Kunwar Dhir Singh was an Ujjainya Parmar

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

chieftain and rebel who fought against the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

during the 17th century. He was the son of Bikram Shahi of Piru pargana in Bhojpur district.

Rebellion against the Mughals

He allied himself with neighbouring chieftain called Rudra Singh and together they carried out multiple raids in the area around

Tekari Tekari is a city and a municipality in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar and was the centre of erstwhile Bhumihar Tekari Raj. Maharaja Gopalsaran was the king of this area in British times. Etymology In South Bihar, the representative ...

and Bhojpur. The

subedar Subedar is a rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian Army; a senior non-commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, and formerly a Viceroy's commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. History ''Subedar'' or ''subadar'' was the ...

of Bihar, Safi Khan, realised how strong they were together and worked to break their alliance. He approached Rudra Singh and promised him that the rank and title that he previously held would be restored as long as he apologised for his rebellion and made a substantial payment to the Mughal authorities. Rudra Singh agreed and ended up betraying Kunwar Dhir and the latter ended up going into hiding. Kunwar Dhir and his forces eventually reappeared in 1682 and captured some villages in West Champaran district. Rudra Singh was then ordered by the subedar to recapture the lost territory for the Mughals and he marched to Champaran with a strong contingent and defeated Kunwar Dhir. However, Kunwar Dhir reappeared in 1683 and defeated the combined forces of Rudra Singh and Aqidat Khan. Emboldened by this victory, Kunwar Dhir made preparations to attack

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which was controlled by the '' faujdar'', Aqidat Khan. When this was discovered, an imperial ''farman'' was issued to local Mughal allies to render all possible help to Aqidat Khan. Realising this, Kunwar Dhir fled to Gorakhpur where he established a new stronghold in Barhaj. In 1685 he began plundering in imperial territories again. However, he realised that Rudra Singh with the support of the Mughals would have eventually suppressed him so he hatched a conspiracy to poison him and succeeded. Kunwar Dhir eventually died in 1712 but his son, Sudhist Narayan continued his rebellion.

References

{{reflist History of Bihar Rajputs Rajput rulers