ARJAN SIṄGH THĀPĀ was the son of the Gurkhā general, Amar Siṅgh Thāpā, who had advanced his conquests up to Kāṅgṛā in the early years of the nineteenth century. Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh expelled him from the Kāṅgṛā hills, but the Gurkhās had fought so bravely that he decided to raise a Gurkhā regiment. Arjan Siṅgh recruited Gurkhās for the army of the Mahārājā who gave him the rank of a captain in that regiment.