Battle of Jawar ki Gadhi : Rao Bahadur Thakur Narendra Singh
Without entering into Colonel James Tod's speculation about the Jat's identity with the Goths or Getas, it may be assumed as a certainty that, for many hundreds of years, a branch of these people has settled in the country south of the Jamuna, between the cities of Agra and Delhi. This region, ending on the east at the Chambal river, or a little beyond it, marks the eastern limit of their advance from the west. To the east and north-east of that joint there are practically no Jats. Their position on the flank of the high road between the two great capitals, commanding the route through Ajmer onwards to the Deccan, must in all ages have given this robust race an opening for plundering on the high ways, a temptation which they found it impossible to resist.
In the South Eastern Punjab also the bulk of the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Mohammedan cultivators come from the same origin. In Shekhawati, Bikaner State and distant Marwar, the branches of this race are spreading far and wide. In medieval days this part was divided into many Jat republics which were called the Ganas of yore. They were first- class cultivators, deeply attached to their religion, and first-class soldiers, when oppressed. When the south-eastern Punjab and the trans-Jamuna country fell victim to the inroads of the Puthans and the Moghuls and their religious susceptibilities were wounded, some of their branches migrated to Northern Rajpootana, and so the Rajpoots and the Jats bound themselves in the silken ties which usually subsist between the ruler and the ruled. They divided the produce of the land half and half as if between the horse and the heifer. In the reign of Shah Jahan, they killed Murshid Kuli Khan, the Foujdar of Mathura during an attack on one of their strong holds in 1637 A.D. or 1040 H. In Tulhizza, 1079 H. April 1669 another Foujdar Abdul Nabi lost his life in an attack on a village called Sorah, the home of a jat freebooter named Gokhla, who had raided the town of Sa-a- dabad in the Doab. Alamgir marched in person from Agra and sent before him a new Foujdar, Alawardi Khan. Gokhla and his followers were captured and executed. Alamgir's long absence in the Deccan speedily weakened the imperial authority in Northern India. In their master's absence, the provincial governors grew lax and winked at abuses. Favoured by this negligence the Jats resumed their depredations. Maharajah Bishan Singhji of Amber, the immediate neighbour, was sent to chastise them, and he taught them a lesson.
Bishan Singh Kachwaha, the new Rajah of Amber (Jaipur) was appointed by the Emperor as Foujdar of Mathura with a special charge to root out the Jats and take Sinsani as his own Jagir (Ishwardas, 133 a). He gave the Emperor a written undertaking to demolish the fort of Sinsani. (Ishwar 139 a, 135 b). Bedar Bakht laid siege to Sinsani. But the campaign in the jungles of the Jat country severely taxed the invading army.
In 1099 H, 1687-8 A.D., Khan Jahan, Zafar Jang, Kokal-tash and Prince Bedar Bakht were sent from the Deccan to restore order. They had taken Sinsani near Bharatpore on the 14th July, 1688. The Jat chief Rajah Ram was killed and his head was sent to the Emperor. Prince Shah Alam, when he was in charge of the Agra Suba, in 1695 also had trouble with the Jats. Bhajja, the father of Choodaman is the next leader of whom we hear and his abode was also at Sinsani. In the year 1705 on the 19th October, Sinsani was again destroyed, a second or third time by Mukhtar Khan, and on the 13th December, 1707, Riza Bahadur attacked it again, sending ten carts, filled with weapons and one thousand heads (Later Mughals by William Irvine Part I, page 322).
On 21st May, 1691 Rajah Bishan Singhji surprised the other Jat stronghold of Sogor. The Rajah hastened there with the Imperial army. By chance, as the gate of this little fort was kept open at the time for admitting grain, the invaders entered in at the gallop, slaying all who raised their hands and taking 500 of the rebels (Ishwar). The result of these operations was that the new Jat leaders went into hiding in 'nooks and corners' unknown to the Imperialists.
Maharajah Bishan Singhji, to whom the generalship of the Jat expedition was handed over, sent his most trusty Sardar Thakur Hari Singhji of Lamba (Diggie) on Phagan Sudi Teej, Sambat 1749 A.D. February 1692 (office of old History records the Ister of Akil Khan). Thakur Hari Singhji after the victory at the fort of Vatavli proceeded towards Jawar Ki Gadhi, which was the strongest and the most important centre of the Jats. The battle raged the whole day long, many Sardars of note were killed on Jaipur side and the Jats also suffered heavily in their rank and file. Though the mother of Thakur Hari Singhji, the Maharaja's faithful servant, died at this time, the valiant warrior, after only a day's mourning, assaulted Jawar with full force and was mortally wounded by cannon shot; but he shuffled off his mortal coil not before the good news of victory had reached his ears as in the case of Sher Shah Suri at Kalinjar and Nelson at Trafalgar. The Persian letter of Sambat 1752 from the Maharajah Sahib to Devi Das and the Hindi letter from Raghunath Singh and K. Mohan Singh to Daya Ram and Askaran, Miti Baisakh Sudi 5, Sambat 1752, say that on Miti Baisakh Sudi 2, Sambat 1752, Thakur Hari Singhji was killed by cannon shot.
In a Persian letter of Maha Sudi 4, Sambat 1752, addressed to the Maharajah Sahib it is written "In the case of Hari Singh, I expressed to Salabat Khan that Hari Singh is a scion of the Khangarot sub-clan among the Kachwahas, his elder brother Bhoj Raj of Nirana enjoyed the honour of the Mansab of 2000, and was killed in the Bijapore war, his nephew Soor Singh is now the Qiladar of Rohri, the other scions of his family are also Mansabdars, he did not like to accept any Mansab, but preferred the honour of serving his liegelord...". In another letter of some earlier date that is Jaith Badi 11 Sambat 1752, it is written, "From Vakaya, we learn the account of Thakur Hari Singh being shot with a cannon ball, carried in a palanquin and dying, and of your Highness's going to the battlefield of Jawar, leaving behind your Rajkumar at Islamabad. Now from a letter it is clear that Meerza ji greatly praised him in the words that such a servant of Maharajah Sahib had no equal in fidelity, who having mourned the death of his mother only for one day, joined the service of his master the very next day. May God give such a faithful servant to everyone! His successors, his brother and his son, should apply for the grant of Mansab etc." There are 3 Persian letters of Sambat 1752 from Habibullah, Sayed Hussain and Md. Ali to the Maharajah Sahib Bishan Singhji offering congratulations on the victory of Jawar.
The effect of such a crushing defeat was so wholesome that, for a long time to come, the Jats were not able to raise their head till the Maharajah Sawai Jey Singhji, the illustrious son of Maharajah Bishan Singhji, had again the occasion of crushing their rising tide after about one decade.
Bans Bhaskar, the most authentic Rajpoot History, gives a vivid description of the prowess of the Maharajah as well as his brave general Thakur Hari Singhji Khangarot in the following couplets :-
हरियसिंह कछवाह, जाय जटवार बिंटिलिय ।
बहु जट्टन सिर कट्टि, खनित खड्डन प्रविष्टकिय ॥ यह लम्बापुर नाथ, बंस खंगार संग सझि । सेवन आलम शाह, आय कूरम नरेश रजि ॥ दे दल मिलान जमुना पुलिन, संचरि आम सलाम करि । हरिसिंह सहित ठड्डे मिसल, रवि अंजलि आदाब दिय ॥ हरिसिंहहि आलम दये, रीझ खिलत हय राय । कूरमपति को कथन कर, जट्ट कदन हित लाय ॥
वंश भास्कर, पृष्ठ २९१९
Thirty Decisive Battles of Jaipur