r/GarhwaLRiyasat

Lodi Rikhola Negi, son of Bhu Singh Rikhola.

• Birth village: Bayeli
• Lineage: Suryavanshi
• Gotra- kashyap
• Sub-caste: Negi( tax collector)
• Clan: Rikhola/Rikhalya
• Kul Devi: Naushena Mata
• Kul Devta: Dudhadhaari Narsingh
• Gram devta: Ghandiyal devta

About Lodi Rikhola Negi: He was born around 1590 in Bayeli village, currently in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. He was one of the three military commanders- Madho Singh Bhandari, Banwari Dass, and Lodi Rikhola Negi-**who served King Mahipat Shah of Garhwal.

Majority Military campaign of lodi rikhola Negi

1. Battle of tapovan | Conflict of Badrinath| 7 Days battle

• The Sacred Objects: The King of Sirmur had crossed into Garhwal territory, occupied Tapovan, and aggressively seized two deeply sacred religious artifacts: the holy flag of Badrinath (Badrinath ki Dhwaja) and the sacred drum of the deity Kailaveer.
• The Mission: When King Mahipat Shah sent Lodi Rikhola's father (Bhau Singh) and later Lodi Rikhola himself to march on Tapovan, their primary mission was to reclaim these looted religious symbols.
• The Outcome: The Garhwali forces decisively defeated the Sirmur army at Tapovan and triumphantly re-hoisted the Badrinath flag back in its rightful place.
• Meeting his Love (Mangala): It was during this specific victory campaign in Tapovan that he met Mangala. Described in folk legends as a woman of great grace, virtue, and local status, she became his wife and constant companion through his subsequent fourteen major wars across Tibet, Sirmour, and the Doon Valley.

2.The Tibet Campaigns: faced continuous cross-border raids and plundering by Tibetan chieftains. Alongside commander Madho Singh Bhandari, Lodi Rikhola led an aggressive counter-offensive deep into Tibetan territory, advancing as far as Dwapaghat and successfully defeating the invaders. This victory at Dwapaghat is prominently remembered in Garhwali oral folklore (Pawadas). According to local tradition, the celebration of Igaas Bagwal, a festival observed 11 days after Diwali in Uttarakhand, is also associated with the Garhwali forces returning victorious from the Tibet campaign.

3.Joint Invasion of Sirmour and Kumaon:

Sirmour(1620-1621)- During the 1620s, the Garhwal Kingdom came under immense pressure from a joint invasion by the neighboring kingdoms of Sirmour (modern-day Himachal Pradesh) and Kumaon. Sirmouri raiders also regularly crossed into Garhwal, plundering villages, destroying standing crops, and terrorising local populations.

In 1620-1621, Lodi Rikhola moved towards Garhwal’s western frontier. Rather than simply pushing the invaders back, he advanced deep into Sirmour territory, stretching from Silai Fate Mountain to Hatkoti and Rohru. He successfully cleared the entrenched bandit groups that had plagued border areas such as Chakrata and Kalsi and annexed a substantial portion of Sirmour’s territory, including parts of the Jaunsar region, into the Garhwal Kingdom.

4. The Nine-Year Kumaon War (1622-1631)

Meanwhile, on the eastern frontier, King Mahipat Shah, alongside his commander Banwari Dass, pushed the Kumaoni forces back. Banwari Dass was ki!!ed in the battle, which was a bloody and costly conflict for both sides.

After securing the western border Lodi Rikhola led offensive operations that expanded Garhwal’s authority deep toward the east. Rikhola established the dominance of King Mahipat Shah all the way up to Dwariat (Dwarahat) in Kumaon and across the Ramganga Ghat.

King Mahipat Shah was later cornered deep in Kumaoni territory, where he sustained fatal wounds and died on the battlefield in 1631.

Following Mahipat Shah’s death, his widowed wife, Rani Karnavati (yes, the same famous “Naak-Kati Rani,” the Queen of Garhwal who defeated Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s army of 30,000 soldiers, led by Najabat Khan, in 1640 and only allowed them to leave after they cut off their own noses) took over as regent for their young son prithvi par shah

5. Rohilkhand Campaign in the Late 1620s: To safeguard South Garhwal from looters and raiders, he launched a massive military campaign into the southern plains (modern-day Najibabad/Bijnor) to destroy the staging grounds of local plundering chieftains. He destroyed the fortress gates of regional rulers and brought fragments back to the Srinagar court as proof that he had secured the southern flatlands.

The Root of the Conspiracy: Palace Jealousy

After defeating external invaders across 14 distinct battles including campaigns in Tibet, tapovan- badrinath, Sirmur, and the Doon Valley King Mahipat Shah rewarded Rikhola with a massive Jagir in khairasain badalpur region of garhwal. People from the Lodi Rikhola clan mainly live in Rikhnikhal Block of pauri garhwal which is named after the Rikhola clan.

This extraordinary rise to fame panicked the royal court ministers. Fearing loss of their own power, they feared general like Lodi Rikhola Negi would inevitably overthrow the king Prithvi Pat Shah(7yo) to claim the throne of the garhwal kingdom Under pressure and paranoia, a plot was sanctioned to eliminate him through deception rather than open combat.

The Iron Spear Trap (The Hidden Pit)

The most popular version of his death involves a public test of physical strength engineered by court conspirators.

1. The Set-up: Ministers challenged Rikhola to rip open a massive, structurally fortified wooden gate at the palace.
2. The Trap: Behind the heavy gate, conspirators had dug a deep pit filled with upright, razor-sharp iron spears (barchhe). The pit was meticulously hidden with a false floor made of weak wood, cloth, and soil to look like solid ground.
3. The Incident: Summoning his legendary strength, Rikhola gave a massive, violent yank to the gate. The force shattered the gate, but his backward momentum threw him directly over the false floor. He crashed into the hidden pit and was severely impaled by the iron spears.

Immediate Death: he died right inside the pit. Only his bloodied turban was recovered and sent back to his village, where his wife Mangala devi, performed Sati alongside it.

The Poisoned Feast

A separate branch of oral folklore bypasses the gate trap entirely, stating that the court ministers took a quieter, chemical approach. During a grand royal feast held in 1635 to celebrate a military victory, conspirators slipped a lethal, fast-acting poison into his food. the toxin caused internal hemorrhaging, and the general collapsed and died at the venue.

book- Gadhwal ki Divangat Vibhutiyan (1968) by Dr. Bhakt Darshan Singh Rawat*( 4 time member of parliament from Garhwal 1952-1970 he served as a Deputy Minister/Minister of State for Education )* Chapter about Lodi Rikhola Negi(Page number 177)

Documentary on lodi rikhola negi- https://youtu.be/wNNbJqKtKSE?si=Tza6_rf41XvCh2gk

Garhwali film on lodi rikhola- https://youtu.be/S6uJ0wvMX4w?si=bQMXG6IB60JU5pC_

Nausina devi mandir- https://youtu.be/BxRBDud-JGc?si=gMzcwwtcykSPAPFi