They could trace their origins to 1768, when they were raised as the 2nd Battalion, Bombay Sepoys.

The regiment was first in action in the Mysore Campaign during the Third Anglo-Mysore War, quickly followed by the Battle of Seedaseer and the Battle of Seringapatam in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

Their next action was at Beni Boo Ali against pirates in Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf region led the East India Company to carry out a punitive expedition in 1819 to Ras al Khaimah which destroyed the pirate base and removed the threat from the Persian Gulf.

In 1848, the regiment took part in the Siege of Multan and the Battle of Gujrat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

This was a punitive expedition carried out by armed forces of the British Empire against the Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, he had imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government.