the Indus, taken for the Dogra state of Jammu by Zorawar Singh in 1840. In 1948 its garrison held out against invaders for six months before falling.

Kheer Bhawani, TulmulStanding
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Kheer Bhawani, Tulmul

The spring of Mata Ragnya Devi at Tulmul, the kuldevi of many Kashmiri Pandit families, worshipped with offerings of kheer poured into the water.

Battles

Zorawar Singh’s Tibet Campaign

The general who had already won Ladakh and Baltistan for Raja Gulab Singh led his army over the high passes into western Tibet, near Kailash and Mansarovar, and fell there in the snow.

May–December 1841

First Anglo-Sikh War

Six years after Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death the Khalsa army crossed the Sutlej and fought the Company in four hard battles, let down, many held then and since, by its own commanders.

December 1845 – February 1846

Jammu and Kashmir War, 1947–48

Two months after independence, armed tribal lashkars from Pakistan invaded Jammu and Kashmir; the Maharaja acceded to India, and Indian troops were flown into Srinagar the next morning.

October 1947 – January 1949

On the timeline

  • 16 March 1846

    Treaty of Amritsar creates Jammu and Kashmir statePolity

    After the first Anglo-Sikh war, the British sell Kashmir to Gulab Singh of Jammu for 75 lakh rupees. The Dogra state of Jammu and Kashmir lasts until 1947.

  • 26 October 1947

    Maharaja Hari Singh accedes to BharatPolity

    With tribal raiders from Pakistan sacking Baramulla and nearing Srinagar, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir signs the Instrument of Accession. Indian troops land at Srinagar airfield the next morning.