National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

XX. Basti-Ram's Account of the Dogra War, and Cunningham's

` Other Information'

Basti-Ram was a Dogra officer and one of the early Wazirs of Ladakh. His

Wazirate lasted from 1847 to 1861 A.D. Cunningham met him in Ladakh, probably

in 1847, and asked hint to write an account of the Dogra war, to which he agreed.

As Basti-Ram held a high office in the conquered kingdom of Ladakh, his account

has a right to appear among the ` Minor Chronicles ' of Ladakh. His account of the

Dogra war is of particular importance, for the simple reason that it is the earliest

ever written. On the other hand, it is in much need of re-editing ; for the names

contained in it have never been identified with those contained in the later Tibetan

accounts of the same war. The original (probably Urdú) text of Basti-Ram's tale

has been lost. What we possess now is Cunningham's English rendering of the same.

Cunningham says (p. 332) with regard to it : ` The following account of the Dogra invasion

was kindly dictated, at my request, by Mehta Basti Rani, a Hindu Rajput of Káshtwár,

now governor of Lé, who was one of the principal officers of the expedition. As

an authentic record of an interesting event, of which no other account exists to my

knowledge (in 1847 A.D.), I should have preferred giving the narrative almost literally,

but I found that in this shape it would entail the insertion of too many footnotes,

which would have completely distracted the attention of the reader. I have there-

fore re-written the account entirely, and have given the Tibetan names, which my

knowledge of the localities enabled me to do without much difficulty. The narrative

was of course dictated in the first person, for which I have throughout substituted

the name of " Dogra " and " the Dogra troops ".' Basti-Ram's account breaks off

immediately before the Balti war. The history of the conquest of Baltistan and the

two later Tibetan Dogra wars was compiled by Cunningham from ` Other Information '.

The correct Tibetan forms of the names have been added by the present author.

ENGLISH TEXT (Cunningham, p. 333)

1. CONQUEST OF LADÁK BY THE DOGRAS

1. The chief officers engaged in this expedition under the Vazir Zordvar Sing

were, 1st, Mia Rai Sing ; 2nd, Mehta Basti Rám ; 3rd, Mirza Rasul Beg ; 4th,

Rána Zálim Sing ; 5th, Singhé Mankotiah ; 6th, Mian Tuta (Tibetan, Miyanota) ;

7th, Sirdar Uttam Sing ; and 8th, Vazir Khojah Bhunjah.

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