Maha Vir Chakra

The Maha Vir Chakra is the second highest military decoration in India, after the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It replaced the British Distinguished Service Order. The medal may be awarded posthumously.

Appearance

The medal is made of standard silver and is circular in shape. Embossed on the obverse is a five pointed heraldic star with circular center-piece bearing the gilded state emblem of India in the center. The words "Mahavira Chakra" are embossed in Hindi and English on the reverse with two lotus flowers in the middle. The decoration is worn on the left chest with a half-white and half-orange riband about 3.2 cm in width, the orange being near the left shoulder.

History

More than 218 acts of bravery and selfless courage have been recognized since the inception of the medal. The most MVCs awarded in a single conflict was in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, when eleven were given to the Indian Air Force.

Bar to MVC

Provision was made for the award of a bar for a second award of the Maha Vir Chakra, the first two being awarded in 1965. To date, there are six known awards of a first bar:

S. No.	Rank	Name	Branch	Date of First Award	Date of Second Award
1	Wing Commander	Jag Mohan Nath		1 January 1962	1 September 1965
2	Major General	Rajinder Singh Sparrow		19 March 1948	6 September 1965
3	General	Arun Shridhar Vaidya		16 September 1965	5 December 1971
4	Wing Commander	Padmanabha Gautam		6 September 1965	5 December 1971
5	Colonel	Chewang Rinchen		1 July 1948	8 December 1971
6	Brigadier	Sant Singh		2 November 1965	2 January 1972

No second bars have been awarded. Award of the decoration carries with it the right to use MVC as a post-nominal abbreviation.

List of recipients

The Mahavir Chakra awardees include:

†	Indicates posthumous honour

S. No.	Rank	Name	Branch	Operation/War	Date of Award
1	Lieutenant Colonel	Dewan Ranjit Rai		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	27-Oct-1947
2	Sepoy	Dewan Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Nov-1947
3	Naik	Chand Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	22-Nov-1947
4	Subedar	Bishan Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	12-Dec-1947
5	Jemadar	Nand Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	12-Dec-1947
6	Colonel	Thakur Prithi Chand		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	15-Aug-1948
7	Civilian	Ram Chandar	Civilian	1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
8	Major	Yadunath Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
9	Lieutenant Colonel	Inder Jit Singh Butalia		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
10	Lieutenant Colonel	Khushal Chand		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
11	Brigadier	Mohammad Usman		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
12	Lieutenant Colonel	Man Mohan Khanna		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
13	Brigadier	Rajinder Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
14	Major	Annavi K Ramaswamy		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
15	Sepoy	Man Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
16	Havildar	Daya Ram		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
17	Colonel	Kishan Singh Rathor		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
18	Subedar Major	Krishna Sonawane		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
19	Major	Sardar Malkit Singh Brar		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
20	Major	Satyapal Chopra		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
21	Lieutenant Colonel	Hari Chand		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
22	Sepoy	Hari Singh		1948 Operation Polo	17-Mar-1948
23	Subedar	Gurdial Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
24	Major General	Rajinder Singh Sparrow		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
25	Brigadier	Arvind Nilkanth Jatar		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
26	Naik	Shishpal Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
27	Rifleman	Dhonkal Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
28	Lieutenant Colonel	Kaman Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
29	Jemadar	Lal Bahadur Khattri		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1952
30	Jemadar	Hardev Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
31	Naik	Nar Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
32	Naik	Raju		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
33	Subedar	Chuni Ram		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
34	Civilian Porter	Mohd Ismail	Civilian	1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
35	Sepoy	Amar Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
36	Major	Chewang Rinchen		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jul-1948
37	Naik	Pritam Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
38	Jemadar	Sampooran Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
39	Brigadier	Sher Jung Thapa		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
40	Subedar	Fateh Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
41	Lieutenant Colonel	Harbans Singh Virk		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
42	Lieutenant General	Anil Krishna Barat		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
43	Lance Naik	Rabi Lal Thapa		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
44	Lieutenant Colonel	Dharam Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
45	Major General	Anant Singh Pathania		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
46	Havildar	Ram Parsad Gurung		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
47	Jemadar	Lal Singh		1948 Operation Polo	15-Nov-1948
48	Brigadier	Kanhya Lal Atal		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
49	Captain	Dara Dinshaw Mistry		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
50	Air Commodore	Mehar Singh		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
51	Air Marshal	Minoo Merwan Engineer		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
52	Wing Commander	Sidney Basil Norohna		1947 Indo-Pakistan War	26-Jan-1950
53	Lieutenant Colonel	AG Rangaraj		1951 Operation Tomahawk	24-Mar-1951
54	Colonel	Nirod Baran Banerjee		1951 Operation Tomahawk	March-1951
55	Air Chief Marshal	Hrushikesh Moolgavkar		1961 Operation Vijay: Goa	08-Dec-1951
56	Lance Naik	Ran Bahadur Gurung		1961 UN Operation: Congo	06-Dec-1961
57	Naik	Mahabir Thapa		1962 UN Operation: Congo	16-Dec-1961
58	Wing Commander	Jag Mohan Nath		1962 Operation Leg Horn	01-Jan-1962
59	Naik	Chain Singh		1962 Operation Leg Horn	10-Oct-1962
60	Subedar	Kanshi Ram		1962 Operation Leg Horn	10-Oct-1962
61	Havildar	Sarup Singh		1962 Operation Leg Horn	19-Oct-1962
62	Lieutenant Colonel	Bhagwan Dutt Dogra		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
63	Second lieutenant	GKV Prasanna Rao		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
64	Lieutenant Colonel	Gurdial Singh		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
65	Captain	Mahabir Prasad		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
66	Major	Mahander Singh Chaudhary		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
67	Lieutenant Colonel	Sardul Singh Randhawa		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
68	Brigadier	Sher Pratap Singh Shrikent		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
69	Subedar	Sonam Stopdhan		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
70	General	Tapishwar Narain Raina		1962 Indo-China War	20-Oct-1962
71	Naib Subedar	Rabi Lal Thapa		1962 Indo-China War	21-Oct-1962
72	Colonel	Ajit Singh		1962 Indo-China War	22-Oct-1962
73	Major General	Bejoy Mohan Bhattacharjea		1962 Indo-China War	25-Oct-1962
74	Sepoy	Kewal Singh		1962 Indo-China War	26-Oct-1962
75	Havildar	Satigian Phunchok		1962 Indo-China War	27-Oct-1962
76	Jemadar	Isht Tundup		1962 Indo-China War	27-Oct-1962
77	Rifleman	Jaswant Singh Rawat		1962 Indo-China War	17-Nov-1962
78	Major	Shyamal Dev Goswami		1962 Indo-China War	18-Nov-1962
79	Lieutenant	Ved Prakash Trehan		Congo Crisis	29-Dec-1962
80	Major General	Sushil Kumar Mathur		1965 Operation Ablaze	15-Apr-1965
81	Major	Baljit Singh Randhawa		1965 Operation Ablaze	17-May-1965
82	Captain	Chander Narain Singh		1965 Operation Ablaze	05-Aug-1965
83	Major General	Swarup Singh Kalaan		1965 Operation Ablaze	05-Aug-1965
84	Lieutenant General	Ram Dharam Dass Hira		1965 Operation Ablaze	05-Aug-1965
85	Lieutenant General	Zorawar Chand Bakshi		1965 Operation Ablaze	05-Aug-1965
86	Colonel	Gurbans Singh Sangha		1965 Operation Riddle	15-Aug-1965
87	Lieutenant General	Ranjit Singh Dayal		1965 Operation Riddle	25-Aug-1965
88	Major	Bhaskar Roy		1965 Operation Riddle	01-Sep-1965
89	Wing Commander	Jag Mohan Nath		1965 Operation Riddle	01-Sep-1965
90	Air Commodore	William MacDonald Goodman		1965 Operation Riddle	01-Sep-1965
91	Subedar	Ajit Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
92	Brigadier	Desmond Hayde		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
93	Major General	Gurbaksh Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
94	Major General	Rajinder Singh Sparrow		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
95	Lieutenant General	Har Krishen Sibal		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
96	Lieutenant General	Khem Karan Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
97	Lieutenant Colonel	Narindra Nath Khanna		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
98	Wing Commander	Padmanabha Gautam		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
99	Air Marshal	Prem Pal Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	06-Sep-1965
100	Brigadier	Raghubir Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	07-Sep-1965
101	Lieutenant Colonel	Harbans Lal Mehta		1965 Operation Riddle	08-Sep-1965
102	Naib Subedar	Naubat Ram		1965 Operation Riddle	08-Sep-1965
103	Brigadier	Thomas Krishnan Theogaraj		1965 Operation Riddle	08-Sep-1965
104	Major General	Mohindar Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	09-Sep-1965
105	Brigadier	Sampuran Singh		1965 Operation Ablaze	09-Sep-1965
106	Major General	Salim Caleb		1965 Operation Riddle	10-Sep-1965
107	Major General	Madan Mohan Singh Bakshi		1965 Operation Riddle	11-Sep-1965
108	General	Arun Shridhar Vaidya		1965 Operation Riddle	16-Sep-1965
109	Major	Asa Ram Tyagi		1965 Operation Ablaze	21-Sep-1965
110	Captain	Kapil Singh Thapa		1965 Operation Riddle	21-Sep-1965
111	Brigadier	Pagadala K Nandagopal		1965 Operation Riddle	28-Sep-1965
112	Subedar	Tika Bahadur Thapa		1965 Operation Riddle	30-Sep-1965
113	Major	Bhupinder Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	11-Oct-1965
114	Naik	Darshan Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	02-Nov-1965
115	Captain	Gautam Mubayi		1965 Operation Riddle	02-Nov-1965
116	Brigadier	Sant Singh		1965 Operation Riddle	02-Nov-1965
117	Major	Harbhajan Singh		1967 Indo-China War	11-Sep-1967
118	Brigadier	Rai Singh Yadav		1967 Indo-China War	11-Sep-1967
119	Lieutenant Colonel	Mahatam Singh		1967 Indo-China War	01-Oct-1967
120	Lieutenant General	Anand Sarup		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
121	Brigadier	Arun Bhimrao Harolikar		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
122	Major General	Anthony Harold Edward Michigan		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
123	Major General	Hardev Singh Kler		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
124	Captain	Mohan Narayan Rao Samant		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
125	Brigadier	Rajkumar Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
126	Lieutenant Colonel	Surinder Kapur		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1971
127	Lance Naik	Ram Ugrah Pandey		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	24-Nov-1971
128	Sepoy	Ansuya Prasad		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	30-Nov-1971
129	Rifleman	Pati Ram Gurung		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	30-Nov-1971
130	Lieutenant Colonel	Shamsher Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Dec-1971
131	Vice Admiral	Swaraj Parkash		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Dec-1971
132	Major	Anup Singh Gahlaut		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
133	Brigadier	Basdev Singh Mankotia		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
134	Major General	Anant Vishwanath Natu		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
135	Major General	Kashmiri Lal Rattan		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
136	Major General	Prem Kumar Khanna		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
137	Lieutenant Colonel	Jaivir Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
138	Air Vice-Marshal	Vidya Bhushan Vasisht		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	03-Dec-1971
139	Group Captain	Allan Albert D’Costa		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	04-Dec-1971
140	Subedar Major	Bir Bahadur Pun		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	04-Dec-1971
141	Commodore	Kasargod Patnashetti Gopal Rao		1971 Operation Trident	04-Dec-1971
142	Brigadier	K Gowrishankar		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
143	Brigadier	Hardev Singh Kler		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	---Dec-1971
144	General	Arun Shridhar Vaidya		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
145	Commodore	Babru Bhan Yadav		1971 Operation Trident	05-Dec-1971
146	Captain	Devinder Singh Ahlawat		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
147	Lieutenant General	Krishnaswamy Gowri Shankar		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
148	Brigadier	Kuldip Singh Chandpuri		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
149	Brigadier	Narinder Singh Sandhu		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
150	Wing Commander	Padmanabha Gautam		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
151	Air Marshal	Ravinder Nath Bhardwaj		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
152	Lieutenant Colonel	Sawai Bhawani Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	05-Dec-1971
153	Lieutenant General	Joginder Singh Gharaya		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	06-Dec-1971
154	Brigadier	Kailash Prasad Pande		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	06-Dec-1971
155	Brigadier	Mohindar Lal Whig		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	06-Dec-1971
156	Sepoy	Pandurang Salunkhe		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	06-Dec-1971
157	Air Vice-Marshal	Chandan Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	07-Dec-1971
158	Lieutenant Colonel	Chittoor Venugopal		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	07-Dec-1971
159	Lieutenant General	Joginder Singh Bakshi		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	07-Dec-1971
160	Subedar Major	Mohinder Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	07-Dec-1971
161	Major	Chewang Rinchen		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	08-Dec-1971
162	Petty Officer	Chiman Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	08-Dec-1971
163	Commander	Joseph Pius Alfred Noronha		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	08-Dec-1971
164	Brigadier	Udai Singh Bhati		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	08-Dec-1971
165	Captain	Mahendra Nath Mulla		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	09-Dec-1971
166	Naik	Sugan Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	09-Dec-1971
167	Brigadier	Rattan Nath Sharma		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	10-Dec-1971
168	Lieutenant Colonel	Harish Chandra Pathak		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	11-Dec-1971
169	Major	Kulwant Singh Pannu		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	11-Dec-1971
170	Brigadier	Sukhjit Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	11-Dec-1971
171	Major	Vijay Rattan Choudhry		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	11-Dec-1971
172	Lance Naik	Drig Pal Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	13-Dec-1971
173	Captain	Pradip Kumar Gour		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	14-Dec-1971
174	Brigadier	Amarjit Singh Bal		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	15-Dec-1971
175	Havildar	Thomas Philipose		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	15-Dec-1971
176	Lieutenant Colonel	Ved Prakash Ghai		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	15-Dec-1971
177	Lieutenant General	Hanut Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	16-Dec-1971
178	Lieutenant General	Raj Mohan Vohra		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	16-Dec-1971
179	Captain	Shankar Shankhapan Walkar		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	16-Dec-1971
180	Air Vice-Marshal	Cecil Vivian Parker		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
181	Air Commodore	Harcharan Singh Manget		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
182	Air Vice-Marshal	Madhavendra Banerji		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
183	Subedar	Malkiat Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
184	Group Captain	Man Mohan Bir Singh Talwar		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
185	Air Commodore	Ramesh Sakharam Benegal		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
186	Second Lieutenant	Shamsher Singh Samra		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
187	Lance Naik	Shanghara Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	17-Dec-1971
188	Lance Havildar	Dil Bahadur Chettri		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	21-Dec-1971
189	Rear Admiral	Santosh Kumar Gupta		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	21-Dec-1971
190	Brigadier	Vijay Kumar Berry		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	28-Dec-1971
191	Air Chief Marshal	S. K. Kaul		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	30-Dec-1971
192	Subedar	Nar Bahadur Chhetri		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	31-Dec-1971
193	Colonel	Dharam Vir Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	01-Jan-1972
194	Brigadier	Sant Singh		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	02-Jan-1972
195	Major	Daljit Singh Narang		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	20-Jan-1972
196	Lieutenant General	Ved Prakash Airy		1971 Indo-Pakistan War	20-Jan-1972
197	Assistant commandant	Ram Krishna Wadhwa	BSF_Flag.svgarmy\|Indiaarmy\|IndiaNavy\|Indiaair force\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|Indiaarmy\|India Books 1 Wuthering Heights 118,587 2 Tales of Dunk and Egg 23,854 3 Project Hail Mary 12,936 4 Lord of the Flies 11,294 5 A Song of Ice and Fire 10,337 6 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 10,100 7 Nobody's Girl (memoir) 7,986 8 Hamlet 7,026 9 Frankenstein 6,782 10 Dungeon Crawler Carl 6,600 Films 1 Wuthering Heights (2026 film) 95,843 2 Marty Supreme 50,577 3 The Housemaid (2025 film) 49,096 4 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 48,316 5 Dhurandhar 45,834 6 One Battle After Another 33,762 7 Goat (2026 film) 33,528 8 XXX (2002 film) 29,905 9 Psycho Killer (film) 29,842 10 Toy Story 5 27,866 Programming Languages 1 C (programming language) 3,639 2 Python (programming language) 3,490 3 C++ 1,676 4 JavaScript 1,631 5 Rust (programming language) 1,504 6 Go (programming language) 1,434 7 R (programming language) 1,421 8 Scratch (programming language) 1,374 9 Java (programming language) 1,333 10 Assembly language 899 TV Series 1 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV series) 104,072 2 The Night Agent 73,897 3 Love Story (2026 TV series) 64,192 4 Famous Last Words (TV series) 64,170 5 America's Next Top Model 53,934 6 The Pitt 44,764 7 Heated Rivalry 36,398 8 Euphoria (American TV series) 33,909 9 How to Get to Heaven from Belfast 33,789 10 Grey's Anatomy 32,330 Video Games 1 Ecco the Dolphin (video game) 39,935 2 Wordle 26,024 3 Poppy Playtime 18,118 4 Resident Evil Requiem 15,300 5 Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen 13,433 6 Roblox 12,144 7 Minecraft 10,844 8 Grand Theft Auto V 9,575 9 Reanimal 9,006 10 Pokémon (video game series) 8,881 © 2026 OWIKI.org. Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Status: ONLINE Version: 1.04