Page 16 - Lohgarh

16 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

suppress the Sikh rebellion. War continued here for more than three
years. A general feeling arose in our mind, as to how a Sikh army from a
small Fort could withstand the powerful Mughal forces. To unveil the
facts, intensive survey of the forest area at this location were conducted
with a view that the Fort area may be far larger than was given in the
available literature. On the request of the Deputy Commissioner, Yamuna
Nagar, higher administration of Himachal Pradesh extended its support
and appointed forest Officer (T) for assistance to explore forest area
around the Lohgarh Fort. Initially it was expected that Fort may be spread
over 500 to 600 acres of land, but to our great surprise, remnants of
the Fort were found in more than 7000 acres of forest land on a number
of hills. This fact was brought to the notice of the local Sikh Sangat and
a trust was formed under the chairmanship of S. Gurvinder Singh Karnal,
who is also the co-author of this book. A dynamic Sikh activist named S.
Jarnail Singh extensively worked with S. Gagandeep Singh in all activities
of explorations of the Fort area and collected number of evidences of
the Fort. MOUs were signed with professional agency, which endorsed
the facts that the remnants of the Fort are spread in a vast area. The
trust has also associated a Delhi-based heritage revival company, the
Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD).
The ITRHD research about Lohgarh has revealed that the Lohgarh
Fort included Fort walls, bastions, rooms, soldier barracks, watch towers,
grindstone, hand mills to mill and big clay drums for the storage of food
grains. Many carved stones were also found. “The Fort walls are made
of dressed stones and lime. Mortar mixed with brick powder has been
used as the binding materials. The bricks used in the Fort walls are of
five different sizes,” says SK Mishra, IAS (Retd.) and ITRHD Chairman.
Archeological studies have thrown up astonishing facts. Lohgarh was
declared Khalsa Rajdhani by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur in 1710 and
the epicenter of its Fort was spread across 7,000 acres, making it one of
the largest Fort in the world.
When we (myself Gurwinder Singh and Gagandeep Singh) expressed
our wish for unveiling the truth in the context of Lohgarh, Dr Harjinder
Singh Dilgeer immediately came forword to support us and gave all his