General Zorawar Singh

The achievements of the great warrior Zorawar Singh are spectacular in the military history of India.

Zorawar Singh

His exploits compared with Lalitidatiya Muktpeeth, the great ruler of Kashmir who led several military expeditions to Ladakh and Tibet.

Zorawar Singh was not only a great warrior, an able ruler, and brave and courageous, but also a religious person with a loyal and faithful attitude towards his master.

It was due to his bravery that Ladakh became a part of the State Maharaja Gulab Singh and is now an integral part of India.

This great Army General defeated and annexed the difficult an inaccessible regions of Ladakh, Baltistan, and Skurd with the State of Jammu and led expeditions towards Tibet.

Zorawar Singh and his 5000 soldiers marched for 6 days from Jammu to Leh after crossing several glaciers and reached at a height of 19.000 feet.

Out of the total region of Ladakh annexed by the army of great General Zorawar Singh, about 36,000 sq. Km area has been occupied by China after the Indo- China War of 1962. Another 6000 sq Km. is under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.  

Life History

Zorawar  Singh was born in April 1786,. His father Harjay Singh Thakur was a Chandrashi Rajput at village Hasra Amauza Hyanthol, in Nadaun tehsil of District Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh. His father was a courtier in Kehlour State.

Zorawar Singh left the home and went to Haridwar after a land dispute in the family. After serving the armies of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh of Punjab and Maharaja Sansar Chand of Kangra, he went to Jummu.

At Jummu, Zorawar Singh met Maharaj Gulab Singh and the latter took him into the services. On 10^th December 1841, Zorawar Singh clashed with the Tibetan army at a place called Yuu. Zorawar Sing had 2,000 soldiers, while the Tibetan army of Lahsa consisted of 10,000 militias.

Death of Zorawar Singh

On 12^th December 1840, Zorawar Singh received a bullet injury, but he continued fighting with his sword. Then suddenly a spear pierced his back. He was surrounded by the enemies and was ultimately martyred.

On being impressed by the bravery of Zorawar Singh, the Tibetans built his memorial called the “Chortan of Zorawar Singh” at Yuu. Still, the remains of this memorial could be seen there.

But he succeeded in annexing the regions of Ladakh to the state of Jammu.

The History of Apple Farming at Kullu

The entire district Kullu is known as the apple orchard of Himachal Pradesh- a tiny hill state of India. It was the British who introduced apples in the Kullu valley. They found that the height of Kullu ranged from 4000 to 75000 feet, which was ideal for the plantation of apples.

Apples

First of all Captain R.C. Lee took the initiative of apple farming in 1860. He purchased a patch of 33 acres of land in Bandrol and asked his father to send the saplings of apple, plum, pear, and cherry from England. He planted eight species of apples in Kullu viz. Waldvin, Stayfad, Pippin, Wine apple, Uthalo, Newton, Green Smith, and Winter. In pears the varieties were William Favorite, Wartlet, Easter Wayvwer, Danny Dew Comis,  etc. , R.C. Lee died in 1912.

Around 1866, Captain A.T. Benin, the friend of R.C. Lee came to Kullu after seeking his retirement from the British Indian Army. This Irish gentleman bought 60 Bighas of land, brought from 200 apple saplings from Devonshire and planted them at Manali.

Thereafter other Englishmen Manikin, Mackie, Henri Donald, and Col. Roenick planted the apple orchards respectively at Aramgarh (Raison), Manali, Kutbai (Naggar), Bajaura/ Naggar.  

in 1880, Col. Roenick purchased Hall State comprising of 98 bighas at Naggar and planted an apple orchard. He sold the land to the Maharaja of Mandi in 1912.  Thereafter the said land was sold by the Maharaja of Mandi to Nicolai Roerich, which is now known as IMRT.

In 1886, Roenick purchased a land from tea Company at Bajaura and planted apple saplings brought from America and Australia. Bajaura is known as Udyan Garh State.

At present, the Kullu district is the chief apple producing area of Himachal Pradesh, where 30.000 hectares of land is covered under apple orchards.

The orchardists at Kullu are planting several varieties of early apples.

History of Apple

The scientists are of the opinion that the apples were first found in the Central Asian region at Kazakhstan. From here the apples spread to the entire world. The first apple plant sprouted in the mountains of Kazakhstan. It is from this wild variety that several species of apples are presently flourishing throughout the world. “Mauls Siaversi”, the first species of apple still grows in the forests of Kazakhstan.  The wild bears eat these apples and spread the seeds, thereby helping in the regeneration of apple plants.   

In the forests of Kazakhstan, the bees help in pollination, due to which several new species of apple plants have developed.

Jim Lube in Minasuti University in the US has developed a species of apple called “Honey Crisp”, the fruit of which is sold at double the price of an ordinary apple. She says that the scientists of the world are trying to add different qualities of the wild apples of Kazakhstan into separate species of apples. Every spring she pollinates her apple species with the seeds of apples brought from Kazakhstan. What the bees perform in the forests of Kazakhstan, Jim Lube does the same in her apple orchard.

So it is certain that the forbidden apple of Adam and Eve was at Kazakhstan.