The 1st Brahmans was an infantry regiment of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. It was raised at Oudh by Captain T Naylor in 1776 for service in the army of Nawab Wazir of Oudh, and was known as the Nawab Wazir's Regiment. It was transferred to the East India Company in 1777. In 1922, it was designated as the 4th Battalion

1st Punjab Regiment The 1st Punjab Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army from 1922 to 1947. Upon the Partition of India, it was transferred to the newly-raised Pakistan Army. It ceased to exist in this form in 1956, when it was amalgamate ...

. The regiment was disbanded in 1931.

Designations

Over the years the regiment was known by a number of different designations: *1776 Nawab Wazir's Brahaman Regiment *1777 30th Battalion of Bengal Sepoys *1781 23rd Regiment of Bengal Sepoys *1784 29th Regiment of Bengal Sepoys *1786 29th Bengal Sepoy Battalion *1796 2nd Battalion 9th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry *1824 21st Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry *1861 1st Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry *1885 1st Regiment of Bengal Infantry *1901 1st Brahman Infantry *1903 1st Brahmans Officers 1st Brahmins, 1922

*1922 4th Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment

History

East India Company service

While in the service of the East India Company the regiment was awarded battle honours for service in the Second Maratha War 1803-05, the Anglo-Nepalese War 1814-16, the Second Anglo-Burmese War 1824-26 and the

Bhurtpore Bharatpur is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, south of India's capital, New Delhi, from Rajasthan's capital Jaipur, west of Agra of Uttar Pradesh and from Mathura of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Bharatp ...

Campaign 1826.

Post First War of Independence 1857

The regiment was the senior-most among the twelve Bengal Native Infantry regiments that survived the Great

Indian Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

of 1857-58. It was accordingly one of the small number of Bengal regular infantry regiments to retain the traditions of East India Company service in the new post-Mutiny army. Renumbered as the 1st of the Bengal line, it subsequently saw active service in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885-87. Following the Kitchener reforms of the Indian Army, when the names of the presidencies were dropped, the regiment became the 1st Brahman Infantry in 1901.Barthorp p.15

World War I

In 1914, the regimental centre of the 1st Brahmans was located at

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

and it was linked with the

3rd Brahmans The 3rd Brahmans were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1798, when they were the 1st Battalion, 16th Bengal Native Infantry. Over the years they were known by a number of different names. The 32nd ...

. The regiment was recruited mostly from Agricultural Brahmins Kanyakubj, Saryuparin and Gaur Brahmins(From Today's Haryana,Delhi and West Up),Garhwali Brahmins and Punjabi Brahmins. Full dress uniform of the sepoys included a high khaki turban with red fringe, a scarlet kurta (long coat) with white facings, white waist-sash, dark blue trousers and white leggings.Barthorp p.15 The regiment spent part of World War I in India before being posted to

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

, then under threat from Ottoman forces. A second battalion raised in 1917 saw service in the Persian Gulf.

Post-war service and disbandment

After the war, a major reorganization was undertaken in the Indian Army and the various single-battalion infantry regiments were grouped together to form larger regiments of four to six battalions each. The 1st Brahmans became the 4th Battalion of the 1st Punjab Regiment in 1922. It was disbanded in 1931 due to retrenchment in the Indian Army.Sumner, p.15

References

Sources

* *{{cite book, last=Sumner, first=Ian, title=The Indian Army 1914–1947, year=2001, publisher=Osprey Publishing, isbn=1-84176-196-6 *Qureshi, Maj MI. (1958). ''The First Punjabis: History of the First Punjab Regiment, 1759-1956''. Aldershot: Gale & Polden. British Indian Army infantry regiments Military units and formations established in 1776 Military units and formations disestablished in 1922