Veer Kunwar Singh, the eighty-year-old zamindar of Jagdishpur in Shahabad, was the face of the Revolt of 1857 in Bihar. From the Danapur mutiny of July 1857 to his last victory at Jagdishpur on 23 April 1858, he kept the Company’s armies on the move across Bihar, Awadh and central India. BPSC asks about him almost every year, usually as a one-line fact: the district, the dates, the battles and the name of his brother. These notes give you those facts first and the story second.
Key facts for BPSC
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 November 1777 (traditional date), Jagdishpur, Shahabad district (now Bhojpur) |
| Family | Ujjainiya Rajput zamindari of Jagdishpur; son of Raja Sahabzada Singh; younger brother Amar Singh |
| Age in 1857 | About 80 |
| Trigger in Bihar | Mutiny of the 7th, 8th and 40th Bengal Native Infantry at Danapur on 25 July 1857 |
| Siege of Arrah | 27 July to 3 August 1857; relieved by Major Vincent Eyre after his victory at Bibiganj |
| Azamgarh | Captured on 27 March 1858 after defeating Company forces at Atraulia (22 March) |
| Crossing of the Ganga | Shivpur Ghat near Ballia, 21 April 1858; wounded in the arm, which he cut off |
| Last battle | Jagdishpur, 23 April 1858: defeated Captain Le Grand and retook his fort |
| Death | 26 April 1858 at Jagdishpur |
| Memorials | Postage stamp (1966); Veer Kunwar Singh University, Arrah (1992); Veer Kunwar Singh Setu over the Ganga between Arrah and Chhapra; Vijayotsav on 23 April |
Why Bihar rose in 1857
The Revolt of 1857 reached Bihar through three channels. The first was the army: Danapur (Dinapore) near Patna was a major cantonment with three regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry, and the sepoys there shared the grievances of their comrades at Meerut and Delhi, from the greased cartridges to the 1856 rule on overseas service. The second was the countryside: zamindars and tenants in Shahabad, Saran and Gaya resented the Company’s revenue demands and the auctions of estates that had followed the Permanent Settlement. The third was the city of Patna itself, where Wahabi preachers had built a network that the Commissioner, William Tayler, regarded as the centre of a conspiracy.
On 3 July 1857 Pir Ali Khan, a bookseller, led an attack on the Patna opium godown in which Dr Lyell was killed. Tayler had Pir Ali hanged on 7 July and disarmed the city, and his heavy-handed measures, including the arrest of Patna’s leading maulvis, were later criticised and cost him his post. Three weeks later the Danapur regiments mutinied.
Who was Kunwar Singh?
Kunwar Singh was the head of the Ujjainiya Rajput house of Jagdishpur, one of the oldest zamindari families of Shahabad. By 1857 he was nearly eighty, heavily in debt and locked in disputes with the Company’s revenue officers, who had taken part of his estate into direct management. When the Danapur sepoys crossed the Son and reached Arrah, they invited him to lead them. He accepted, and his name turned a soldiers’ mutiny into a popular rising across Shahabad.
The course of the revolt in Bihar, 1857 to 1858
Danapur and the siege of Arrah (July to August 1857)
The three Danapur regiments rose on 25 July 1857, crossed the Son and marched on Arrah, the headquarters of Shahabad district. A small group of Europeans and about fifty Sikh policemen under Herwald Wake and Vicars Boyle shut themselves into a fortified house, later known as the Arrah House, and held out from 27 July. A relief column from Danapur under Captain Dunbar was ambushed on the night of 29 July and lost most of its men. The siege was finally raised on 3 August by Major Vincent Eyre, who had marched from Buxar with a small force and beaten the rebels at Bibiganj on 2 August.
Loss of Jagdishpur and the long march (August 1857 to March 1858)
Eyre followed up by storming Jagdishpur in mid-August 1857 and destroying Kunwar Singh’s fort and family temples. Kunwar Singh left Shahabad with his followers and spent the next seven months in the wider rebellion. He moved through Rewa, Banda and Kalpi, co-ordinated with Nana Saheb’s and Tatya Tope’s forces, and took part in the fighting around Lucknow in Awadh. In this phase he fought as a guerrilla commander, avoiding pitched battles with better-armed British columns and using speed and local knowledge instead.
Azamgarh (March to April 1858)
In March 1858 Kunwar Singh turned east. He defeated Company detachments under Milman at Atraulia on 22 March and under Dames a few days later, and occupied Azamgarh on 27 March 1858. The British, alarmed at a rebel army so close to Benares and the Grand Trunk Road, sent Lord Mark Kerr to relieve the town on 6 April and then Brigadier Douglas to hunt down the old chief.
The crossing of the Ganga and the return to Jagdishpur (April 1858)
Pursued by Douglas, Kunwar Singh slipped out of Azamgarh, marched towards Ghazipur and crossed the Ganga at Shivpur Ghat near Ballia on 21 April 1858. A bullet shattered his arm during the crossing; the story that he cut off the wounded arm and offered it to the Ganga is part of Bihar’s folk memory of the revolt. On 23 April 1858 he met Captain Le Grand’s force at Jagdishpur, defeated it and re-entered his fort. He died of his wounds three days later, on 26 April 1858.
Amar Singh and the end of the rising
Kunwar Singh’s younger brother Amar Singh took over the leadership and kept Shahabad in revolt for the rest of 1858, fighting a guerrilla war in the Kaimur hills against repeated British sweeps. He was driven out towards the end of 1858, crossed into the Nepal tarai, was captured in 1859 and died in custody at Gorakhpur in February 1860.
Other centres of 1857 in Bihar
- Patna: Pir Ali Khan’s rising of 3 July 1857 and the Wahabi network; William Tayler’s disarming of the city.
- Muzaffarpur and Tirhut: Waris Ali, a police jamadar, was hanged for corresponding with the rebels; the district stayed restless through 1857.
- Gaya, Saran and Champaran: sepoy detachments and zamindars joined in; the Chhapra treasury was looted.
- Chotanagpur (then part of Bihar): the Ramgarh Battalion mutinied at Hazaribagh; Raja Arjun Singh of Porahat led the Kols in Singhbhum; Nilambar and Pitambar led the Bhogtas in Palamu; the Santhals of the Santhal Parganas, who had risen in 1855, were restive again.
Why Kunwar Singh matters
Three things make Kunwar Singh stand out among the leaders of 1857. He was the only major leader to carry the war across provinces, from Bihar to central India and Awadh and back. He won a battle against a regular British force at Azamgarh and another at Jagdishpur within a month of each other, at the age of eighty and while wounded. And unlike most 1857 leaders he died undefeated, in his own fort, which is why Bihar celebrates 23 April as Vijayotsav rather than mourning 26 April. The Bihar government’s Veer Kunwar Singh University at Arrah (1992), the 1966 commemorative stamp and the Arrah-Chhapra bridge named after him keep the memory alive.
Quick revision: likely BPSC questions
- Who led the Revolt of 1857 in Bihar? Veer Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur.
- Jagdishpur lies in which present-day district? Bhojpur (old Shahabad).
- When did the Danapur sepoys mutiny? 25 July 1857.
- Who relieved the siege of Arrah? Major Vincent Eyre, 3 August 1857.
- Which town did Kunwar Singh capture in March 1858? Azamgarh.
- When did Kunwar Singh die? 26 April 1858.
- Who continued the revolt after his death? His brother Amar Singh.
- Who was hanged at Patna on 7 July 1857? Pir Ali Khan.
Practise this topic
- 72nd BPSC Practice Test 14: Revolt of 1857 (20 MCQs)
- Bihar History PYQ for BPSC: 152 Questions in One Test
- Tribal and Peasant Movements in Bihar (1855–1947)
- Great Personalities of Bihar
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