How a young regiment searched for an identity — and found a symbol that would eventually become the emblem of India
Look closely at this badge
A crown sits above a five-pointed star.
At its centre is a single word: BIHAR.
Today, the Bihar Regiment is recognised by a very different symbol — the Lions of Ashoka.
So how did a regiment that began its journey under the British Crown come to wear an ancient Indian symbol associated with the Mauryan emperor Ashoka?
The answer takes us through three very different designs, a British commanding officer, a young Indian captain, a museum in Calcutta, and an unusual appeal to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army.
And, eventually, it takes us to the emblem of the Republic of India.
A Badge of the British Indian Army
The Bihar Regiment was raised in 1941, during the Second World War. It was formed by regularising the 11th (Territorial) Battalion of the 19th Hyderabad Regiment.
Among the surviving artefacts of those early years is a Bihar Regiment cap badge preserved today by the National Army Museum in London.
It is a brass badge in the form of a crowned five-pointed star, with the word BIHAR at its centre. The Museum dates it to 1941–1947.
And there is a delightful historical connection behind the survival of this little piece of metal.
The badge forms part of the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection. Chapple was an enthusiastic collector of Indian Army insignia and eventually donated his enormous collection to the National Army Museum, creating an important resource for the study of the regiments of the British Indian Army.
The crown on the badge is a reminder of the world in which the regiment was born.
But the Bihar Regiment was about to acquire an identity of its own.
Colonel Tweed’s Design
At the time, the commanding officer of the newly formed regiment was Lieutenant Colonel J. R. H. Tweed.
According to the historical account preserved in IZZAT: Historical Records and Iconography of Indian Cavalry Regiments, Tweed was responsible for the early insignia of the regiment.
One early design incorporated the words:
“THE BIHAR REGT”
with
“ASOKA SHER SHAH”
beneath it.
But when Army Headquarters asked Tweed to create an emblem for the regiment, he came up with something quite different.
His proposed design represented two rivers of Bihar.
It was historically appropriate in one sense. Bihar is a land shaped by rivers.
But a regimental badge is not merely geography.
It is identity.
And the new design did not prove popular with either the officers or the men. Contemporary accounts say that although the design received official approval, there was considerable dissatisfaction with it.
The young regiment was still looking for a symbol that felt like Bihar.
And then a young Indian officer found one.
A Captain Walks into a Museum
Among the officers of 1 Bihar was Captain M. Habibullah Khan Khattak.
During a visit to the museum in Calcutta, Khattak came across representations of the Lion Capital of Ashoka from Sarnath.
The image caught his attention.
The lions were powerful. Dignified. Ancient.
And, importantly, Ashoka had a deep historical association with Bihar.
Khattak believed that the Lions of Ashoka would make a far more appropriate emblem for the Bihar Regiment.
It was an audacious suggestion.
The regiment was a new formation of the British Indian Army.
Its existing imagery belonged unmistakably to the military establishment of the Raj.
Khattak was proposing something very different:
an ancient Indian symbol as the identity of a modern Indian regiment.
He obtained representations of the Lion Capital and prepared his proposal.
Then came the first obstacle.
The Answer Was No
Khattak’s proposal did not receive immediate approval.
The Adjutant General rejected the idea, essentially on the grounds that a regimental badge could not simply be changed because the commanding officer had changed.
Ordinarily, that might have been the end of the matter.
But Khattak did not give up.
He took the unusual step of writing directly to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck.
He enclosed the existing and proposed designs and explained why he believed the Lions of Ashoka were more appropriate for the Bihar Regiment.
It was a remarkable appeal from a young Indian officer within a British military hierarchy.
And Auchinleck listened.
His response was characteristically restrained:
“Whilst I cannot disagree with my Adjutant General that a battalion crest does not change with the commanding officer, I agree with you that the crest recommended by you is better and I therefore reluctantly agree with you.”
The decision was made.
The Lions of Ashoka became the emblem of the Bihar Regiment.
The regiment had found its identity.
And Then Came the Lions
And here is where the story becomes especially interesting.
The National Army Museum preserves not only the earlier Bihar Regiment badge but also a post-Independence Bihar Regiment cap badge bearing the Ashoka Lions above a scroll marked “BIHAR.”
A later Bihar Regiment cap badge bearing the Ashoka Lions above the scroll marked “BIHAR.” National Army Museum, London, Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.
Placed side by side, the two badges tell a remarkable story.
1941–47
Crown → Star → BIHAR
Later Bihar Regiment
Ashoka Lions → BIHAR
The physical objects allow us to see the transformation that words alone cannot quite convey.
The crown had disappeared.
The Lions had arrived.
And the journey was only beginning.
Epilogue
When a Regimental Badge Became a State Emblem
In 1945, the story took an unexpected turn.
Sir Thomas Rutherford, the British Governor of Bihar, visited 1 Bihar at Shillong and noticed the regiment’s distinctive emblem.
He was impressed enough to ask whether the Bihar Government could adopt the symbol as its own emblem.
At the time, the Bihar Government used a very different symbol — a fish in a bowl.
Permission was granted, and in May 1945, the Bihar Government formally adopted the Lions of Ashoka emblem.
A symbol that had begun as the badge of a military regiment had now moved beyond the Army.
Then came Independence.
And in 1950, the Lion Capital of Ashoka was adopted as the official emblem of India. The National Army Museum records that the Lion Capital was adopted by India as an official emblem in 1950.
The symbolism had travelled an extraordinary distance:
British Indian Army → Bihar Regiment → Government of Bihar → Republic of India
And there is an extraordinary final twist to the story.
The young Indian officer who had championed the Lions of Ashoka for the Bihar Regiment eventually opted for Pakistan after Partition and rose to senior rank in the Pakistan Army.
The man who had helped place the Lions of Ashoka on a regimental badge would therefore watch from across the new border as that ancient symbol became the emblem of India.
History sometimes writes its most improbable endings itself.
A regimental badge had travelled from the Crown to the Lions of Ashoka.
And along the way, it became something much larger than a military insignia.
Sentinels of History
Military history is often told through battles, victories and defeats.
But sometimes history survives in something much smaller: a piece of metal pinned to a soldier’s cap.
A badge can tell us who raised a regiment, what world it belonged to, what its soldiers wanted to represent — and how that identity changed with the times.
The Bihar Regiment’s journey from the Crown to the Lions of Ashoka is one such story.
A regimental badge became a symbol of Bihar.
And a symbol of Bihar eventually became a symbol of India.
Research Desk
This story draws primarily on the historical account in Appendix 3, “The National Emblem of India: The story of its adoption and sanction for use in regimental badges,” in IZZAT: Historical Records and Iconography of Indian Cavalry Regiments 1750–2007 (2008), pp. 798–801, supplemented by surviving Bihar Regiment insignia preserved in the National Army Museum’s Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection. The Museum catalogue independently records both the 1941–1947 Bihar Regiment cap badge and the later Ashoka Lions badge.
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Note
Some images in this article are AI-generated and used for illustrative purposes. They are symbolic and do not depict real events or individuals.
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