King Pradyumna ‘deserves’ a memorial

Ajay Ramola

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, February 14

Pradyumna Shah, king of Garhwal, who steadfastly fought ferocious Gurkha invaders from Nepal, was killed in the battle of Khurbura in Dehradun in 1804. Khurbura is now a small colony without any remains of the bloody battle in which Pradyumna Shah was killed by a bullet while fighting the Gurkhas with his sword. With Pradyumna Shah's death, the Gurkhas established their tyrannical rule in Garhwal until 1814 when the British defeated them at the Khalanga fort that too is coincidentally near Dehradun.

The Gurkhas, who ruled Garhwal with a tyrannical force, have a memorial to them at Khalanga, near Garhi Cantt, at Dehradun but sadly there is no memorial to Pradyumna Shah, the king who died fighting the invaders till his last breath to safeguard the kingdom of Garhwal.

Upendar, a social activist from Mussoorie, says that he does not favour eulogizing the royal family which is known to have done little for their subjects but Pradyumna Shah deserves a memorial to his name for trying to save the Garhwal kingdom from tyrannical Gurkha invaders.  Pradyumna Shah had taken over the kingdom of Garhwal after the death of Jai Kirti Shah in 1786.

The members of the royal family say though Pradyumna Shah was a defeated king, he still deserves a mention in form of a memorial at Dehradun or in Tehri Garhwal district.

After King Jai Kirti Shah's death, his younger brother Parakram Shah wanted to become the king of Garhwal. However, the advisers or the panchs of the king sent a message to him that Pradyumna Shah be given the throne. It was in this way that he took over the throne in 1786 and became the king of Garhwal and Kumaon as well. He gave the administration of Kumaon in the hands of Harshdev Joshi, an important official at that time. Joshi invited Pradyumna Shah to rule Kumaon but the latter refused.

The tussle with Parakram Shah for the throne left Pradyumna Shah with empty coffers and no time to prepare for the Gurkha onslaught from Nepal that had become inevitable. It was under such circumstances that he tried to stop the Gurkha invasion but lost his life at the battle of Khurbura, now a mohalla in Dehradun. 

A rare painting depicting the battle of Khurbura by Revat and the swords used by King Pradyumna Shah are the only items preserved by Bhawani Pratap Singh Panwar, the custodian of the Purana Darbar House of Archaeological and Archives Material Collection Trust. If these few items are not kept at a memorial, an important part of the history and its heroes would be lost forever.