The 12th Armoured Regiment is an armoured regiment which is part of the

Armoured Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other arm ...

of the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

. The regiment was raised as an all-

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

regiment on 1 October 1984 by Lt Col L.R. Vaid at

Kapurthala Kapurthala () is a city in Punjab state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Kapurthala District. It was the capital of the Kapurthala State, a princely state in British India. The aesthetic mix of the city with its prominent b ...

with

Vijayanta The ''Vijayanta'' () was a main battle tank built in India based on a licensed design of the Vickers Mk.1. The Vijayanta was the first indigenous tank of the Indian Army. The prototype was completed in 1963 and the tank entered service on Decem ...

tanks.

History

The regiment was subsequently converted to

T-90 The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank developed from, and designed to replace the T-72. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard p ...

tanks. The regiment has served in Operation Trident, Operation Rakshak I and Operation Rakshak II. The regiment has adopted the nickname ''Barasinghas'' (meaning 12-point stag), and representing the

Barasingha The barasingha (''Rucervus duvaucelii''), sometimes barasinghe, also known as the swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occu ...

, or swamp deer (''Rucervus duvaucelii''), a deer species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to India. This was inspired by the statue of a barasingha stag in full cry in the palace of the Maharaja of

. Each of the tines of the antlers is said to symbolise one of the 12 tank troops of the regiment. The Regiment had the honour of participating in the annual

Republic Day parade The Delhi Republic Day parade is the largest and most important of the parades marking the Republic Day celebrations in India. The parade takes place every year on 26 January at Kartavya Path, New Delhi. It is the main attraction of India's R ...

in 2004 and 2005. The Regiment was presented the ‘ President's Standards’ at Babina on 19 October 2010 by the then President of India, Mrs

Prathiba Patil Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934), also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the women in government, first woman to become the pre ...

. The regiment was awarded GOC-in-C, South Western Command ''Unit Citation'' in 2018.

Regimental Insignia

The cap badge of the unit has crossed lances and pennons, with the numeral 12 at the crossing, with the regimental motto inscribed on a scroll below in

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

script. The cap badge is in silver plate for officers and nickel plate for other ranks. The motto of the regiment is "Shauryamev Jeevnam" which means 'life with valour'.

References

Armoured and cavalry regiments of the Indian Army from 1947 Military units and formations established in 1984 {{India-mil-stub