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 EuUrs of |n5ia 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SIR WILLIAM WILSON HUNTER, K.C.S.I., CLE. 
 
 M.A. (Oxford) : LL.D. (Cambridge) 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 -SEASON..- 
 
 RANjlT SINGH
 
 HENRY FROWDE, M.A. 
 
 PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 LONDON, EDINBURGH 
 
 NEW YORK
 
 ^ 
 
 
 k
 
 RULERS OF INDIA 
 
 TRanjit Sincjb 
 
 AISD THE SIKH BARRIER BETWEEN OUR 
 GROWING EMPIRE AND CENTRAL ASIA 
 
 By sir LEPEL GRIFFIN, K.C.S.I. 
 
 Fifth Thousand 
 
 OXFORD 
 AT THE CLARENDON PRESS: 1905
 
 OXFORD 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
 
 BY HORACE HART, M.A. 
 PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
 
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 In writing this sketch of the life and times of 
 Maharaja Ranjit Singh I have made large and fre- 
 quent use of my former works on the cognate sub- 
 jects ; The Punjab Chiefs, The Rdjds of the Punjab, 
 and The Law of Inheritance to Sikh Chief ships. On 
 these books several years of my official life, and 
 several subsequent years of such leisure as belongs 
 to Indian officials, were employed. They contain in 
 full detail the histories of all the great Sikh families 
 in the Punjab proper and the Cis-Sutlej territories, 
 of the men who were the courtiers, the advisers, and 
 generals of the great Maharajd,. There was no 
 noble family in the province with which I was not 
 personally acquainted, and from their records and 
 information, as much as from official manuscripts 
 and documents, the history of the time was com- 
 piled. It is thus obvious that I am compelled to 
 plagiarize from myself. To Dr. Ernest Trumpp's 
 work on the Adi Granth, I am indebted for some 
 portion of the information contained in the Chapter 
 on The Sikh Theocracy, and to Mr. Denzil Ibbetson's 
 admirable Census Report of 1 88 1, for certain statistics 
 and deductions therefrom. 
 
 LEPEL GRIFFIN. 
 
 
 WATUMULL
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGES 
 
 I. Intkoductoey 9-18 
 
 II. The Sikhs 19 38 
 
 III. The Sikh Theocracy 39 69 
 
 IV. The State of the Punjab at Eanjit Singh's 
 
 Birth ........ 70 87 
 
 "V. The Maharaja 88-110 
 
 VI. The Court of Eanjit Singh .... 111-131 
 
 VII. The Army and Administration of the Mahar.\ja 132-152 
 
 VIII. His Early Conquests 153-166 
 
 IX. The English and the Cis-Sutlej Territory . 167-181 
 
 X. Later Conquests 182-219 
 
 Index ......... 221-223 
 
 NOTE 
 
 The orthography of proper names follows the system adopted by 
 the Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of India. That 
 system, while adhering to the popular spelling of very well-known 
 places, such as Punjab, Poona, Deccan, etc., employs in all other 
 cases the vowels with the following uniform sounds : — 
 
 a, as in woman : a, as in father : i, as in km : i, as in intrigue : 
 0, as in cold : t«, as in b«ll : u. as in r?de.
 
 Note to p. 25. 
 
 The administrative divisions have lately been enlarged and 
 include more districts : but it is convenient to maintain the 
 arrangement which prevailed during the twenty years subsequent 
 to annexation. 
 
 Addition to Note, p. 138. 
 
 They had however been obviously utilized by Major Carmichael 
 Smyth in his account of the reigning family of Lahore, although 
 without any acknowledgment. This may have been due to pru- 
 dential regard for Colonel Gardner's safety and position.
 
 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Introductory 
 
 There is, perhaps, no more notable and picturesque 
 figure among the chiefs who rose to power on the 
 ruins of the Mughal Empire than Maharaja Ranjit 
 Singh, the founder of the short-lived Sikh kingdom 
 of Lahore. In the stormy days at the beginning of 
 the century, amid a fierce conflict of races and creeds, 
 he found his opportunity, and seizing it with energy, 
 promptitude, and genius, he welded the turbulent and 
 warlike sectaries who followed the teaching of Govind 
 Singh into a homogeneous nation. Under his strong 
 and remorseless rule, the Sikhs, trained and disciplined 
 on a military system more perfect than had before or 
 than has been since employed in the native States of 
 India, were rapidly converted into a formidable fight- 
 ing machine, which only broke in pieces when the 
 folly and weakness of the great Maharaja's successors 
 persuaded them to use it against the English. 
 
 The Sikh monarchy was Napoleonic in the sudden- 
 ness of its rise, the brilliancy of its success, and the 
 completeness of its overthrow. Like his contemporary,
 
 TO RAN J It SINGH 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, the Maharaja of Lahore failed to 
 found a lasting dynasty on the ruins of the petty 
 States, Rajput, Muhammadan, and Sikh, which he in 
 turn attacked and destroyed. His victories had no 
 permanent result ; his possessions, like a faggot of 
 sticks, bound together during his lifetime by the force 
 of his imperious will, fell asunder the moment the 
 restraining band was severed. His throne and the 
 tradition of his power and greatness passed into the 
 hands of incompetent successors, who allowed the ship 
 of the State to drift on to the rocks in irremediable 
 wreck. It is very easy to stretch historical parallels 
 too far, but the likeness between the character and 
 fortunes of Napoleon and Ranjit Singh is not only 
 striking in its superficial resemblance, but interesting 
 as showing how similar conditions work out the same 
 results in Asia as in Europe ; among Frenchmen 
 intoxicated with the first triumphant revolt against 
 feudal tyranny, and Sikhs fresh from a revolt as 
 momentous against the crushing spiritual despotism 
 of Brahmanism. The revolutionaries of the West and 
 the East found their masters in Napoleon and Ranjit 
 Singh, men of military genius, absolutely selfish, 
 pitiless and immoral ; but the power they seized they 
 were unable to transmit to others. It is true that 
 Napoleonism had in our day a late revival, but it 
 did no more than emphasize the fact that adventurers 
 do not easily found dynasties. The popular obedi- 
 ence is willingly given to the great captain, the leader 
 of men, who seems in the dazzled eyes of the people
 
 INTRODUCTORY II 
 
 to embody the spirit and glory of the country. But 
 the glamour is personal to the man and does not 
 transfigure his heirs and successors. Then, the throne 
 founded by genius is seen to be a poor, tawdry thing, 
 on the steps of which stand a crowd of greedy, 
 unscrupulous parasites, who have no thought but of 
 enriching themselves at the expense of the people. 
 Discipline and obedience give place to conspiracy and 
 revolt ; enthusiasm is succeeded by contempt ; till, 
 ere long, the mushroom dynasty is extinguished 
 amidst the laughter of those who applauded its birth. 
 As it was with Napoleon and the Second Empire^ so 
 was it with Ranjit Singh and his son Kharak Singh 
 and the bastards who quarrelled over the inheritance 
 of the Lion of the Punjab. 
 
 Far different is the fate of august and ancient 
 dynasties whose hereditary dignities have descended 
 in an unbroken line through many generations. 
 These fall, it is true, by the vices and recklessness of 
 their representatives, as history has often shown. 
 But how many chances are in their favour, and how 
 criminal is the weakness and how abject the folly 
 which alienate the easily retained affection of a 
 nation ! Whatever may be said of the divine right of 
 kings, it would seem that the stars in their courses 
 fight on their behalf; that something of divinity 
 hedges them about ; they are the object of a respect 
 and love which is worth more to them than armies 
 in battle array ; the immemorial sentiment of man- 
 kind demanding a master, the weakness of humanity
 
 12 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 asking to be ruled, are the very foundations of their 
 throne. A single mistake or a pungent epigram may 
 cost the heir of an adventurer his crown ; but the 
 hereditary ruler can securely sit, like the Olympian 
 gods, above the thunder. His mistakes are speedily 
 forgotten, his follies are forgiven unto seventy times 
 seven, and, if he falls, it is less from the waywardness 
 of fortune than from his own determination to com- 
 mit political suicide. 
 
 If this be the case in Europe, far more is it so in 
 India, whose conservatism is intense, and where pre- 
 scription and tradition and heredity outweigh, in 
 popular estimation, any personal virtues of a ruler. 
 In a country in which robbery and murder were 
 honoured as hereditary occupations, and where dancing 
 girl^ place their fragile virtue under the special pro- 
 tection of a deity, it will readily be understood that 
 the splendid attributes of kingship gather around 
 them a reverence and authority which are all but 
 impregnable. Indian history, filled as it is with royal 
 catastrophes and assassination and changing dynasties, 
 does not, if read aright, conflict with the popular belief 
 in the divine right of kings even to rule badly. 
 India has had stormy experiences, and its rich pro- 
 vinces have been for many hundred years the coveted 
 prize of successive hordes of invaders from the North- 
 West, who have swept over the continent leaving 
 ruin behind them, while the many hostile races and 
 nations which make up its population have always 
 been engaged in internecine strife. But the heart of
 
 I NT ROD UCTOR Y 13 
 
 the people of any particular State has almost in- 
 variably remained loyal to the hereditary local 
 dynasty, and in good and evil fortune they have been 
 willing to sacrifice themselves in its defence. Those 
 principalities which have been strong enough to 
 resist attack like Udaipur, Jaipur, and Jodhpur, or 
 which have been happily placed far from the path of 
 invaders, or hidden in the distant recesses of the 
 Himalayas, such as Chamba, Mandi, and Suket, have 
 existed under the rule of families so ancient that their 
 genealogies are lost in prehistoric mist, and they 
 proudly claim their ancestry in the Sun. Princes 
 good and bad, beneficent and tyrannical, have ruled 
 these States ; but the people have accepted them, one 
 and all, without a thought of revolt or resistance ; 
 and these same families will probably be still securely 
 reigning over their ancient principalities when the 
 conquest of India by England will be taught as 
 ancient history in the Board Schools of a distant 
 future. Many of these chiefships are as poor and 
 weak as they are obscure and insignificant ; a ruined 
 castle, a few square miles of mountain and valley, a 
 few hundred rupees of revenue, and an army the 
 soldiers of which may be counted on the fingers of 
 one hand. It is not material force which has given 
 them a perennial stream of vitality. They have 
 struck their roots deep, as trees grow in the rain and 
 the soft air ; they have, as it were, become one with 
 nature, a part of the divine and established order 
 of things ; and the simple Rajput peasant no more
 
 T4 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 questions their right to rule than he rebels against 
 the sunshine which ripens his harvest or the storm 
 which blasts it. 
 
 There are many principalities to-day in India, 
 some of them of the first rank, whose history would 
 seem, on superficial examination, to refute the idea 
 that for the military adventurer the path of success is 
 a difficult one. The great State of Haidarabad was 
 founded by a rebellious viceroy of the Delhi emperors ; 
 the Maratha States of Baroda, Gwalior, and Indore, 
 and the Muhammadan chiefship of Bhopal were 
 formed, in the last century, by successful generals of 
 obscure origin ; and the Maharajas of Kashmir were 
 created by the British Government in 1 846. But it is 
 most improbable that the ruling families in these 
 States would have retained the power which was 
 seized by their founders, had it not been for the cir- 
 cumstance that a strange and unknown volcanic force 
 made its way through the soft and yielding strata of 
 Indian society and crystallised" them into their present 
 form. This force was the rising power of the English, 
 which, through the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- 
 turies, ever increased in intensity. The victories of 
 the British Government were won by gallantry or 
 diplomacy, by force or by fraud ; but its advance, 
 though sometimes checked, was never long delayed. 
 All the warlike races in India threw themselves by 
 turns on this new and terrible enemy and were 
 shattered and repulsed ; till, at last, it stood revealed 
 as the sole inheritor of the Empire of the Mughals and
 
 I NT ROD UCTOR Y 3 5 
 
 commanded peace throughout the continent, a peace 
 which, with the single exception of the Mutiny, has 
 remained unbroken for forty-five years. The Rajas 
 and Nawabs who happened to be in possession when the 
 English enforced their supremacy were confirmed in 
 their rights. 
 
 Beati ;possidentes. Whatever may have been the 
 method of acquisition, it was not for the English to 
 question the divine right of conquest, or to deny that 
 the sword was a valid title to inheritance. Thus it 
 has happened that the Native Feudatory States of 
 the present day can be roughly divided into two 
 widely different classes, the fii'st, respectable by 
 antiquity and strong in the traditional loyalty of the 
 people, the second, newer than the English Govern- 
 ment itself and their origin the same — the violent 
 disintegration of the Muhammadan Empire. Should 
 the day ever come, as come it may, for time and 
 change wait for all, when the English, weary of the 
 burthen of rule, retire from India, the old Hindu 
 principalities will survive the ensuing storm, as the 
 mud-built villages with their mango groves are seen 
 in times of flood high above the inundated country. 
 But the new families whose birth was in war and 
 plunder, who are alien in blood and race and creed 
 to the people over whom they too often oppressively 
 rule, and whose roots are not deep in the soil, will 
 have to take their chance and fight again for their 
 lands, as did the Sindhias and Holkars and Gaikwars 
 from whom they claim.
 
 i6 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 The downfall of the Sikh monarchy was chiefly 
 due to the fact that the authority of Ranjit Singh 
 was personal and drew no part of its strength from 
 the inherent respect of the people for an ancient 
 house. Sprung from the people and the outcome of 
 the democratic principles of Sikhism, the one chance 
 of the survival of his dynasty was that his successors 
 should have inherited his character and ability. But 
 this was not the case. His only son Kharak Singh 
 was a hopeless imbecile ; his grandson, Nao Nihal 
 Singh, a youth of promise, died a violent death, 
 and a period of anarchy set in which the men who 
 succeeded had no power to subdue or control. 
 There were several who claimed the throne as sons 
 of the great Maharaja, but the secrets of Ranjit 
 Singh's zenana were the common property of the 
 Lahore bazaars, and there was not one whose 
 legitimacy the Sikhs accepted as proved. Then came 
 the war with the English, in which the Sikhs, badly 
 led, displayed the utmost gallantry in vain ; ending 
 in the occupation of the Punjab by a foreign army, 
 dismemberment, and finally annexation. As Ranjit 
 Singh had often prophesied, the red line marking the 
 limit of British possessions moved on from the Sutlej 
 to the Beas, thence to the Indus and the Afghan 
 mountains, and all that remained to remind the world 
 of the monarchy were an exiled prince at tne Court 
 of St. James and the ill-omened Koh-i-Nur in the 
 regalia of the British Queen. 
 
 No man can be more strong than destiny. Al-
 
 INTRO D UCTOR V 1 7 
 
 though the hands of the English were clean in the 
 matter of the Sikh wars and in the annexation of the 
 Punjab, which were forced unwillingly upon them by 
 the fierce and uncontrolled passions of the Sikh chiefs 
 and people, yet there can be little doubt that, even if 
 the contest with the English had been delayed, and 
 the successors of Ranjit Singh had clung, as he did, to 
 the British alliance, the trial of strength which was 
 to determine the question of supremacy in Northern 
 India must have occurred sooner or later. There were 
 too many occasions for dispute and discord on the 
 Sutlej and in Afghanistan ; the temper of the Sikhs 
 was so hot and imperious ; the prestige of England 
 was so essential to maintain, that it was impossible 
 that these two military powers could have for long 
 existed side by side in peace. It was fortunate both 
 for the reputation of England and for her future re- 
 lations with the Sikh people that the provocation and 
 the attack came from Lahore and not from Calcutta. 
 In the splendid record of the English conquest of 
 India, illumined by so many chivalrous and noble 
 actions, so much temperance in the hour of victory 
 and so much generosity to the vanquished, there are 
 still some episodes which, however pardonable in 
 rough times, cannot be regarded by the impartial 
 historian with approval. But the annexation of the 
 Punjab is not one of these. It was accepted by the 
 whole Sikh nation as just, and their acknowledged 
 bravery in both campaigns and the loss they inflicted 
 on their opponents, took the sting from defeat and 
 
 B
 
 1 8 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 left them the most loyal subjects the Queen has in the 
 East. Their devotion and their gallantry have been 
 proved many times, and if they continue to be 
 governed as -wisely and sympatheticaDy as in the 
 early years succeeding annexation, they will remain, 
 what they now are, the sword and shield of British 
 India.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Sikhs 
 
 The Sikh people, mostly of Jat descent, are roughly 
 divided into two great classes, named from the districts 
 they inhabit, the Manjha and the Malwa, and the 
 origin and history of these are altogether different. 
 The Manjha is the name of the southern portion of 
 the Bari Doab (the word doab signifying a tract of 
 country between two rivers, here the Beas and the 
 Ravi), in the neighbourhood of the cities of Lahore and 
 Amritsar ; and the Manjha Sikhs, by a convenient 
 enlargement of the tenns, may be held to include all 
 those who at the time of the final dissolution of the 
 Muhammadan power, were resident to the north of 
 the river Sutlej. 
 
 Malwa is the country immediately to the south of 
 the same river ^, stretching towards Delhi and Bikaner, 
 and the Sikhs who inhabit this district, being the 
 original settlers and not mere invaders or immigrants 
 from the Manjha, are known as the Malwa Sikhs. Their 
 acknowledged head is the great PhuJkian house, of 
 
 * Not to be confused with Malwa of the Deccan ; the rich country 
 north of the Narbada, of which Indore is the centre. 
 
 B 2
 
 30 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 which the Maharajd of Patiala is the chief representa- 
 tive, with the closely allied families of Nabha, Jind 
 Bhadour, Malod, Badriikan, Jiundan, Dialpiira Land- 
 gharia, Rampur and Kot Dhuna, with the more 
 distantly connected houses of Faridkot and Kythal. 
 
 The ancestors of the Malwa Sikhs were simple Hindu 
 peasants, mostly of Rajput extraction, who about the 
 middle of the sixteenth century emigrated from the 
 neighbourhood of Jaisalmer, and settled as peaceful 
 subjects of the Muhammadan rulers of Delhi. In the 
 course of a hundred years, as the central authority 
 grew weak, the power of the Jat settlers increased. 
 They were mdlguzdrs or payers of revenue into the 
 imperial treasury, and made no efforts to shake off a 
 yoke which was in no way galling ; but they acquired 
 large grants of land, founded villages, and became 
 wealthy and of some social importance. But about 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Mdlwa 
 chiefs abandoned Hinduism for the new faith which 
 was then being preached by Govind, the last and the 
 most influential of the Sikh Gurus. The hundred 
 years that followed was a time of anarchy. The great 
 Muhammadan Empire was, from inherent weakness, 
 falling asunder, and the Sikhs day by day gained 
 power and territory at the expense of their nominal 
 masters, who persecuted the new faith but. were un- 
 able to destroy it. Sikhism was then, as Muhamma- 
 danism in the seventh and eighth centuries, and 
 Wahabeeism in the present, a religion of the sword, 
 and the new converts appeared as ready to fight with
 
 THE SIKHS 21 
 
 each other as with the common enemy against whom 
 alone they ever united. The Sikhs did not avowedly 
 abandon the Hindu codes of law which they had 
 from time immemorial obeyed, and neither Nanak 
 nor Govind laid down new rules by which their 
 followers should be bound in matters of marriage and 
 inheritance, but they felt a contempt for Hinduism 
 with its restrictions and prejudices, and refused to 
 follow its precepts whenever they were opposed to 
 their immediate interests. Society was in a state of 
 demoralisation. ( Each man did what was right in his 
 own eyes, and whatever he could do with impunity 
 appeared to him right. \ Widows and orphans had no 
 helper against the powerful neighbours who divided 
 their lands amongst them at their pleasure ; and the 
 only means by which the smaller chiefs could escape 
 absorption was by attaching themselves as feudal 
 retainers or vassals to the great houses, who were 
 able and wilhng to protect them in return for service 
 in the field. Thus arose the great Cis-Sutlej chiefs, 
 whose obscure origin and unprincipled acquisitions 
 were ennobled by titles extorted from the Emperor 
 of Delhi, who was still the nominal ruler of the 
 Malwa, and was too weak and timid to refuse to 
 honour the mg'n whom he knew to be the most 
 formidable enemies of his power. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century the fate 
 which the Cis-Sutlej chiefs had so often brought upon 
 others seemed likely to become their own, Kanjit 
 Singh, Maharaja of Lahore, having reduced to sub-
 
 22 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 mission the chiefs in the neighbourhood of his capital, 
 determined to conquer the whole country to the south 
 of the Sutlej, as far as the river Jumna, which, he 
 believed, he might safely accomplish, without coming 
 into collision with the English power. The condition 
 of the Cis-Sutlej States eminently favoured the 
 success of his design. Jealous of each other, and 
 with no common bond of union now that the Mu- 
 hammadan power had finally collapsed, they would, 
 one by one, have fallen victims to the energy and 
 determination of Ranjit Singh, whose ambition knew 
 no limits and scruples, and to whom the very names 
 of honour and pity were unknown. The Malwa chiefs 
 saw their danger in time, and at the very moment 
 when their annihilation seemed inevitable, threw them- 
 selves on the mercy of the British Government, which, 
 after much hesitation, accepted the position and de- 
 clared the Cis-Sutlej territory under its protection. 
 
 Then followed a period of unbroken security, during 
 which the strong power which prevented any attack 
 from without insisted upon tranquillity within, and 
 maintained the smallest as well as the largest States 
 in the possession of the dignity and power which they 
 had possessed when first they claimed its protection. 
 It was during this period that the rules of succession 
 became, to a certain degree, uniform and consistent, 
 although it will be understood that these are but 
 comparative terms when applied to laws that pre- 
 vailed in a society so exceptionally constituted, 
 which had learned so lately the advantages of order,
 
 THE SIKHS 23 
 
 and which had been accustomed for so long to con- 
 sider license synonymous with liberty. 
 
 The effect of the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46 was 
 almost precisely similar to that caused by the cam- 
 paign of 1866 in Northern Germany. The British 
 Government, which had for years deplored a state of 
 things which it was unable without breaking faith 
 with the chiefs to rectify, which had seen the 
 people oppressed and ground down by petty tyrants 
 who possessed absolute power in their respective 
 States, seized the opportunity which the folly and 
 ingratitude of the chiefs had given to inaugurate a 
 new order of things. The most important chiefs 
 alone were permitted to retain their power, while 
 that of the smaller ones was taken altogether away : 
 they were declared mere Jagirddrs of the British 
 Government, and the whole of their territories was 
 placed under the control of British Officers and 
 British Courts of Law. 
 
 It will thus appear that the Malwa chiefs have 
 passed through several distinct periods of develop- 
 ment. First, the mere cultivators of the lands on 
 which, as immigrants, they had settled ; then, the 
 owners of those same lands. Next came the period of 
 conflict with the Muhammadan power, during which 
 the chiefships grew up gradually and naturally, 
 followed by the period of tranquillity which was 
 the consequence of their claiming British protection. 
 The last period saw the majority of them stripped 
 of the power which they had infamously abused, and
 
 24 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 which it was a misfortune to the country that they 
 had ever possessed. 
 
 There is no gradual development such as this to 
 be traced in the history of the Sikh chiefs of the 
 Manjha. Scarcely more than a hundred years ago 
 the majority of them were cultivators of the soil, 
 enjoying none of the consideration which the Cis-Sutlej 
 chiefs had, for long, received from the Court of Delhi. 
 With the last invasions of Ahmad Shah and the 
 Afghans, they rose to sudden power, and every man 
 who had energy and courage gathered a band of 
 marauders about him and plundered the country, 
 seizing and holding whatever lands he could. Many 
 of these Sikhs crossed the Sutlej and ravaged the 
 country to the very gates of Delhi, while some of 
 them seized large tracts of land Cis-Sutlej, which 
 they continued to hold against all comers by the 
 sword alone, a tenure altogether different from that 
 of their Malwa neighbours, and more resembling that 
 of a Norman baron settled in the Welsh marches 
 seven hundred years ago. 
 
 The ascendency of the Sikhs in the Punjab Trans- 
 Sutlej was but brief. Maharaja Ranjit Singh sub- 
 dued them one by one ; Ramgarhias, Bhangis, Kan- 
 heyas ; all the great houses fell in turn, and so com- 
 pletely that the chiefships became merely nominal, 
 dependent on the will of the sovereign of Lahore. 
 
 The districts which contain the largest Sikh popu- 
 lation — Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, 
 Amritsar, Lahore, Gurdaspur, Gujranwala, Sialkot,
 
 THE SIKHS 25 
 
 and Firozpur — are the most populous in the Punjab. 
 For administrative purposes, the district is the 
 political, fiscal and judicial unit, while several dis- 
 tricts, ordinarily three in number, are grouped to 
 form the more important administrative area known 
 as a Division. The four Punjab divisions of Ambala, 
 Jalandhar, Amritsar, and Lahore are those which in- 
 clude all the Sikh districts above given, and there 
 is no reason to believe that there has been any large 
 migration of Sikhs to or from other districts since the 
 days of Ranji't Singh ^. It may be that the presence of 
 a great native court temporarily attracted to Lahore 
 and Amritsar an exceptional number of Sikhs from a 
 distance ; while the absolute peace and security now 
 enjoj^ed may have encouraged colonists to setttle in 
 localities and among a Muhammadan population 
 where they would not have ventured fifty years ago 
 to show their face. But, on the other hand, the 
 Sikh population is mostly agricultural, and has little 
 inclination to leave its hereditary holdings except 
 for temporary service in the army. Thus it is that 
 the distribution of the Sikh population will be found 
 to be much the same at present as under Maharaja 
 Ranjit Singh. What the total number of the Sikh 
 population was in his day, and what proportion it bore 
 to the general population of the whole Punjab, it is 
 impossible to say, for no accurate statistics are avail- 
 able before the census of 1855. Other enumerations 
 were made in 1868, 1881, and 1891, the figures of the 
 latest not being yet available for purposes of com- 
 
 > See p. 8.
 
 26 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 parison ^. It will be interesting to ascertain whether 
 the Sikhs are, as some believe and as the 1881 
 census seemed to indicate, diminishing in numbers, 
 or whether the fluctuation was only accidental and 
 temporary. There are obviously many considerations 
 which influence the question. The Sikh represents a 
 creed, not a race. Of the Hindu, of whatever caste, 
 it may be said, as of the poet, nascitur non fit. His 
 birth status is unalterable. But with the Sikh the 
 exact reverse is the case. Eorn of a Sikh father, he 
 is not himself counted of the faith until, as a grown 
 boy, he has been initiated and received the baptism of 
 the pdhul at the Akal Bungah or some equally 
 sacred place. Thus the supply of candidates for 
 baptism is apt to rise or fall with the popular estimate 
 of the advantages or disadvantages of joining the 
 communion. During the days of Ranjit Singh, when 
 spiritual fervour and national pride worked in com- 
 mon, the numbers who joined the dominant faith 
 were proportionally great. At the time of the first 
 British census of 1855 the outside influences were 
 depressing. The Khalsa had fallen to rise no more, 
 and its members were uncertain of the temper of their 
 new masters, who might be expected to be angry with 
 those who had forced upon them the burthen and 
 expense of two wars. As a consequence the Sikhs 
 lay low and did not bring their sons to baptism. It 
 
 ^ The Census Report of the Punjab for 1881 was compiled by Mr. 
 Denzil Ibbetson of the Civil Sei'vice. It is a work of the highest 
 ability and interest, and a treasure-house of valuable facts regarding 
 the social history and development of the province.
 
 THE SIKHS 27 
 
 was as well to wait and watch events, and the pdhul 
 can be taken at any period of life. 
 
 When the census of 1868 was taken, there had been 
 a great and welcome change. The Mutiny had taken 
 place, and the Sikhs had cordially joined their con- 
 querors in reestablishing order in Hindustan. Their 
 share had been an especially grateful and glorious one. 
 Perhaps a more fortunate occurrence than the Mutiny 
 of 1857 never occurred in India. It swept the 
 Indian sky clear of many clouds. It disbanded a lazy, 
 pampered army, which, though in its hundred years 
 of life it had done splendid service, had become im- 
 possible; it replaced an unprogressive, selfish and com- 
 mercial system of administration by one liberal and 
 enlightened ; and it attached the Sikh people closely 
 to their rulers and made them, what they are to-day, 
 the surest support of the Government. Lastly, it 
 taught India and the world that the English possessed a 
 courage and national spirit which made light of disaster; 
 which never counted whether the odds against them 
 were two or ten to one ; and which marched confident 
 to victory, although the conditions of success appeared 
 all but hopeless. After the Mutiny the Sikhs found 
 themselves no longer regarded with suspicion by their 
 new masters, but treated in a spirit of confidence and 
 good fellowship. The name of Sikh became what it 
 was in the days of the great Maharaja, a title of 
 honour opening to its possessor the door of military 
 service. Thus the creed received a new impulse, and 
 many sons of Sikhs, whose baptism had been deferred,
 
 28 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 received the pdhul, while new candidates from among 
 the Jats and lower caste Hindus joined the faith. 
 
 Since those days of enthusiasm a natural reaction 
 has set in, and comparing the census of 1881 with 
 that of 1868 there appears to be a falling off in al- 
 most all the central districts. This is in part due 
 to inconsistency in the returns, and an erroneous 
 inclusion of the Nanaki Sikhs, who do not adopt the 
 surname of Singh, with the followers of the tenth 
 Guru Govind. But the chief reason is found in the 
 strong attractive force of Hinduism, which, in days of 
 peace, when martial instincts have less influence, re- 
 tains its hold of the people. Its ivy-like vitality, 
 enfolding and strangling everything which it has 
 once grasped, has been fatal to almost all creeds 
 which, like Sikhism and Buddhism, both heterodox 
 forms of Hinduism, have put themselves in competi- 
 tion with it. As the Church of Eome in the West 
 so is Hinduism in the East. When it has ebbed like 
 the tide and its enemies have believed in a victory, it 
 has returned on the flood in all its former strength. 
 Hinduism has been ever hostile to Sikhism, for the 
 latter faith attacked it in its most vital principle of 
 caste, without which the whole Brahmanical system 
 falls to the ground. The influence of Hinduism on 
 Sikhism is doubly felt, both in preventing the 
 children of Sikh fathers from taking the pdhul, and by 
 indirectly withdrawing professed Sikhs from the faith. 
 The performance of a few expiatory rites, the pay- 
 ment of a certain sum of money to the Brahmans, the
 
 THE SIKHS 29 
 
 disuse of the militant surname, and the Sikh reverts, 
 as a Jat peasant, into the ordinary Hindu com- 
 munity. Even where there has been no abandon- 
 ment of the Sikh name and creed the tendency is 
 always, in less essential matters, to revert to the 
 practice of the ancient religion, and it is here, as in all 
 countries, that feminine influence is paramount. 
 
 To women, altogether uneducated, the abstract 
 faith of Sikhism, whether the philosophical theism of 
 Nanak or the political teaching of Govind Singh, is 
 far less attractive than the Hindu polytheism, which 
 is easy to be understood and which gives to their 
 religious exercises a colour and life that the dry 
 recital of obscure passages of the Granth cannot im- 
 part. Joining in the Hindu worship, the women have 
 their share in the outdoor life of their sisters in the 
 village. The morning visit to the temple, or to the 
 stones stained with red ochre where the protecting 
 deity of the community resides ; the numerous festivals 
 of the Hindu pantheon, with the noise and excitement 
 and fine clothes ; these are the only diversions of 
 native women, whose lives are ordinarily sad and 
 monotonous, and whose only dissipations are religious. 
 To choose between Hinduism and Sikhism was for 
 them as if English women were asked to choose 
 between a ball-room and a Quaker meeting. More- 
 over, the influence of the priest, whether a Catholic or 
 a Brahman, weighs more heavily on the woman than 
 on the man. She is dependent on the priest for a 
 good deal of her happiness in this world and for
 
 30 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 her safety in the next. The Brahman and the sooth- 
 sayer promise her children, that no strange new wife 
 shall take away her husband's love, and that the 
 proper observance of Hindu ritual will secure her 
 good fortune hereafter. The men are not exempt 
 from the influence of the same sentiments. The old 
 tradition of Brahmanism is too strong for the new 
 reforming creed to resist. The result is that the old 
 order returns ; the Sikh, although he will not smoke 
 or cut his hair or beard, pays reverence to Brahmans, 
 and visits the temples and shrines of the old faith, 
 and observes the superstitious practices of other 
 Hindus. In the matter of caste the Sikh retains a 
 large part of his freedom, and will drink or eat food 
 from the vessels of a Christian or a Muhammadan 
 should necessity require it. At no time has he been 
 accustomed to associate with what the Hindus account 
 as unclean castes ; and the sweepers or Mazbi Sikhs, 
 who are very numerous (for Sikhism was naturally 
 very attractive to the lowest castes), have been always 
 excluded from the Sikh shrines, and the British 
 Government has been compelled to form them into 
 separate regiments, when they have fought quite as 
 gallantly as their better-born co-rehgionists. 
 
 Even in the palmiest days of the Khalsa it is 
 astonishing how small a proportion of the Punjab 
 population was of the Sikh profession. The fierce 
 fanaticism of the earlier years of the century was 
 succeeded by the unequalled military organisation of 
 the Maharaja, and these together enabled a people
 
 THE SIKHS 31 
 
 who were never numerically more than a sect of 
 Hinduism to overrun the whole Punjab and Kashmir, 
 to beat back the Afghans to the mountains, and to 
 found a powerful kingdom in which they were out- 
 numbered by Hindus and Muhammadans by ten to 
 one. 
 
 The population of the Punjab, exclusive of Kash- 
 mir, was, by the census of 1881, 22,712,120, of which 
 11,662,434 were Muhammadans, 9,232,295 Hindus, 
 and 1,716,114 Sikhs. Taking British territory only, 
 there is to each 10.000 of the general population of 
 the Punjab a proportion of 595 Sikhs, being ^^ per 
 10,000 less than in the census of 1868, when the pro- 
 portion was 650. The districts in which Sikhs are 
 proportionally most numerous are Firozpur, where 
 they make 2595 out of each 10,000 of the population ; 
 Amritsar, where they make 2422 ; and Ludhiana, 
 where th'ey make 2055. Although the Sikhs may 
 have been proportionally more numerous in the time 
 of Eanjit, yet it is probable that they were more con- 
 centrated in the central districts, and in the most 
 prosperous days of the Khalsa they never exceeded a 
 total of two millions ^. 
 
 The Native States absorb more than a third of the 
 total Sikh population of the Punjab, Patiala natur- 
 ally taking the fu'st place, the proportion to the 
 general population being 2781 per 10,000. The 
 distribution of the Sikhs according to caste is a 
 
 * A telegram from India of the 7th Feb. 1892 gives the Sikh popu- 
 lation by the census of 1891 as 1,907,836 for the whole continent.
 
 32 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 highly interesting question which, until the last 
 census, was never worked out with any exactness. 
 It now appears that of looo Sikhs in the several 
 administrative divisions of the province, an average 
 of 699 belong to the agricultural castes, Jats, Kajputs, 
 Sainis, and Kambohs, the proportion being highest in 
 the districts south of the Sutlej. Of the mercantile 
 castes, Aroras, Banyas, and Khattris are 47 per 1000. 
 Of the artisan castes, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, 
 carpenters, goldsmiths, barbers, and the like, 134 per 
 1000, and the menial and outcaste groups include 95. 
 The artisan Sikhs are distributed very evenly in all 
 districts, but the mercantile Sikhs are almost ex- 
 clusively found in the Mussulman districts, in some of 
 which, the Rawal Pindi Division for example, they 
 form a majority of the Sikh population. The religious 
 castes, Brahmans and Fakirs, are hai'dly represented 
 at all, only 4 per 1000 of the Punjab Sikhs belonging 
 to the priestly class. 
 
 The backbone of the Sikh people is the great Jat 
 caste which, divided and subdivided into numerous 
 clans and tribes, is by far the most important of all 
 the Punjab races. The origin of the Jats is shrouded 
 in much uncertainty, and has been the subject of long 
 discussion. Some distinguished writers have found 
 for them a Getic origin, but the traditions of the 
 Punjab Jats, in almost all cases, refer to a Rajput 
 descent and emigration to the Punjab from Central 
 India. Even the Sindhu and Waraich Jats, who claim 
 a Trans-Indus origin, are by no means unanimous,
 
 THE SIKHS Q,'3, 
 
 and portions of both tribes refer to Rajputana as 
 their ancient home. And in no instance is there a 
 record of any tribe emigration from the west of the 
 Indus, the founders of both Sindhus and Waraichs 
 being spoken of as solitary emigrants. There seems 
 nothing in the language of the Punjab Jats to favour 
 the theory of Getic descent. My own researches into 
 the subject, which at one time were extensive, led me 
 to the belief, which is shared by Mr. Ibbetson, the 
 author of the Census Report, that the Jats and Rajputs 
 are generally derived from a common stock, and that 
 the present distinction is rather social than ethnic. The 
 Jats outnumber the Rajputs by three to one, and from 
 every point of view, their military worth, then- 
 excellence as agriculturists, their industry, honesty, 
 and tractability, they are the most important and 
 valuable of the Punjab races. The Jats are thoroughly 
 independent in character, and assert personal and 
 individual freedom as against communal or tribal 
 control more strongly than any other people. But 
 although ready to fight on occasion, they are not of a 
 cruel or vindictive disposition, and make good citizens 
 in times of peace and form the solid, tax-paying com- 
 munity, as they are the most successful, patient, and 
 enduring cultivators. They hold a social place below 
 the Brahman, the Rajput, and the Khattri, but they 
 themselves assert an equality with the second and a 
 superiority over the third of these castes, a claim 
 which their historical record and present importance 
 justify. They are seen at their best in the Sikh 
 

 
 34 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 districts about the rivers Beas and Sutlej. In the 
 southern and frontier districts they show altogether 
 different characteristics, and have, in many cases, a 
 different and non-Rajput origin. 
 
 The virtues of the Jats are thus identical with 
 those of the Sikhs who have come out of this caste, 
 while the new creed has added a more ardent military 
 spirit which is the principal tradition of the creed and 
 which it should be the earnest desire of the British 
 Government to maintain. As the English power in 
 India becomes more consolidated and resistance to its 
 authority grows each year less common, it must result 
 that the fighting races will have less opportunity for 
 gratifying their martial instincts. The soldier every- 
 where gives way to the husbandman; the sword is 
 beaten into a ploughshare, and we are disposed to 
 boast of the universal Pax Britannica as if all ad- 
 ministrative triumphs were bounded by and included 
 in peace. But for an Empire like India, of 288 
 millions, which has many dangers from without and 
 enemies ever ready to pierce the weak places in her 
 armour, war is necessary to healthy life. The sword 
 must be always sharp and must not be left too long 
 rusting in the scabbard. If the rulers of India be 
 wise, they will in every way encourage and stimu- 
 late the military spirit of the Sikhs and employ them 
 on active service on every opportunity, whether the 
 campaign be in Europe, Asia, or Africa. The all 
 important thing is to give them the highest and most 
 varied military training against every class of foe,
 
 THE SIKHS ^^ 
 
 European as well as Asiatic. The numbers of the 
 home army of England are so small, and its organisa- 
 tion so faulty and inelastic, that India must obviously 
 be prepared to defend herself against attack from 
 without, and for this defence the fighting population 
 of the Punjab, and notably the Sikhs, will be sufficient 
 if reserves are formed in time and if the military 
 spirit of the people is not allowed to fall asleep. 
 
 It is no use to expect from the Sikh more than he 
 can give. His value to the British Government was 
 shown in the Mutiny, when the Rajas of the Trans- 
 and Cis-Sutlej, Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kapuiihala, 
 on the very fii'st alarm and without waiting to discover 
 whether the omens were auspicious or hostile, placed 
 themselves at the head of their troops and marched to 
 Delhi to fight against the enemies of the English 
 Government. Their gallant example was followed by 
 the Sikh people throughout the province, and India 
 was recovered for the Queen as much by the loyalty 
 and devotion of her Punjab subjects as by the bayonets 
 of her English soldiers. But the Sikh is not of much 
 value in the office or the municipal committee, as will 
 be hereafter shown when the practice of Ranjit Singh 
 in the choice of his ministers is described. In school 
 and college he is outstripped by students of almost 
 all other races. But academic success is not, in the 
 East, a test of fitness for high office. The smooth- 
 tongued, supple Bengali would probably rank first 
 in such a competition^ although he has neither the 
 physical courage to fight nor the moral courage to 
 
 C 2
 
 36 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 govern. And those who would undervalue the Jat 
 Sikh as a useful citizen of the Empire, because his 
 hereditary instincts and training disincline him to 
 learning, would make a great mistake. The Sikh is a 
 fighting man, and his fine qualities are best shown in 
 the army, which is his natural profession. Hardy, 
 brave, and of intelligence too slow to understand when 
 he is beaten, obedient to discipline, devotedly attached 
 to his officers, and careless of the caste prohibitions 
 which render so many Hindu troops difficult to con- 
 trol and to feed on active service, he is unsurpassed 
 as a soldier in the East. There are many warlike 
 races, subjects of the Queen in India, and of these the 
 Sikhs indisputably take the first place as thoroughly 
 reliable, useful soldiers. The Gurkhas are equally 
 brave and enthusiastic in action, but they unfortunately 
 are few in number, and do not for the most part in- 
 habit British territory. They are mostly Nepalis, 
 and conditions sometimes arise when it is very diffi- 
 cult to obtain high-class and sufficient recruits. 
 
 The Rajputs are excellent soldiers, though they 
 have not the solidity of the Sikh. But the high-class 
 Rajput is difficult to procure, and those who come into 
 our service are mostly the half-bred Dogras of the 
 hills, upon whom the Rajputs of the pure blood from 
 Central India look down. Nor will these splendid 
 men join our army until some system be devised of 
 giving them officers of their own race. The Punjabi 
 Muhammadans, Ghakkars, Awans, Tiwanas are gallant 
 soldiers ; so are the Afghan clansmen from the North-
 
 THE SIKHS 37 
 
 West frontier. But they are apt to get sadly home- 
 sick if they are long on active service, and it is 
 impossible to persuade many of them to leave the 
 frontier. The children of the mountains are too free 
 and independent to bear with any patience the re- 
 straints of civilization. But the Sikh is always the 
 same ; in peace, in war, in barracks or in the field, ever 
 genial, good-tempered and uncomplaining : a fair 
 horseman, a stubborn infantry soldier, as steady under 
 fire as he is eager for a charge. The Sikhs, alone of 
 our native troops, can be taken in large numbers and 
 for long periods on foreign service, on the condition 
 that they be well paid, for they have as keen a know- 
 ledge of the value of money, and as gxeat a love of 
 saving as the Scotch. They have served in Egypt, 
 Abyssinia, Afghanistan, and China with great dis- 
 tinction ; they have voluntarily taken service in 
 the police and in local corps in Burma, a country 
 which is especially distasteful to ordinary natives of 
 India, and there is a local corps of Sikh police in 
 Hong-Kong, where they are regarded with much con- 
 fidence and respect. A Sikh escort is now with Mr. 
 H. Johnston, the British Agent-General, fighting Arab 
 slavers on Lake Nyassa. It is difficult to realize that 
 the dignified, sober, and orderly men who now fill 
 our regiments are of the same stock as the savage 
 freebooters whose name, a hundred years ago, was the 
 terror of Northern India. But the change has been 
 wrought by strong and kindly government and by 
 strict military discipline under sympathetic officers
 
 38 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 whom the troops ■ love and respect. I had many 
 opportunities of observing the conduct of the Sikh 
 troops during the latter portion of the campaign in 
 Afghanistan, and no praise could be too high for their 
 patience under privation and their admirable and 
 orderly behaviour towards the Afghans, who it must 
 be remembered were their bitter and ancient enemies. 
 What may be their value against European troops 
 is a question which the future alone can authorita- 
 tively decide ; but I would venture to express my 
 conviction, which is shared by many distinguished 
 officers of the Indian army, that the Sikhs, infantry 
 a,nd light cavalry, are, when well and sufficiently led 
 by English officers, equal to any troops in the world, 
 and superior to any with whom they are likely to 
 €ome in contact.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Sikh Theockacy 
 
 Ma.hAra.ja. Ranjit Singh was so completely a pro- 
 duet of the Sikh theocracy, and so embodied the spirit 
 of the Khalsa, that no account of his character and 
 career would be complete without a description of the 
 religious system which had so powerful an effect upon 
 the Jat cultivators of the Punjab in the eighteenth 
 and the first half of the nineteenth century. The 
 subject is too extensive and complicated to be treated 
 here in a detailed or even a satisfactory fashion, and 
 I would invite those who desire to be fully informed 
 of the nature of Sikh dogmata and ethics to study the 
 translation of the Adi Granth or the Holy Scriptures 
 of the Sikhs, translated from the original Gurmukhi, 
 with introductory essays, by Dr. Ernest Trumpp, 
 Regius Professor of Oriental languages at the Uni- 
 versity of Munich, who, in 1870, was entrusted by 
 the Secretary of State with this important work. I 
 happened to be Chief Secretary to Government at 
 Lahore when Dr. Trumpp was engaged on this duty, 
 of which the extreme difficulty was only equalled by 
 his zeal, industry and learning. He found that the 
 Sikh priests and Granthis (readers and expounders of
 
 40 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 the scriptures) were marvellously ignorant of the 
 principles of their own religion; that they had no 
 knowledge- of the old Giirmukhi forms or idioms. 
 Their explanations of doubtful passages were only 
 traditional, and conflicted with other parts of the 
 sacred volume, and it was only after procuring some 
 scarce commentaries, very imperfect and almost as 
 obscure as the original text, that Dr. Trumpp managed 
 to accomplish the work. Before he could do so he 
 had to compile a dictionary and a grammar of the 
 Granth, containing all Giirmukhi forms and obsolete 
 words. The difficulties in the way of the completion 
 of his task seemed almost insuperable, and at last the 
 learned Professor, in spite of my urgent remonstrances, 
 fled from Lahore to Germany, where, after seven 
 years' labour, he produced a translation which, al- 
 though it will never attract the general reader, is still 
 a monument of industry and learning. Previous ac- 
 counts of the religion of the Sikhs, such as those 
 contained in the works of Captain Joseph Cunning- 
 ham and Mr. H. H. Wilson in his sketch of the 
 religious sects of the Hindus, are slight and defective, 
 for the reason that the writers were not acquainted 
 with the Sikh scriptures or the commentaries upon 
 them ; nor is it easy even now to follow the thin 
 thread of doctrine running through the involved, 
 incoherent and shallow pages of the Adi Granth. 
 These are filled with inconsistent trivialities and vain 
 repetitions, although there are some portions, especially 
 the Sloks of the Bhagats Kabir and Farld, which are
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 41 
 
 added as an appendix to the Granth itself, which con- 
 tain passages of great picturesqueness and beauty, and 
 which, although not poetry in the technical sense of 
 the word, still have many of its attributes. They re- 
 semble strongly, and compare favourably with, the 
 writings of Walt Whitman, the American poet. 
 
 The Adi Granth derives its chief authority from 
 Baba Nanak, the founder of the religious system of the 
 Sikhs, who wrote large portions of it about the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century. It was collected in 
 its present state by Arjun, the fifth of the Gurus or Sikh 
 prophets, who added to the writings of Nanak those 
 of his successors and of other older mystical Hindu 
 authors. More important than the Adi Granth, as de- 
 termining the military and political constitution of later 
 Sikhdom, were the writings of the tenth and greatest of 
 the Sikh Gurus, Govind Singh, who, in 1696, composed 
 a voluminous work, partly by his own hand and partly 
 by the aid of Hindi poets attached to him, teaching, 
 in archaic and exceedingly difficult Hindi, the tenets 
 of the new faith which he preached. Guru Govind 
 Singh did not however change the esoteric doctrine of 
 Nanak in any essential particulars, although his teach- 
 ing and practice were more distinctly pantheistic. He 
 was himself a worshipper of the goddess Diirga and 
 allowed adoration of the inferior divinities of the 
 Hindu Pantheon, although he preferentially advocated 
 the worship of the one Supreme God. 
 
 The limits of space do not permit of telling in any 
 detail the story of the lives of the ten Sikh Gurus,
 
 4Z RANJIT SINGH 
 
 and what is necessary to say regarding them must be 
 compressed into a few pages. 
 
 Nanak, the founder of the religion, whose most 
 authentic Janajn Sdkhi or biography was unearthed 
 by Dr. Trumpp in the library of the India Office, to 
 which it had been presented by the illustrious H. T. 
 Colebrooke, was born in the year 1469, at a village 
 called Talwandi ^ on the bank of the Ravi, near the 
 city of Lahore. He was one of the Khattri or trading 
 class, and filled the respectable village office of pat- 
 wdri or accountant. Regarding his childhood and 
 youth, the miraculous stories which congeal around 
 the founder of every successful religion are told. He 
 appears to have lived a commonplace life, to have 
 married and had children. Going one day to bathe 
 in the river, he was taken up by angels and carried 
 to the Divine Presence where he received the gift of 
 prophecy and orders to preach the doctrine of the true 
 God on earth. In obedience to this divine mission, 
 Nanak abandoned wife and family, and with one 
 follower, named Mardana, he assumed the garb of an 
 ascetic and roamed about the world preaching the 
 new faith. The Sikh biographies give accounts of 
 his wanderings to the north, south, east and west, and 
 to a romantic country, called Gorak Hatari, a kind 
 of Indian Utopia ; but during these journeys, filled 
 with incredible marvels, no events of much importance 
 are recorded except the interview of the prophet with 
 the Emperor Eabar, who is described as receiving 
 ' Afterwards called Nankhana in honour of the Guru.
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 43 
 
 Nanak with kindness and courtesy, which is likely 
 enough from all we know of that genial and illus- 
 trious monarch. Towards the close of his life Nanak 
 returned to his family at Kartarpur in Jalandhar, where 
 he died in 1538. His life had been uneventful, much 
 resembling that of any other Hindu fakir, and the 
 influence he left behind him was enshrined in his 
 writings which were subsequently collected. He 
 named as his successor, passing over his two sons, his 
 disciple Angad. The word Sikhs, literally learners, 
 disciples, was given to his followers by Nanak, and as 
 the creed spread, became the descriptive title of the 
 whole people; but it must be remembered that the 
 term Sikh is a religious and not a racial designation, 
 and belongs only to those of the faith of the Khalsa. 
 
 Arjun, the fifth Guru, collected the writings of 
 Nanak, together with extracts from the works of 
 popular saints and poets, into one volume, recorded, 
 not in Sanskrit, like the Vedas and Puranas of 
 Hinduism, and consequently not understood by the 
 people, but in the Punjabi dialect, which was the 
 popular tongue. Not that the whole of the Adi 
 Granth is written in the same style. Its idiom varies 
 according to the time and place of the contributions. 
 Its value as a treasury of old Hindi dialects is immense. 
 The idiom of Baba Nanak and his successors is not 
 the pure Punjabi as then spoken, which is found in 
 the Janam Sdkhi of Nanak, but contains a large 
 admixture of old Hindi forms and words, the intention 
 being to raise the dialect into something more stately
 
 44 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 than the colloquial idiom, while, at the same time, 
 retaining the power of being popularly understood. 
 The writings of Guru Govind Singh are composed in 
 almost pure Hindi, and as such are at the present 
 day unintelligible to the Punjabi-speaking Sikhs. 
 
 The most important chapter of the Adi Granth is 
 the first, known as Japu or Japji, which was written 
 by Nanak himself and contains an exposition of 
 doctrine, while, as a literary effort, it is superior to 
 anything in the volume, except, perhaps, some of the 
 mystical writings of Kabir or Shekh Farid to which 
 reference has already been made. The reputation of 
 the Bhagat Kabir is widely spread in India, and there 
 is still a monastery of his disciples, the Kabir-panthis, 
 at Benares, where his writings are expounded ^. The 
 earliest composers whose writings are included in the 
 Granth are two Marathi poets. Nam Deva and Tri- 
 lokan, whose peculiar dialects, akin to the modern 
 Marathi in many of its forms, prove their birthplace 
 to have been in the Deccan. 
 
 Govind Singh, the tenth and last of the Gurus, was 
 
 fifteen years old when his father was tortured and 
 
 killed as a martyr by the bigoted Emperor Aurang- 
 
 zeb. The boy fled to the hills where he remained for 
 
 some years completing his education, in which he 
 
 was superior to his predecessors, knowing Persian, 
 
 Hindi and a little Sanskrit, which he at times 
 
 attempted to introduce into his later compositions. 
 
 ^ Guru Govind, Sdkhi 98, warmly praised Kabir as a devotee, near 
 to God and superior to kings, whose memory would remain fresh 
 through the ages.
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 45 
 
 It does not appear that this remarkable man, who, 
 in intelligence, capacity, and fixed purpose was in- 
 finitely the superior of all his predecessors, undertook 
 what he considered to be the mission of his life, in the 
 formation of the scattered Sikh people into a formid- 
 able confederacy and the destruction of the Muham- 
 madan power in the Punjab, until he was well 
 advanced in manhood ; certainly over thirty years of 
 age. Till then he devoted himself to study and a 
 preparation for his self-imposed duties. At the same 
 time, not neglecting the accomplishments of a well- 
 born youth of his age, he became a keen sports- 
 man and skilled in all feats of arms. When he 
 emerged from seclusion he was at once accepted by 
 the Sikh people as their natural and hereditary 
 leader, and they were quite ready to follow him to 
 avenge the murder of his father on their Muham- 
 madan oppressors. Before commencing his work he 
 desired to obtain the blessing of the Hindu goddess 
 Durga, whose shrine on the hill of Naina Devi was 
 near his home at Anandpur. After the practice 
 of the necessary preliminary austerities, numerous and 
 long continued, and the presentation of milk, clarified 
 butter and grain, the goddess appeared and demanded 
 a human sacrifice as the price of her protection ; and 
 the priests told him that the most acceptable offering 
 would be the head of one of his four sons. The 
 mothers of the children naturally refused to surrender 
 them to such a fate, and Govind Singh, then turned to 
 his friends, of whom it is recorded that five offered
 
 46 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 themselves as the sacrifice, and one, whose name is 
 not given, was accepted and slain before the shrine. 
 There is little doubt, in spite of discrepancies in 
 the story, that this human sacrifice was offered up. 
 In old days this bloodthirsty goddess, under various 
 forms and names, demanded frequent human victims, 
 and it is only since the British Government has 
 declined to allow the alliance of religion with murder, 
 that goats instead of men are slain on her altars. 
 The goddess approved the offering, and the subsequent 
 career of Govind Singh and his violent death seemed 
 foreshadowed in its bloody inauguration. The Guru 
 now assembled his followers, and, assured of the 
 sacred character of his mission and its success, began 
 boldly to preach the new doctrine which was to 
 supersede that of Nanak as a political creed and unite 
 the Sikhs, in the manner which Arjun and Har Govind 
 had suggested, into a military nation. The old Sikh 
 faith had a baptismal rite which had fallen into dis- 
 use. This was resuscitated by Govind Singh as the 
 necessary initiatory ceremony of Sikhism. The pdhul 
 he administered to all his disciples present. The pro- 
 cedure was by the dissolution of sugar-candy in pure 
 water which was stirred by a dagger. Over this cer- 
 tain verses from the Japji of the Granth were recited 
 and the neophyte drank a portion, the rest being 
 sprinkled on his head and body, while the baptizer 
 and the disciple shouted ' Wah ! Guruji ha Khdlsa ' 
 (Victory to the Khalsa of the Guru) ^. 
 
 * The name of the new Sikh Commonwealth, the Khdlsa, is,
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 47 
 
 After Guru Govind had baptized his five disciples, 
 a number significant in the Khalsa as forming a 
 special congregation in which the Guru promised 
 that his spirit should be ever present, he caused them 
 to administer to him the same initiatory rite, taking the 
 title of Singh, which was enjoined to be added as a 
 baptismal name to all new professors of the faith. 
 In the present day the Singhs are the only Sikhs who 
 are accepted as such in popular estimatioUj and the 
 Nanaki Sikhs are considered to have lapsed into the 
 body of the Hindu population. 
 
 Govind Singh's next step was to adapt the Sikh 
 scriptures to his own views, and with this object he 
 endeavoured to induce the guardians of the Adi 
 Oranth at the sacred city of Kartarpur to permit 
 him to make additions to it ; but the Sodhis, the 
 Sikh priests who had the guardianship of the sacred 
 volume and who were the descendants of Guru Eam 
 Das, refused to accept the authority of the new leader. 
 They, with their great establishments at Anandpur and 
 Kartarpur, had already become the Brahmans of the 
 Sikh creed, with the unbounded spiritual pride of their 
 prototypes, and when they understood that the object 
 of Govind Singh was to preach the democratic doctrine 
 of equality in a far more liberal fashion than it had 
 been promulgated by Nanak himself, and that the 
 lowest classes and even outcasts were to be admitted 
 equally with Brahmans to the higher privileges of the 
 
 according to Dr. Trumpp and contrary to the received derivation, 
 derived from the Arabic Khdisah, signifying one's ov^n property, 
 hence the Guru's or God's own special property.
 
 48 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 Khalsa, they were in immediate revolt. They de- 
 nounced Govind Singh as an impostor and refused to 
 allow him to add his heterodox teaching to the sacred 
 volume in their charge. They told him that if he 
 were a true Guru he should compile scriptures for 
 himself, which he at once proceeded to do, the work 
 being completed in the year 1696. The object of 
 Govind in this compilation was not to overturn or 
 indeed to modify in any important particulars the 
 doctrine bequeathed by Nanak, but to produce a work 
 which should have on his excitable and fanatical 
 followers the effect which he desired in launching 
 them as a militant power against the Muhammadans, 
 and recovering the Punjab for the new congregation 
 of the faithful. In this he was partly successful, and 
 at the head of a continually increasing band of de- 
 voted followers, he commenced his life-work of pro- 
 pagating the true faith ^. His first quarrels were with 
 the Rajput chiefs of the Kangra Hills, who assembled 
 their forces to attack him at Anandpur. In one of 
 the fights which ensued near the village of Chamkour, 
 now a place of pilgrimage, his two eldest sons, Ajit 
 Singh and Johar Singh, were killed. The imperial 
 troops had come to the assistance of the Rajputs, and 
 drove the Guru fi'om Anandpur and Machiw^ra suc- 
 cessively, his two remaining sons being captured. 
 
 ^ A valued friend of mine, Sii-dar Attar Singh of Bhadour, the 
 head of one of the first Cis-Sutlej families, has translated and pub- 
 lished an interesting collection of Sakhis, describing the wander- 
 ings and adventures of Guru Tegh Bahadur and his son Guru 
 Govind Singh.
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 49 
 
 The children were taken to Sirhind, and there, by order 
 of the Emperor Aurangzeb, were buried alive. The Guru 
 continued his flight into the deserts south of the 
 Sutlej ^, and after many adventures settled at Talwandi 
 in Patiala territory, which he declared should be as 
 sacred to the Sikhs as Benares to the Hindus. This 
 halting place is known as Damdama {da77i, breath), 
 and is a great Sikh centre, the best Gurmukhi writers 
 being found here. Another town, Bhattinda, in the 
 same State, is also known as a Damdama of the Guru. 
 Here he expelled a demon which was wont to ravage 
 the town, and remained in the neighbourhood for some 
 time, his fame and influence continually increasing^. 
 
 An interesting account of his life at this place is 
 given in the Sakhis, which, with certain deductions 
 for religious extravagance, may be accepted as a fairly 
 accurate picture of the Sikh prophet holding court 
 like a monarch, and attaching followers by his liber- 
 ality and munificence. Nor were the credentials of 
 the true prophet, by the working of miracles, absent. 
 The Sakhis are full of the wonder-working power 
 of the Guru. We find his blessing giving children 
 to childless parents ^, expelling demons *, banishing 
 disease from a village^, making brackish water sweet ^, 
 punishing treachery by inflicting a deadly and here- 
 ditary disease '^, making a dead tree to bear leaves and 
 blossoms ^. On one occasion the Hindu and Muhamma- 
 
 ^ Sakhi, 53, 54, 55, of the wanderings of Guru Govind Singh. 
 » Sakhi, 86. ^ Sakhi, 8. * Sakhi, 86. 16. 
 
 « Sakhi, 5. « Sakhi, a. ^ Sakhi, 50. » Sakhi, 10 
 
 D
 
 5o RANJIt SINGH 
 
 dan thieves who attempted to steal his horses -were 
 smitten with blindness ^, and on another he made a 
 surveyor, who had been sent to appraise the crops of 
 one of the faithful, so forgetful of his arithmetic that 
 he acknowledged the Guru's authority and became a 
 Sikh 2. 
 
 The magnificence of Govind Singh was not main- 
 tained without a great deal of oppression, and the 
 Masands, or deputies of the Guru, took the place of 
 the imperial tax-gatherers, and were so grasping and 
 extortionate, and caused so much discontent and re- 
 sistance, that he was compelled to abolish them alto- 
 gether. He then returned to his home in Anandpur, 
 passing Sirhind, which he with difficulty dissuaded 
 his people from destroying in revenge for the cruel 
 murder of his children. But he cursed the town, and 
 ordered his followers whenever they passed it on 
 pilgrimage to or from the Ganges to throw two bricks 
 taken from its walls into the Sutlej or the Jumna, 
 otherwise their bathing in the holy river would not 
 profit them. This is still an invariable practice with 
 the Sikhs who travel through the town on foot, 
 though the railway has much reduced the number of 
 such pilgrims. I have sometimes wandered through 
 the ruins and mounds of rubbish which make up a 
 great part of Sirhind, and have thought it a place 
 which seemed truly accursed. 
 
 Some time after this, Govind Singh, for reasons 
 which are obscure and which were certainly opposed 
 ' Sakhi, 22. Sakhi, 37.
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 51 
 
 to the tenour of his life and teaching, took service 
 under the Emperor Bahadur Shah ; or perhaps it was 
 no more than placing his services with a body of Sikh 
 horse at the disposal of the Mussulman prince to divert 
 suspicion from his generally rebellious conduct and 
 secure a little respite from persecution. In any case 
 he travelled, at the head of his followers, to the Deccan, 
 where he was assassinated by the relatives of an Afghan, 
 whom he had slain in a fit of anger. He died in 
 1708, at the age of forty-eight, at Naderh, on the river 
 Godavari. This place is known by the Sikhs as 
 Abchalnagar'^, where a shrine to his memory is 
 annually visited by many Sikhs. 
 
 To understand the teaching of Govind a few words 
 on the principles of the creed as expounded by Nanak 
 are necessary. First it may be observed that al- 
 though the Sikhs revere the Adi Granth as a direct 
 revelation in the same degree as Christians and 
 Muhammadans regard their respective scriptures, yet 
 in the writings of Nanak and his immediate sue- 
 cessors, as collected by Guru Arjun, there is nothing 
 which is of so novel and original a character as to 
 deserve more attention than had been given by Punjabi 
 Hindus to the teaching of holy men like Bhagat 
 Kabir, from whom it would seem that Nanak de- 
 rived the greater part of his inspiration. The dogmas 
 of the Adi Granth differ in little from the esoteric 
 teaching of Hinduism in its more ancient and purer 
 forms. Nanak was himself a mystic, and during a 
 * Abclialnagar, i. e. the town of the departure. 
 D 2
 
 52 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 great part of his life an ascetic. His idea was not 
 political like that of Govind Singh, but ethical, and 
 he desired to raise Hinduism from the degraded forms 
 of superstition and polytheism into which it had 
 fallen and to preach, in addition to a nobler doctrine, 
 a purer morality. He was a reformer in the best and 
 truest sense of the word, and Sikhism, as expounded 
 by him, in spite of the obscurity and extravagance 
 which characterise the Adi Granth, is a religion pos- 
 sessing a noble ideal and a practical and social meaning 
 which place it very high among the philosophical 
 religions of the civilized world. 
 
 There is much in the character and teaching of 
 Nanak which reminds the student of the life and 
 teaching of the great Buddhist reformer, whose de- 
 votion to the cause of humanity and the general 
 enlightenment of whose doctrine have had so vast an 
 influence on a quarter of the human race. 
 
 The unity of the Supreme Being was the main point 
 in the doctrine taught by Guru Nanak ; that He is 
 One and Alone, as he affirms in the following couplet : 
 ' Whom shall I call the second % There is none. In 
 all there is that one Spotless One ' (the Deity). The 
 argument between Mussulmans and Hindus on this 
 particular point is also acknowledged where he says : 
 ' Know that there are two ways (i. e. of Hindus and 
 Muhammadans), but only one Lord.' The Deity, under 
 whatever known name, as Brahm, Hari, Ram, or 
 Govind, is incomprehensible, invisible, uncreated, 
 eternal, and alone possessing any real existence. He
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY ^-^^ 
 
 is the root of all things ; the Primary Cause from 
 which all human beings and all Nature have been 
 evolved ; from whom everything has been expanded. 
 In the same way as Darwin has taught the evolution 
 of species, so did the doctrine of Nanak proclaim, not 
 the creation of Nature by the All-Powerful out of 
 nothing, but the infinite division of His own essence 
 into a plurality of forms. This doctrine is Pantheism, 
 which in the Qranth co-exists with an exalted Theism, 
 sometimes one having greater prominence and some- 
 times the other, but on the whole it may be said that 
 the teaching of the Granth is that the whole universe 
 of animate and inanimate things is an emanation from 
 the Divine Essence, who alone exists and without 
 whom is no real or separate existence. Nature apart 
 from God is a shadow, a delusion, and a mirage. At 
 page 66^ of the Granth it is said — 
 
 ' I. The One is difiused in the many and all-filling : 
 wherever I see, there is He. 
 
 ' By the beautiful mirage of the Maya the world is 
 deluded ; only some rare one comprehends the truth. 
 
 'All is Govind, all is Govind, without Govind there 
 is no other. As on one string there are seven thou- 
 sand beads so is that Lord lengthwise and crosswise. 
 
 ' 2. A wave of water, froth and bubble, do not be- 
 come separate from the water. 
 
 'This world is the sport of the Supreme Brahm 
 playing about, He does not become another.' 
 
 The more theistic view of the Granth represents the 
 Supreme Being as altogether distinct from the crea-
 
 54 RANyiT SINGH 
 
 tures he has made and which are an emanation from 
 himself, unaffected by the universal Maya or delusion 
 and resting uncontaminated by it, as the lotus flower 
 remains distinct from the pool on which it rests. 
 Polytheism is discountenanced and discredited in 
 many parts in the Granth, when it takes the realistic 
 form of idolatry ; but Nanak, in his teaching, did not 
 directly denounce the polytheistic theory, and allowed 
 the acceptance of the myriads of Hindu popular 
 deities, all immeasurably inferior to the one Supreme 
 Being, from whom, with all other things, they pro- 
 ceed. Nanak taught that the great object of human 
 exertion was to avoid transmigration, which is the 
 principal object of apprehension by Hindus and 
 Sikhs alike. 
 
 The Hindu doctrine is that all earthly actions, good 
 or evil, carry with them their own reward or punish- 
 ment. Those who have been altogether virtuous are 
 received into heaven where they remain until the 
 merit has worked out. Then the saint returns to 
 earth and is reborn as a man under the most favour- 
 able conditions, through which he passes in innumer- 
 able transmigrations, his future being again determined 
 by his conduct. If his life has been vicious or worldly, 
 he is thrown into purgatory from which, after long 
 periods of punishment, he is reborn in animal forms, 
 the most degraded of which are reserved for the 
 greatest moral turpitude. After countless transmi- 
 grations he again becomes a man and is able by 
 virtuous conduct gradually to work off his former
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY c^^ 
 
 transgressions. Nor, according to the teaching of the 
 Gvanth, has man much choice in his personal conduct, 
 for his destiny is absolutely fixed for him and is 
 indeed emblazoned on his forehead. Nothing is more 
 clear than the denial of freewill ; and further, however 
 virtuous the tendencies of a human soul may be, it 
 is for ever surrounded by Maya, or delusion, which 
 cannot but lead him astray. Virtue, passion, and 
 ignorance are the three qualities, one of which is 
 predominant in each human soul, and as the one or 
 the other is supreme, so is the character of a man in 
 this world and his fortune in the next determined. 
 
 Escape from transmigration, the ever-present terror 
 was thus the powerful influence which was to con- 
 solidate the new creed and attract disciples. As the 
 keys of heaven and hell were entrusted to Saint Peter, 
 and their presumed possession has given to the Church 
 of Rome its immense vitality and influence over the 
 minds of men, so the power of remission claimed by 
 the Guru in the matter of transmigration has given 
 to Sikhism the greater part of its attractiveness. In 
 the deserts of the Firozpur district, where Govind 
 Singh fought a battle with the imperial troops and 
 was defeated, he promised this exemption from trans- 
 migration (mukt) to all his followers who should 
 fall in action ; and in memory of this deliverance a 
 town was founded and a tank built, which is still a 
 favourite place of pilgrimage under the name of 
 Muktsar. 
 
 This exemption from the common lot and the final
 
 S6 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 resolution of the spirit of man into the Divine 
 Essence is acquired by calling upon the name of the 
 Supreme Being, Hari, by those who have been properly 
 received into the faith, whom the Guru has himself 
 accepted as elect and to whom he has confided the 
 secret of correctly invoking the Sacred Name. This 
 initiation on the part of the Guru was however, in the 
 true spirit of Calvinism, confined to the elect, those 
 on whose forehead Destiny had written the decree of 
 their emancipation. Such fatalistic doctrine was not 
 dwelt upon, for the obvious reason that the power of 
 the Guru would diminish in proportion as it was 
 understood that he could not relieve his followers 
 from the burden of destiny, and it was generally 
 taught that by religious exercises and by patient 
 reception of the teaching of the Guru, the heart would 
 be inclined to righteousness and a choice would thus 
 be allowed which might counteract the fatalistic 
 decree which was supreme over human will. If the 
 doctrine was in itself contradictory, it was no more so 
 than the conflict in Calvinism between predestination 
 and freewill, and merely represented the human yearn- 
 ing to escape from the inevitable necessity with which 
 the whole constitution of the universe appeared to 
 surround and overwhelm mankind. 
 
 The most important doctrine of the Granth is that 
 of reverence and obedience to the Guru and respect to 
 and worship of the saints. The practices of ablution, 
 of giving alms, of abstinence from animal food are 
 enjoined, while, as ethical teaching, evil-speaking,
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 57 
 
 unchastity, anger, covetousness, selfishness, and want 
 of faith are especially denounced. Nanak also taught 
 that the position of the householder, as head of the 
 family and engaged in the business of the world, was 
 most honourable, and strongly discouraged the idea 
 that any special virtue was to be gained by the 
 ascetic life. That true religion consisted, not in out- 
 ward ceremonial and the acceptance of the religious 
 profession, but in the state of the heart, and that it 
 was possible to meditate with advantage on spiritual 
 things while engaged in the ordinary business of life 
 without retreating to the wilderness or the seclusion 
 of a monastery. It is true that several ascetic bodies 
 of Sikhs, of whom the Udasis and the Akalis are the 
 most numerous, subsequently broke away from the 
 teaching of Nanak, but these have always been con- 
 sidered more or less unorthodox, and the Sikh religion, 
 as taught both by Nanak and Govind Singh, was 
 eminently suited for practical life. 
 
 Although the Adi Granth is hostile to Brahmans 
 and altogether ignores or denies their pretensions, 
 Nanak did not directly enjoin the abolition of caste. 
 Yet his teaching was democratic and he admitted 
 as his disciples people of all classes without dis- 
 tinction. The doctrine of Nanak was almost identical 
 with that of his successors, and no change of any 
 religious or social importance was introduced until 
 the time of Guru Govind Singh, whose teaching and 
 book of conduct were a new starting-point for the 
 Sikhs and did more than the authority of Nanak to
 
 58 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 form them into the military nation which they after- 
 wards became. 
 
 Govind Singh, although, as has been before stated, 
 he was more inclined to polytheistic ideas than to the 
 refined Pantheism of Nanak, did not desire or find it 
 convenient to attack the doctrine of his great pre- 
 decessor, when the Sodhis of Anandpur sarcastically 
 suggested his writing a new scripture for himself. 
 What he wished was to consolidate the Sikh power, 
 to bring the Sikhs more completely out of the ranks 
 of Hinduism, so as to launch them with greater efiect 
 against Muhammadanism, and his fii'st step was to 
 abolish the custom of caste upon which Brahmanism 
 is founded. This naturally brought upon him the 
 wrath of the priests of that creed and the dislike and 
 suspicion of all the higher castes, whose immemorial 
 privileges were abridged or destroyed by the ad- 
 mission into the Sikh body of those whom they most 
 despised. This part of Nanak's practice had been a 
 stumbling-block to Hindu converts of the higher 
 castes, but it was not made with him a matter of vital 
 importance as with Govind Singh. 
 
 The other precepts of Govind Singh, with the object 
 of separating his followers from the general body of 
 Hindus, do not require lengthy notice ; they were 
 principally rules of conduct regarding dress, food and 
 worship. The Sikhs were enjoined to wear blue 
 garments, a practice which has long been discontinued, 
 except in the case of the Akalis ; they were to carry 
 a sword, and in addition five articles, the Punjabi
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 59 
 
 names of which commence with the letter K. The 
 ]i,es^ or uncut hair and beard ; the khanda, or dagger ; 
 the kanga, or wooden comb; the kdra, or iron 
 bangle ; and kucJih, short drawers coming to the knee. 
 This last was to distinguish them from the Hindus, 
 who invariably wear a loin cloth or dhoti, and they 
 were further forbidden to smoke tobacco, a universal 
 Hindu custom, and one, the prohibition of which it 
 must have been difficult to enforce, and which has not 
 had a favourable result. The Sikhs have largely 
 taken to the consumption of opium and hemp, the 
 latter of which is far more injurious than tobacco. 
 The same prohibition has produced the same effect 
 among the fanatical Muhammadans of Central Asia. 
 
 Female infanticide was prohibited, and they who 
 killed their daughters were pronounced' accursed. 
 This custom in the time of Govind Singh and up to the 
 British annexation of the Punjab was very prevalent, 
 especially in the higher castes, such as the Rajputs, 
 who had the greatest difficulty in disposing of their 
 daughters. As an example may be mentioned the 
 Rajput house to which Maharaja Gulab Singh of 
 Jammu belonged. Here the practice was invariable, 
 and no marriage of a daughter was known to have taken 
 place in that family until 1871, when the Maharaja's 
 granddaughter was married, amidst great rejoicings, 
 to the son of the ancient house of Jaswal. In spite 
 of the prohibition of Govind, the practice long re- 
 mained common among the Sikhs, and even to-day 
 there are parts of the Punjab where, especially in
 
 6o RANjtT SINGH 
 
 sacerdotal Sikh families, the practice is suspected to 
 prevail; but as a rule it may be said that English 
 influence has put an end to this cowardly and in- 
 famous crime throughout the Punjab. The practice 
 of taking money for the hand of a daughter or sister 
 was also forbidden; a prohibition which was often 
 evaded. 
 
 The Sikhs were forbidden to eat meat killed in 
 ordinary fashion, and animals for food were ordered 
 to be slaughtered with one stroke of the sword. No 
 special prohibition of beef is mentioned in the Granth, 
 but the old tradition was too strong to be set aside, 
 and the cow has remained as sacred an animal to the 
 Sikh as to the ordinary Hindu. In frontier raids the 
 vanquished Muhammadans would throw themselves 
 at the feet of theii' conquerors, and putting a tuft 
 of gi-ass in their mouths, would appeal for quarter, 
 crying out, 'I am your cow.' The Muhammadans were 
 especially held accursed, and the prohibition against 
 Sikhs wearing a cap was to dissociate them from the 
 Muhammadans even in dress. War with these enemies 
 of the faith was enjoined and no quarter was to be 
 given to them. Unorthodox Sikhs, Jains and Jogis, 
 were also declared accursed. 
 
 There were many minor prohibitions and directions, 
 and one of the most important, the daily reading of 
 the Granth, was impossible of practice for the reason 
 that the Sikhs were commonly illiterate and were 
 compelled to content themselves with occasionally 
 attending to hear the Granth read by the lay priests,
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 6l 
 
 Granthis, or reciting a passage which they had learned 
 by heart. 
 
 No change took place in Sikh doctrine after the 
 promulgation of Govind Singh's precepts, but as has 
 been elsewhere shown, the practice grew more and 
 more lax, till within recent years a new sect of re- 
 formers arose, founded originally by an Udasi fakir of 
 Rawal Pindi. His successor, a carpenter of the Ludhi- 
 ana district, named Ram Singh, rose to considerable 
 importance and attached to himself a large number 
 of fanatical disciples known as Kukas, who were dis- 
 tinguished by a peculiar dress and by secret watch- 
 words and political organization. 
 
 The original movement was religious, an attempt 
 to reform the Sikh practice and restore it to the 
 character it possessed in the time of Govind Singh. 
 As the sect grew in numbers, its ambition increased, 
 till, at last, it preached a revival of the Khalsa and the 
 downfall of the British Government. At this time I 
 happened to be the Chief Secretary to the Punjab 
 Government, and the proceedings of the Kukas 
 caused a great amount of anxiety and trouble. They 
 were not, however, in spite of their seditious teaching, 
 interfered with until they broke into open revolt and 
 attacked the Muhammadan town of Maler Kotla near 
 Ludhiana. The insurrection was put down with great 
 severity and some fifty of the rebels were blown from 
 guns after summary trial. At the same time all the 
 Kuka leaders in different districts of the Punjab were 
 arrested in one night and deported, some to Rangoon,
 
 62 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 others to Aden, and the less important were confined 
 in Punjab jails. The proceeding of the local 
 authorities of the Ambala Division in blowing the 
 rebels from guns was disapproved by the Punjab and 
 Supreme Governments, as too drastic a remedy for 
 the disorder. But, on the other hand, their action was 
 taken in good faith, and there is much to be said in 
 favour of the policy of suppressing rebellion in the 
 swiftest and surest manner. It is, in any case, certain 
 that the proceedings then taken were the death-blow 
 to a formidable agitation against the Government, 
 and the Kukas, although not extinct, have subsided 
 into a disreputable sect whose communistic and 
 debauched habits have brought upon them the general 
 reprobation of the Sikh community. 
 
 In ordinary matters the Sikhs obeyed the Hindu 
 law. But in some important particulars, notably 
 in that of marriage, they had customs of their own 
 which, in theii* turn, affected the rules of succession to 
 property. The accepted rule was that, failing male 
 heirs, the widow inherited the estate. But in wild 
 times, when the sword was the only arbiter in dis- 
 putes, and women were too weak to hold what had 
 been won by the force and strength of men, the 
 practice had grave inconveniences. The Sikh women 
 had some of the virtues of their sex, and have on 
 occasion shown themselves the equals of men in 
 wdsdom and administrative ability. Rani Aus 
 Koui" of Patiala, Rani Dya Kour of Ambala, and Mai 
 Sada Kour, for long the head of the gi-eat Kanheya
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 63 
 
 confederacy, are examples of this. But, as a rule, 
 an estate -which fell into the hands of a Sikh widow 
 was apt to be exploited by her lover for his per- 
 sonal advantage, till it would be seized by some one 
 stronger and with as valid a claim to its possession. 
 To avert this evil, the practice followed by the Jews 
 in old times, of man-iage with a brother of the 
 deceased husband, was introduced. The widow was 
 allowed generally a choice between the brothers, but 
 with the elder lay the right if he chose to exercise it. 
 This form of marriage was known as chadar ddlna, 
 or thi'owing the sheet ; also as Karewa (Kaiihui), 
 signifying a woman who had been married. As the 
 origin of the practice was to secure the succession in 
 the family, the offspring of these unions were con- 
 sidered as legitimate as those of the more formal shddi 
 or vydk, and enjoyed the same right to inheritance ; 
 but as a matter of precedence and dignity they were 
 not held in equal honour. The convenience of the 
 chadar ddlna marriage, especially in time of war, 
 when the elaborate ceremonial of the shddi was im- 
 possible, or unsuited to the rank or caste of the bride, 
 who might be a slave girl or a captive, caused its 
 general extension to other unions than those with the 
 brother's widow. But in these cases, the object of 
 securing the succession not being at issue, the 
 chadar ddlna wife and her issue were not held of 
 much account, and her place, indeed, was little above 
 that of the ordinary concubine. The informality of the 
 practice rendered it suspicious, and it was notorious
 
 64 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 that many slave-girls on the death of their masters, 
 supported by the wholesale perjury so generally avail- 
 able in the East, claimed estates on the strength of 
 a pretended chadar ddlna marriage. This was the 
 case with the mother of Maharaja Dhulip Singh, who 
 was acknowledged as successor to the throne of 
 Lahore as the result of a palace intrigue, although his 
 mother was a mere slave-girl. 
 
 The right of the widow to re-marry at her own 
 choice, when she was not claimed by her late husband's 
 brother, was everywhere admitted, and there are in- 
 stances of women making even thii'd marriages, known 
 as threwa. 
 
 With regard to the succession of sons there were 
 two customs, one known as chadarhand, confined to 
 the Sikhs of the Manjha, and the other bhaiband, 
 practised by the Malwa Sikhs. The first divided the 
 property among the mothers in equal shares ; the 
 second in equal shares among the sons. For example, 
 supposing a man left two widows, one of whom had 
 one son and the other three ; by chadarband the 
 single son of the first widow would take half the 
 estate and his three half-brothers would each take a 
 sixth. By bhaiband the four sons would each receive 
 a quarter. 
 
 This irregular practice in marriage is not followed 
 by the higher castes, Brahmans and Khattris, who may 
 have embraced Sikhism. They follow the old Hindu 
 ritual, but even then are regarded as outcasts by the 
 orthodox community who will not give them a
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 6^ 
 
 daughter in marriage except for very large sums of 
 money. In such cases the girl is considered as dead 
 by her own family. 
 
 Daughters and their issue were in all cases held 
 incompetent to inherit, as, if this had been allowed in 
 a society in which girls were always married as soon 
 as they reached puberty, estates would have passed 
 out of the possession of the original family. 
 
 The practice of Sioti, or widow-burning, was common 
 In the case of chiefs of high degree, when the women 
 were not allowed to claim their privilege of re-marriage, 
 and it was often extended to the female servants and 
 concubines of the deceased. When Maharaja Kanjit 
 Singh died one of his wives, Mahtab Devi^ was burnt 
 with him ^, and three ladies of his zenana of the rank 
 of Rani. On the funeral pile of his son, Maharaja 
 Kharak Singh, one of his chadar ddlna wives, a 
 beautiful woman named Isar Kour, was burnt. She 
 was unwilling to be a Sati; and it is said that she 
 was forced to burn by the minister Raja Dhyan Singh. 
 Two of the wives of Nao Nihal Singh, the grandson of 
 Ranjit Singh, became Satis. The last two widow- 
 burnings in the Punjab were remarkable as showing 
 
 ' This lady was a Rajput, the natural daughter of Raj5 Sansar 
 Chand Katoeh. The Sati was probably a voluntary one, for the 
 proud Rajput women used to consider the disagreeable duty of 
 burning themselves with their husbands a privilege attaching to 
 their blue blood. When the handsome Raja Suchet Singh, great 
 uncle to the present Maharaja of Kashmir, was killed at Lahore, 
 his ten wives and the three hundred unmarried ladies of his zenana 
 committed Sati, some at Lahore, 150 at Ramnagar, where his head 
 was brought, and the others at Jammu or their own homes. 
 
 E
 
 66 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 this curious Hindu custom at its worst and at its best ; 
 in other words, where the victims were brutally 
 murdered in the name of religion, or where they 
 voluntarily and cheerfully met the death of fii'e as the 
 glorious crown of a life of self-sacrifice and devotion. 
 
 The fiist took place on the 22nd of September. 1845, 
 when the body of the debauched and infamous Jowahir 
 Singh, brother of Rani Jindan and minister of the 
 State, who had been killed by the infuriated soldiery 
 who rightly suspected him of treachery to the Khalsa, 
 was burnt on the plain outside the Lahore fort. It 
 was decided that his four wives should be burnt with 
 him, though the unfortunate women begged for their 
 lives. The scene at the funeral pile was a shocking 
 one. The troops, who had lost all discipline, stripped 
 the women of their jewels and tore away their nose- 
 rings. A Sati is considered a sacred object among 
 Hindus, and her last words prophetic. At the feet of 
 these wretched women. Raja Dina Nath, who was 
 ofiicially present on behalf of the Rani, and many 
 others, fell down, imploring their blessings. The 
 Satis blessed him and the Maharaja, but cursed the 
 army of the Khalsa. When asked the fate of the 
 Punjab, they answered that during the year the 
 country would lose its independence, the Khalsa be 
 overthrown, and the wives of the men of the army 
 would be widows. They were then forced into the 
 flames of the funeral pile ; but the prophecy came 
 true, and no curse was more amply fulfilled. 
 
 The next Sati was of the widow of Sirdar Sham
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 67 
 
 Singh of Attari, one of the noblest and best of the 
 Sikhs. He was killed at Sobraon. He had de- 
 nounced the war with the English, and well foresaw 
 what its termination must be. But he resolved to 
 fight for the Khalsa, and on the night before Sobraon 
 he swore on the Granth never to leave the field 
 defeated. In the morning he dressed himself in white 
 and, having mounted his white mare, addressed his 
 men, begging them^ as true sons of the Khalsa^ to die 
 rather than jdeld. During the first part of the battle 
 he was everywhere present, urging the Sikhs to fight 
 bravely ; and it was not till he saw that all was lost 
 that he spurred forward against the 50th Regiment, 
 waving his sword and calling on his men to follow 
 him. Some fifty of them obeyed the call, but were 
 driven into the river Sutlej, and Sham Singh fell dead 
 from his horse, pierced with seven bullets. After the 
 battle his servants begged permission to search for 
 his body. The old Sirdar, conspicuous by his white 
 dress and long white beard, was discovered where the 
 dead lay thickest. His servants placed the body on a 
 raft and swam with it across the river ; but it was 
 not till the third day that it reached his home at 
 Attari. His widow, who knew his resolution not 
 to survive defeat, had already burnt herself with the 
 clothes which the Sirdar had worn on his wedding 
 day. This was the last Sati in the Punjab, and the 
 pillar which marks the spot where it took place is 
 still standing outside the walls of Attari. 
 
 Illegitimacy was held to be a bar to succession, but, 
 
 E 2
 
 68 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 as may readily be supposed, in rude times, when 
 the will of the strongest was often the only law, 
 bastards not unfrequently obtained a position to 
 which they were nat entitled by birth. Moreover 
 when throwing a sheet over a woman (chadar ddlna) 
 gave her the full status of a legitimate wife, it was 
 difficult to distinguish between the lawful son and the 
 bastard. There were again degrees in illegitimacy, 
 and well-recognised distinctions between legitimate 
 and illegitimate concubinage, the son of a common 
 slave girl not ranking with one born of a girl of 
 respectable position who may have come to the house 
 of the chief as one of the attendants on his bride. 
 
 With regard to the succession of collaterals there 
 was some difference of practice, but the general rule 
 was against it, as indeed is proved by the custom of 
 the Karewa marriage under which a man taking the 
 widow of his deceased brother acquired rights of suc- 
 cession which he would not otherwise have possessed. 
 Maharaja Ranjit Singh altogether refused to allow 
 collaterals any rights, and on failure of male heirs of 
 the body he invariably claimed an estate, though he 
 ordinarily reassigned it to a near relation on payment 
 of a heavy fine or nazrdna. The practice of the 
 English in the protected Cis-Sutlej States was similar 
 and on much stronger grounds, for the M^lwa Sikhs 
 had been far more subordinate to the Delhi Govern- 
 ment than those of the Manjha, who were the con- 
 querors and freeholders of their own lands, while 
 Ranjit Singh was merely the most successful among
 
 THE SIKH THEOCRACY 69 
 
 robber chiefs, primus inter pares. The British Govern- 
 ment succeeded to many large estates under this rule, 
 such as Biiriya, Ambala, Thanesar, Dialgarh, Rudour, 
 Mustafabad, Firozpur, and Kaithal. After i860 the 
 Government decided to change its policy, and, con- 
 ferring on all the principal chiefs the privilege of 
 adoption, practically waived for ever its right of 
 escheat. That this policy was, in the main, wise may 
 be admitted, and its results have been to strengthen 
 the position of the Government with the native States. 
 But it may be questioned whether it was not carried 
 out in too general and liberal a manner, and whether 
 it would not have been more judicious to have granted 
 the right of adoption for a term as a special reward 
 for the highest services to the Government, renewable 
 or denied after full consideration of the circumstances 
 of each case. As it is, the indiscriminate grant of 
 the right of adoption by Lord Canning, making the 
 Government an earthly Providence whose favours are 
 conferred alike on the just and the unjust, has de- 
 prived it for ever of the power of rewarding loyalty 
 and devotion most splendidly, and of most effectively 
 punishing treason.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The State of the Punjab at RanjIt 
 SiNGH^s Birth 
 
 Guru Govind Singh had announced to his dis- 
 ciples that he was the last of the prophets. With 
 his death, the work of form^g the Sikhs into a 
 proud, ambitious and warlike people, inspired with 
 deadly hatred of their Mussulman invaders, conquerors 
 and masters, was complete. The Khalsa, fully armed 
 and equipped for victory, had sprung from the brain 
 of the great Guru, as Minerva from the head of 
 Jupiter. But it was only in organization, in martial 
 spirit, and in the sympathy of a common faith and 
 baptism that the elect of the sword were, as yet, 
 strong. They were few in number when opposed 
 to the legions of their enemies ; they were poor and 
 of small repute if compared with their oppressors 
 who commanded the whole resources of Hindustan. 
 With nothing but their faith, their brave hearts and 
 their swords, they engaged in a death-struggle with 
 the Mughal Empire which, in the days of the Emperor 
 Aurangzeb, raised a revenue estimated at eighty 
 millions sterling, or double that which is now raised 
 in actual taxation by the British Government from a
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 71 
 
 larger population. Fortunately for the Sikhs they 
 had an ally in the ferocious bigotry of the Empe- 
 ror which created enemies to his throne in every 
 Feudatory Hindu State, and eventually brought 
 the magnificent fabric of Empire to the ground. 
 Despotisms that have no other foundation than 
 the personal qualities of individuals can never be 
 secure. Sagacity, unselfishness and benevolence are 
 not the fruits which grow on the thorns and 
 brambles of tyranny. Ignorant, debauched, cruel, and 
 fanatical despots are far more likely to turn up 
 when a cynical Fortune deals the cards. Had it 
 been possible to produce a succession of princes like 
 Akbar the magnificent, who, take him all in all, was 
 perhaps the man most brilliant and complete, in his 
 intellectual ascendency, of all historical autocrats, 
 the Mughal Empire might have been flourishing 
 to-day, and English traders would still be humbly 
 soliciting imperial favour at Delhi, before the pea- 
 cock throne. But the bigoted intolerance of the 
 Emperor Aurangzeb, who, apart from his religion, 
 was of blameless life and possessed of many accom- 
 plishments, did more to ruin the Empire than the 
 extravagances of his predecessors and successors. 
 
 As to the Sikhs, his persecutions strengthened their 
 obstinate attachment to their faith, and the threat of 
 death and torture never won Islam a single convert. 
 The blood of the martyrs was, as ever, the seed of 
 the Church. Impotent to crush it entirely, Aurangzeb 
 only succeeded in infusing its spirit into fresh votaries,
 
 72 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 and in inspiring the Sikh people with that hatred 
 of the Muhammadan creed which is still glowing in 
 the embers, ready to burst into fierce life should the 
 British Government ever withdraw its restraining 
 hand. Delhi has seen this spirit revived, so have 
 the Afghans of the North- West ; and it will blaze 
 high should the Ghazis of Central Asia madly think 
 of marching again to the plunder of Hindustan. 
 
 The history of the Sikhs from the death of Guru 
 Govind Singh to the birth of Kanjit Singh can only 
 be briefly noticed, the more so as I have already 
 given a sketch of the origin and character of the 
 Sikhs and their creed, so that it may be readily 
 understood what were the men whom the great 
 Maharaja ruled and the nature of the doctrine of 
 which he became the official representative. The 
 material for an historical record of the seventy-two 
 years which this period covers (1708-1780) is meagre 
 and unreliable so far as the Md,njha Sikhs are con- 
 cerned. More is known of the Southern Sikhs. As 
 to the Muhammadan record, it is full of great and 
 varied interest, and includes the invasions of Nadir 
 Shah, of Ahmad Shah, and the gradual decline and 
 disintegration of the Mughal Empire, whose governors 
 and lieutenants threw off the authority of the 
 Emperors and declared themselves independent. 
 
 The military successor of Govind Singh was Banda, 
 who during the reign of Aurangzeb's three successors 
 showed great energy and some military talent, de- 
 feating the imperial troops on more than one occa-
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 73 
 
 sion, and ravaging the country of the Bari Doab 
 until he was, in 17 16, captured with some thousands 
 of his followers and carried a prisoner to Delhi. There 
 he was put to death with every refinement of torture 
 after having been compelled to kill his son with his 
 own hands. After this crushing defeat, we hear little 
 of the Sikhs until the invasion of Nadir Shah, whose 
 easy conquest of Delhi and plunder of the city so 
 weakened the Mughal Government that the Sikhs 
 took heart and again prepared for battle. All 
 Muhammadans, whether Persians, Afghans, or Mu- 
 ghals, were to them accursed, and with equal alacrity 
 they attacked the scattered detachments of Nadir 
 Shah's army, or plundered the baggage of Ahmad 
 Shah Abdali, who after the assassination of Nadir 
 Shah had become master of Afghanistan and invaded 
 the Punjab in 1747. The conduct of this prince to 
 the Sikhs was conciliatory, and he would have been 
 glad to enlist them on his side, first against the 
 Delhi Government and then against the Mardthas, 
 whom he defeated in turn. But the Sikhs, although 
 they hated the Mughals, bore no love to the Afghans, 
 and had no wish to build up at Delhi an empire 
 stronger than that which had preceded it and bind 
 the yoke more firmly on their own necks. The 
 horsemanship, frugal habits, and rapidity of move- 
 ment of the Sikhs made them formidable opponents, 
 and although they received constant and severe 
 defeats from the better armed and disciplined Mu- 
 hammadan troops, they never lost heart and only
 
 74 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 dispersed to reappear shortly afterwards in increasing 
 swarms. Ahmad Shah, who was a very brilliant 
 leader, though he had little talent for organization or 
 administration and quickly lost the provinces he 
 conquered, invaded India year after year, sometimes 
 marching as far south as Delhi, at other times going 
 no further than Lahore or the Sutlej. On each 
 occasion he had to reckon with the Sikhs, who ever 
 gained greater confidence and power and were 
 forming themselves into confederacies, or viisls, 
 in which a number of robber chiefs agreed, after a 
 somewhat democratic and equal fashion, to follow 
 the flag and fight under the general orders of 
 one powerful leader. This organization made them 
 more formidable. The several chiefs built their forts 
 in convenient places and gradually overran the 
 whole plain country of the Punjab, shutting up the 
 Muhammadan governors in their forts at Sirhind, 
 Dinanagar, and Lahore, which last city they twice 
 seized and occupied for some time. They rebuilt 
 the sacred places of Amritsar and refilled the Tank 
 of the Water of Immortality. When the Afghan 
 prince came down, year after year, from the moun- 
 tains, the Sikhs retired from before him ; as he 
 retired they again seized the prey they had tem- 
 porarily abandoned. The years 1761-63 were the 
 turning-point in Sikh history, and as such require 
 brief notice, for they contain the first stand of 
 the Khalsa against a regular army. Its defeat, 
 although severe, gave it so much confidence that
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 75 
 
 it was able, the following year, to conquer the 
 province of Sirhind, and to found on a secure basis 
 the great chiefships of the Cis-Sutlej. 
 
 Zin Khan had been appointed by Ahmad Shah, 
 in 1 761, as his governor at Sirhind. But no sooner 
 had the Afghan turned his face homeward than the 
 Sikhs, collecting in great numbers, besieged Zin Khan 
 in. his fort and would certainly have taken it and 
 annihilated the garrison had not help come in the 
 form of the Mussulman Khan of Maler Kotla. When 
 Ahmad Shah returned, the following year, to India, 
 he resolved to punish the Sikhs for their insolent 
 attack on Sirhind. They had assembled near Barnala, 
 then the principal town in Patidla territory, and, 
 in addition to the chiefs of the Cis-Sutlej, there were 
 many of the leaders of the Manjha Sikhs who had 
 crossed the Sutlej as Ahmad Shah advanced. The 
 movements of the Afghans had been so rapid that 
 the Sikhs were surprised, surrounded and compelled 
 to give battle, and were defeated with the loss of 
 20,000 men and many prisoners, among whom was 
 Ala Singh the chief of Patiala, for whose ransom five 
 lakhs of rupees were demanded. This sum was paid 
 with great difficulty, and Ahmad Shah, who was a 
 man of great sagacity, thinking it would be wise to 
 conciliate the Sikhs after having given them so con- 
 vincing a proof of his power^ embraced Ala Singh 
 and bestowed on him a dress of honour with the 
 title of Raja. 
 
 This unwonted dignity aroused against Ala Singh
 
 76 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 the jealousy and anger of all the other chiefs, who 
 declared that he had betrayed them, that the title 
 was the price of his treachery, and that it was dis- 
 graceful for a Sikh to accept an honour conferred by 
 a Muhammadan, a foreigner and an enemy. They 
 would have avenged upon him their defeat had not 
 Sirdar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, at that time far more 
 influential than Ala Singh himself, taken his part. 
 Matters were, at length, smoothed over, but it was 
 necessary for Ala Singh to prove by his actions that 
 he was not a servant of the Durani king. 
 
 No sooner had Ahmad Shah returned to Kabul 
 than the Sikhs regained courage. The confederacies, 
 north and south of the Sutlej, for once laid aside 
 their feuds and jealousies and united for another 
 great effort against Sirhind. Ala Singh joined with 
 ardour in the expedition. The Sikhs from the 
 Manjha assembled in numbers in the neighbourhood 
 of Sirhind, after having captured the town and fort 
 of Kasiir below Lahore ; and the chiefs of the Malwa 
 joined them, till the army, almost entirely cavalry, 
 numbered 23,000 men. Zin Khan, the governor, 
 trusting to that dread of regular troops which the 
 Sikhs had ever shown, came beyond the town to 
 give them battle, but he was killed and his force 
 utterly routed. The Sikhs immediately took pos- 
 session of the town, which they sacked and destroyed 
 in revenge for the murder of the children of their 
 prophet, and the province of Sirhind was divided 
 among the conquerors, the town and the district sur-
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 77 
 
 rounding it being allotted to Raja Ala Singh, Ahmad 
 Shah, who returned the following year, made no 
 attempt to recover Sirhind or appoint another 
 governor, but accepting the logic of events assigned 
 the district to Ala Singh on payment of an annual 
 tribute ^, 
 
 Thus the Sikhs, both by their defeat and their 
 victory, acquired a status which they did not before 
 possess, and had they known how to put aside 
 private jealousies and unite habitually as they had 
 done for the conquest of Sirhind, they would have 
 become as formidable and irresistible in North India 
 as the Mar^thas in the South and West. But the 
 democratic nature of the Sikh faith, responding to 
 the natural sentiment of the people, resisted all 
 attempts at dictation by one central authority, 
 until Maharaja Ranjit Singh broke down opposition 
 and reduced rivals and enemies to a common 
 obedience. 
 
 The history of Sikh development between this 
 year 176a and the birth of Ranjit Singh in 1780, 
 or rather to the death of his father Mahan Singh 
 and his own succession to the headship of the Sukar- 
 chakia inisl in 1791, a period of great importance 
 and interest, must be studied elsewhere^. All that 
 
 * The Edjds of the Punjab. 
 
 * The only works in which the history of this period has been 
 treated in detail are my Punjab Cliiefs and Edjds of the Punjab. 
 In the first the full account of the various misls north of the Sutlej 
 will be found under such heads as the Ramgarhias, the Bhangis, 
 the Kanheyas ; while the second is the history of the Phulkian 
 and Ahluwalia misls.
 
 78 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 is necessary here is to explain the general Sikh 
 organization in rtiisls or confederacies and the dis- 
 tricts which were held by the several chiefs. 
 
 The Sikh miids were^ in popular estimation, twelve 
 in number, and although this enumeration is mis- 
 leading, and several of the included confederacies were 
 hardly of sufficient importance to warrant their being- 
 placed in the list, yet it may for convenience be here 
 adhered to. I will, however, place them in what I 
 consider the order of their importance at the time 
 of the birth of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 
 
 1. Phulkian. 7. Krora Singhia. 
 
 2. Ahluwalia. 8. Nishania. 
 
 3. Bhangi. 9. Sukarchakia. 
 
 4. Kanheya. 10. Dulelwala. 
 
 5. Ramgarhia. 11. Nakkais. 
 
 6. Singhpuria. 12. Shahids. 
 
 Of these, Nos. a, 3, 4, 5, 9 and 11, held lands north 
 of the Sutlej, and the remaining six, south of that 
 river. The Phulkian THiisl was composed of a group 
 of chiefs descended from a common ancestor, and 
 represented at the present day by their descendants, 
 the Mahai'aja of Patiala, the Rajas of Jind and 
 Nabha, the Sirddrs of Bhadour, Malod and many 
 others of less importance. It played a very important 
 part in early Sikh history, but in spite of the family 
 connection of its members or perhaps in consequence 
 of it, united action by the niisl was rare and its 
 power was not equal to its opportunities. 
 
 The Ahluwalia family was founded by Sadho Singh,
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 79 
 
 a Jat of the Kalal or distiller caste, who settled the 
 village of Ahlu from which the family took its name. 
 But the true founder of the confederacy was Sirdar 
 Jassa Singh, fifth in the descent from Sadho, who was 
 born in 1718, ten years after the death of Guru 
 Govind Singh. He rose to distinction and was a man 
 of great ability and a successful military leader. He 
 did more than almost any chief to consolidate the 
 Sikh power, and at the time of his death, in 1783, was 
 probably the most influential of the Sikh chiefs. His 
 possessions were chiefly in the tract of country between 
 the rivers Sutlej and Beas. 
 
 The Bhangis took their name from the enslavement 
 to bhang, an intoxicating preparation of hemp, of 
 their famous leader Sirdar Hari Singh, who, with his 
 brothers Jhanda Singh and Ganda Singh, made his 
 head-quarters in the Amritsar district and overran the 
 neighbouring country and captured and held the city 
 of Multan for several years. They were crushed by 
 Maharaja Kanjit early in his career, as will hereafter 
 be told. 
 
 The Kanheyas were quite as powerful as the Bhangis 
 and retained their possessions longer owing to their 
 connection by marriage with the Maharaja, Ranjit 
 Singh, Their chief, Jai Singh, married his infant grand- 
 daughter Mahtab Kour, in 1786, to Ranjit Singh, who 
 was himself only six years old. When Jai Singh died, 
 in 1789, his daughter-in-law Sada Kour, the mother of 
 Mahtab Kour, a widow of great ability and un- 
 scrupulousness, took command of the confederacy, and
 
 8o RANJIT SINGH 
 
 held her own against her son-in-law, successfully, till 
 1820. The possessions of the Kanheyas included a 
 large part of the Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts. 
 A second lady of this house, Rani Chand Kour, who 
 married Prince Kharak Singh, the only son of the great 
 Maharaja, had as stormy and eventful a life as Sada 
 Kour, and the adventures of these intriguing women 
 show how powerful female influence was among the 
 Sikhs under the liberal creed of Nanak and Govind 
 Singh. 
 
 The Ramgarhia raisl shared with the Kanheyas the 
 sacred city of Amritsar and the neighbouring districts. 
 It could at the height of its power put eight thousand 
 fighting men into the field. Sirdar Jassa Singh, who 
 was the most distinguished of its captains, succeeded 
 to its leadership in 1 758. He first fortified Amritsar, 
 a portion of which he surrounded with a high mud wall, 
 calling it Ram Rowni or the fort of God. It was soon 
 attacked and destroyed by Adina Beg, the imperial 
 governor of the Jalandhar Doab ; but, on his death, 
 Jassa Singh rebuilt it, and renamed it Ramgarh, from 
 which the confederacy took its name. 
 
 He was a famous fighting baron and made long 
 expeditions, plundering up to the walls of Delhi. 
 On one occasion he penetrated into the heart of the city 
 and carried ofi" four guns from the Mughal quarter. 
 The governor of Meerut paid him tribute. 
 
 The Singhpiiria confederacy was at one time very 
 powerful, and, before the days of Jassa Singh Ahlu- 
 walia and Ala Singh of Patiala, its founder, Sirdar
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 8 1 
 
 Kapur Singh was perhaps the most renowned of the 
 Sikh barons. He was known as Nawab, one of the 
 few instances of a Sikh taking a distinctively Muham- 
 madan title. He seized the village and district of 
 Faizullapur near Amritsar from FaizuUa Khan, and 
 gave it the name of Singhpura, whence the title of the 
 misl, though it is as often known as Faizullapura. This 
 chief died in 1753, and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia suc- 
 ceeded to the greater part of his influence, though his 
 nephew Khushhal Singh and his descendants kept 
 possession of the territory. This confederacy held 
 portions of Ludhiana, Nurpur, Jalandhar, and the north- 
 western portion of the Ambala district. 
 
 The Krora Singhias, who took their name from 
 Sirdar Krora Singh, had possessions chiefly between 
 the Jumna and Makanda rivers. The powerful family 
 of Kalsia was the principal member of the 'mid, and 
 is still a ruling house in the Cis-Sutlej : also Sirdar 
 Baghel Singh of Chiloundi, whose family is now 
 extinct. 
 
 The Nishanias, who took their name from the 
 Nishdn or banner of the Khalsa, were never of much 
 consequence. Sirdar Jai Singh, the most important of 
 the confederacy, obtained his estates after the conquest 
 of Sirhind in 1 763. Members of the misl held Ambala, 
 Liddran, Shahabad, Amloh, and other districts. 
 
 The Sukarchakias are famous not from the amount 
 of their original possessions but from the fact that 
 Ranjit Singh was their last representative, and their 
 history will be included in that of the Maharaja. 
 
 F
 
 82 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 The Dulelwala confederacy took its name from the 
 village of Sirddr Tara Singh, who was its principal 
 leader, and who, with his followers, held a great 
 portion of the upper Jalandhar Doab and the northern 
 portions of Ambala and Ludhiana, with some estates in 
 Firozpur. The Nakkais inhabited what is known 
 as the Nakka country lying between Lahore and 
 Gogaira in the direction of Multan. It was never a 
 powerful confederacy, but could bring into the field 
 some two thousand horsemen with camel- swivels and 
 a few guns. But the Jats of this part of the Punjab 
 are notoriously brave, and under Sirdar Hira Singh 
 and Rdm Singh they acquired territory worth nine 
 lakhs of rupees per annum, in Gogaira, Kasur, and 
 Sharakpur. 
 
 The Shahids, the last of the confederacies, were rather 
 a religious than a military body, though the priests 
 fought in those days as well as the laymen. The Khalsa 
 was the true embodiment of the church militant. 
 The founder of the Shahid mAd was Sudda Singh, 
 the muhant or head of the shrine at Talwandi, where 
 Guru Govind Singh had made his resting-place (Dam- 
 dama). He was killed fighting against the Muhamma- 
 dan governor of Jalandhar, and his head having been 
 struck off he is reported to have ridden some distance 
 and killed several of the enemy before he fell from his 
 horse. Hence he was known as the martyr (shahid), 
 and his followers took his name. This confederacy, 
 which used to join itself to others rather than fight on 
 its own account, obtained estates about Rania, Khari
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 83 
 
 and Jaroli, and its representatives still hold charge 
 of the sacred shrine of Damdama. 
 
 Such is a sketch of the fighting confederacies of the 
 Sikhs during the eighteenth century and the first part 
 of the nineteenth. But their composition was always 
 changing, and their possessions passed from one hand 
 to another very rapidly. They fought against each 
 other more often than against the common enemy the 
 Muhammadans, and their internecine war was only 
 ended by Maharaja Ranjit Singh crushing all who 
 were not shielded by the British guarantee. Even 
 within the borders of each confederacy itself, the barons 
 were always quarrelling, and first one chief and then 
 another took the lead. This was due to the con- 
 stitution of Sikhism, under which no such thing as 
 vassalage or feudal superiority was acknowledged. 
 The principle of the creed was fraternity, and the 
 Sikhs boasted of being communities of independent 
 soldiers. While the Khalsa was still young and 
 enthusiastic, and the power of no individual chief 
 was inordinately great, this idea of independence 
 represented a state of things not far removed from 
 the truth ; but as the more important chiefships 
 gradually increased in power, their smaller neigh- 
 bours were compelled, either for protection against 
 others or to avoid absorption altogether, to place 
 themselves under the protection of some leader able 
 to defend them, rendering in return service in the field. 
 
 All that a Sikh chief asked in these days from 
 a follower was a horse and a matchlock. All that 
 
 F 2
 
 84 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 a follower sought was protection and permission 
 to plunder in the name of God and the Guru under 
 the banner of the chief. There was little question 
 of pay. All Sikhs were theoretically equal, and he 
 who, like Amar Singh Majithia, could pierce a tree 
 through with an arrow, or like Hari Singh Nalwa, 
 could kill a tiger with a blow of his sword, might 
 soon ride with followers behind him and call himself 
 a Sirdar. The time came when, like the Jews, the 
 Sikhs took a king, and in some degree forgot the 
 dream of equality which had been so dear to them. 
 
 But all the great families, north and south of the 
 Sutlej, have the same origin : the law of force, the 
 keen sword and the strong hand were the foundations 
 upon which Sikh society, as indeed every other 
 powerful society in the world, was founded. To 
 attract followers by his power and success was 
 the main desire of every Sikh chief. Who they 
 were, and what were their antecedents, were matters 
 of no consequence if only they could fight and ride, 
 which almost every Sikh could do. In these days 
 every village became a fort, built on a high mound 
 to overlook the plain country, with but one entrance, 
 and narrow lanes in which two men could hardly walk 
 abreast. A neighbour, as with the Jews and Samari- 
 tans, was synonymous with an enemy, and husband- 
 men ploughed the fields with matchlocks by their 
 side. No man could consider his land, his horse, or 
 his wife secure unless he was strong enough to defend 
 them ; for although the Sikh leaders were best pleased
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 85 
 
 with the spoil of Muhamraadans or the capture of an 
 imperial convoy, they were more robbers than patriots 
 and plundered with frank impartiality. One thing 
 in their favour must be said, which raises them far 
 above the Pindaris of Central India or the dacoits of 
 Bengal : they fought and plundered like men and not 
 like demons. There are few stories in Sikh history of 
 outrage to women and torture to men such as stain the 
 pages of South Indian history with cruelty and blood. 
 
 Many a pretty Jatni girl was, it is true, carried 
 off in a foray, but she was generally a willing- 
 captive. She had been taught to consider courage 
 and strength the only qualities to desire in a husband, 
 and was quite ready to yield herself a prize to the 
 man who had won her in fair fight, and who would 
 make her his lawful wife, though he had killed her 
 brothers and burned their village. Yet, while the 
 Sikhs were undoubted robbers, and though cattle- 
 lifting was the one honourable profession amongst 
 them, as on the Scottish border a few hundred years 
 ago, their enthusiasm for their faith, their hatred to 
 the Muhammadans who had so long trampled them 
 under foot, who had killed their prophets and thrown 
 down their altars, gave them a certain dignity, and 
 to their objects and expeditions an almost national 
 interest. 
 
 The Sikh army was known as the Dal Khdlsa, the 
 army of God, sometimes the Budha Dal or veteran 
 army. It consisted for the most part of cavalry called 
 Kattiaivand, who found their own horses and received
 
 85 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 a double share of prize money. Each chief, in pro- 
 portion to his means, furnished horses and arms to 
 his retainers who were called Bargirs ; and as the 
 first tribute exacted from a conquered district was 
 horses, the infantry soldier was, after a successful 
 campaign, generally transformed into a trooper. The 
 infantry were considered an inferior branch of the 
 service, and were only used for garrison and sentry 
 duty, and the battles of the Sikhs were invariably 
 cavalry actions. The only infantry who enjoyed any 
 respect were the Akalis. These were a fanatical body 
 of devotees, who dressed in dark blue and wore round 
 their turbans steel quoits, partly for show and partly 
 as weapons, though they were not very effective. 
 
 Their other distinctive signs were a knife stuck in 
 the turban, a sword slung round their neck, and a 
 wooden club. These men, excited by hemp, were 
 generally the first to storm a town, and often did ex- 
 cellent service ; but they were lawless and uncertain, 
 and, in peaceful times, enjoyed almost boundless 
 license. The Sikh weapon was the sword, with which 
 the cavalry were very skilful. Bows and arrows 
 were used by the infantry, and a few matchlocks ; 
 but powder was scarce and its use little liked by the 
 Sikhs, who were never at ease with a musket in their 
 hands. For the same reasons they possessed scarcely 
 any artillery ; and although Ranjit Singh, with the aid 
 of French and Italian officers, formed a very power- 
 ful and well-appointed artillery, it was, to the last, a 
 branch of the service hated by every true Sikh, and
 
 THE STATE OF THE PUNJAB 87 
 
 principal!}^ filled by Muhammadans. The prize money 
 taken in a campaign was equally shared among the 
 combatants : if a soldier was wounded he invariably 
 received compensation, and if he was killed, his son 
 or nearest male relative was entertained in his place. 
 
 The chiefs or barons were known by some cognomen 
 which specially distinguished them ; for the Hindu 
 names were few in number and the suffix Singh was 
 universal. Generally this addition was taken from 
 their birthplace, or fi-om a town they had conquered, 
 as Jassa Singh, Ahluwalia; sometimes from a per- 
 sonal peculiarity or attribute, good or bad. As 
 examples of these may be quoted Nidhan Singh, 
 Panjhathah (the five-handed, from his great prowess 
 in battle) ; Lehna Singh, Chimni (from his short 
 stature) ; Mohr Singh, Lamba (the tall) ; Sher Singh, 
 Kamla (the fool) ; Karm Singh, Nirmala (the spot- 
 less), and a hundred more with which Sikh history 
 is full; and of which many have descended to the 
 present day as an honoured part of the family name.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The MahaeAja 
 
 No traveller can have visited the PuDJab without 
 becoming familiar with the features of the great 
 Maharaja. Although half a century has passed since 
 his death, his name is still a household word in the 
 province ; his portrait is still preserved in castle and 
 in cottage. It is a favourite subject with the ivory- 
 painters of Amritsar and Delhi, by whom the Maha- 
 raja is ordinarily represented in middle or old age, 
 and it is rare to find one of him in youth or in the 
 prime of life. The fine arts were not much patronized 
 in early days at the Court of Lahore. Late in life 
 Ranjit Singh did not make a pleasing picture, though 
 his appearance was striking and memorable. Hard 
 work, the exposure of numerous campaigns, drunken- 
 ness and debauchery aged him before his time, and 
 left him at fifty a worn-out, broken-down, old man. 
 
 There are many contemporary descriptions of him. 
 This by Baron Hiigel is as vivid as any : — 
 
 ' lu person he is short and mean-looking, and had he not 
 distinguished himself by his great talents he would be passed 
 by without being thought worthy of observation. Without
 
 THE mahArAjA 89 
 
 exaggeration I must call him the most ugly and unpre- 
 possessing man I saw throughout the Punjab. His left eye, 
 which is quite closed, disfigures him less than the other, 
 which is always rolling about wide open and is much dis- 
 torted by disease. The scars of the small-pox on his face do 
 not run into one another but form so many dark pits in his 
 greyish-brown skin ; his short straight nose is swollen at the 
 tip ; the skinny lips are stretched tight over his teeth which 
 are still good ; his' grizzled beard, very thin on the cheeks 
 and upper lip, meets under the chin in matted confusion, and 
 his head, which is sunk very much on his broad shoulders, 
 is too large for his height, and does not seem to move easily. 
 He has a thick muscular neck, thin arms and legs, the left 
 foot and left arm drooping, and small well-formed hands. 
 He will sometimes hold a stranger's hand fast within his own 
 for half-an-hour, and the nervous irritation of his mind is 
 shown by the continual pressure on one's fingers. His 
 costume always contributes to increase his ugliness, being in 
 winter the colour of gamboge from the Pagri (the turban or 
 Sikh cloth) down to his very socks and slippers. When he 
 seats himself in a common English chair with his feet drawn 
 under him, the position is one particularly unfavourable to 
 him, but as soon as he mounts his horse and with his black 
 shield at his back puts him on his mettle, his whole form 
 seems animated by the spirit within, and assumes a certain 
 grace of which nobody could believe it susceptible. In spite 
 of the paralysis affecting one side, he manages his hoi-se with 
 the utmost ease.' 
 
 This striking picture is unprepossessing enough ; but, 
 previous to his paralytic seizure which occurred in 
 1834, Ranjit Singh, although short of stature and 
 disfigured by that cruel disease which was wont 
 to decimate the Punjab, and which still, in spite of
 
 90 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 vaccination, claims numerous victims, was the heau 
 id^al of a soldier, strong, spare^ active, courageous, 
 and enduring. An excellent horseman, he would 
 remain the whole day in the saddle without showing 
 any sign of fatigue. His love for horses amounted 
 to a passion, and he maintained an enormous stud 
 for his personal use collected from every part of 
 India, Arabia, and Persia. He was also a keen 
 sportsman and an accomplished swordsman. At 
 Rupar, in 1831, he competed with success with his 
 own troopers and those of Skinner's Horse in tent- 
 pegging and feats of swordsmanship. His dress was 
 scrupulously simple. In winter and spring he wore 
 generally a warm dress of saffron-coloured Kashmir 
 cloth ; in the hot weather white muslin without jewel 
 or ornament, except on occasions of special display 
 or state. This simplicity in the matter of personal 
 adornment may often be observed in native princes or 
 statesmen of intellectual eminence. Like Europeans, 
 they despise the decorations of savages and women. 
 The late Maharaja Ttikaji Rao Holkar of Indore, 
 Raja Sir Dinkar Rao, and Sir Salar Jang the great 
 minister of the Nizam, habitually dressed as plainly 
 as the humblest of their employes. But Ranjit 
 Singh did not require jewels to make him con- 
 spicuous. It was strange indeed to observe how 
 complete was his ascendency, even when he had 
 become feeble, blind, and paralysed, over his brilliant 
 court of fierce and turbulent chiefs. Fakir Azizuddin, 
 who had been sent on a mission to Lord William
 
 THE MAHArAJA 91 
 
 Bentinck at Simla in 1831, was asked by an English 
 officer of which eye the Maharaja was blind. His 
 answer well illustrated the attitude of his Couii 
 towards him. ' The splendour of his face is such.' 
 said the Fakir, ' that I have never been able to look 
 close enough to discover.' 
 
 The Maharaja was endowed with some of the most 
 conspicuous and undoubted signs and characteristics 
 of greatness. Judged from a commonplace, ethical 
 standpoint, and measured by a conventional rule, he 
 had no moral character at all. He had a large and 
 indeed an unusual share of the weaknesses and vices 
 which grow up, like ill weeds, in human nature, and 
 his moral being seemed, at a superficial glance, as 
 dwarfed and distorted as its physical envelope. He 
 was selfish, false and avaricious ; grossly super- 
 stitious, shamelessly and openly drunken and de- 
 bauched. In the respectable virtues he had no part; 
 but in their default he was still great. With him, 
 as with the most illustrious leaders of men, from 
 Csesar and Alexander to Napoleon, intellectual 
 strength was not allied to moral rectitude. He was 
 great because he possessed in an extraordinary degree 
 the qualities without which the highest success can- 
 not be attained ; and the absence of the commonplace 
 virtues which belong to the average citizen neither 
 diminished nor affected in any way the distinction of 
 his character. He was a; born ruler, with the natural 
 genius of command. Men obeyed him by instinct 
 and because they had no power to disobey. The
 
 93 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 control which he exercised, even in the closing years 
 of his life, over the whole Sikh people, nobles, priests 
 and people, was the measure of his greatness. 
 
 To the highest courage he added a perseverance 
 which no obstacles could exhaust, and he did not 
 fail in his undertakings because he never admitted 
 the possibility of failure. His political sagacity was 
 great, and was shown in nothing more convincingly 
 than in his determined friendship with the English, 
 when he had once realized that they were safe friends 
 and very dangerous enemies. In spite of strong 
 temptations, and although they had rudely opposed 
 his most cherished ambition of conquering the Cis- 
 Sutlej provinces, he firmly held to the English alliance 
 throughout his reign ; and the tradition of this friend- 
 ship remained so strong after his death that it kept 
 the weak and drunken Maharaja Sher Singh faithful, 
 when the Punjab was in a tumult and a British army; 
 had been destroyed in Afghanistan. He possessed 
 the faculty which is one of the highest attributes 
 of genius, and for lack of which many brilliantly 
 gifted men have suffered shipwreck — the faculty of 
 choosing his subordinates well and wisely. He knew 
 men, and he selected each servant for the special 
 work which he could best perform, and consequently 
 he was, even in a corrupt and violent age, wonderfully 
 well served. His natural avarice and rapacity were 
 tempered by his appreciation of the advantages of 
 generosity in rewarding good service, and he gave 
 liberally of what he had plundered from other people.
 
 THE MAHARAJA 93 
 
 His favourites were granted large estates or assign- 
 ments of revenue, and this was the more necessary 
 as they were expected to spend the greater part of 
 their income in the entertainment and maintenance 
 of armed retainers to be ready at the instant call 
 of their chief. Everything that Ranjit Singh 
 possessed had been ruthlessly taken from someone 
 else ; and lavishness is the first cousin of avarice 
 and greed, as may be seen every day at Monte Carlo 
 or wherever gamblers most assemble. 
 
 Although it would be to violate the truth of history 
 to conceal or disguise the many faults and vices of 
 Ranjit Singh, yet it would be trivial to judge him 
 or them without full consideration of the manners 
 of the society in which he lived. Every age and 
 people have their own standard of virtue ; and what 
 is to-day held to be atrocious or disreputable may, 
 one hundred years hence, be the fashion. The vices 
 of civilization are not purer than those of barbarism ; 
 they are only more decently concealed when it is 
 considered worth while to practise the hypocrisy 
 which is declared to be the tribute which vice pays 
 to virtue. In the days of the Georges, our ancestors 
 drank as heavily and ostentatiously as any of the 
 Sirdars of the Lahore Court. 'Drunk as a lord' 
 was a popular saying which very fairly expressed 
 the habits of the aristocracy in England in the 
 eighteenth century. To-day the fashion has changed 
 and men drink less or more secretly. In the 
 matter of the relations between the sexes the
 
 94 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 morality of the Punjab was exceedingly low. Yet 
 the Sikhs had the excuse that the position of 
 women was a degraded one, and as education and 
 sentiment had never placed her, as in Western 
 Europe, upon an elevated pedestal, there was no 
 reason to expect from her or from men any lofty 
 ideas of purity. But if we accept contemporary 
 literature as suflBcient evidence, the society of Paris 
 to-day is fully as corrupt as that of the Punjab 
 in 1830; and the bazaars of Lahore, while Eanjit 
 Singh was celebrating the festival of the Holi, 
 were not more shameless than Piccadilly at night in 
 1892. 
 
 So with the political methods of Eanjit Singh. 
 Violence, fraud and rapacity were the very breath 
 of the nostrils of every Sikh chief. They were 
 the arms and the defence of men who in a demora- 
 lized and disintegrated society, had to be ready to 
 resist attack and protect their lives and property. 
 It would be as reasonable to reproach the lion for 
 the use of his teeth and claws, as to regard the force 
 or fraud which made up the ruilitary and political 
 history of the Maharaja and the chiefs of his Court 
 as more than the ordinary and necessary result of 
 their life and surroundings. To-day, the ruler of 
 Afghanistan conducts his administration on prin- 
 ciples very similar to those of Eanjit Singh, yet 
 the British Government, with whom he is in sub- 
 ordinate and feudatory alliance, does not offer a 
 remonstrance, because it understands that savage
 
 THE MAHArAjA 95 
 
 races require drastic treatment, and that where 
 one people can be governed by syllogisms, another 
 only understands the argument of the headsman's 
 sword and the gallows. These considerations must 
 have full and emphatic weight allowed to them 
 when estimating the character of Maharaja Eanjit 
 Singh. 
 
 We only succeed in establishing him as a hero, 
 as a ruler of men and as worthy of a pedestal in 
 that innermost shrine where history honours the few 
 human beings to whom may be indisputably assigned 
 the palm of greatness, if we free our minds of pre- 
 judice and, discounting conventional virtue, only 
 regard those rare qualities which raise a man 
 supreme above his fellows. Then we shall at once 
 allow that, although sharing in full measure the 
 commonplace and coarse vices of his time and edu- 
 cation, he yet ruled the country which his military 
 genius had conquered with a vigour of will and an 
 ability which placed him in the front rank of the 
 statesmen of the century. 
 
 The key-note to the Maharaja's character was 
 selfishness, and it cannot be said that there were 
 any of his servants whom he regarded with gratitude 
 or affection. If there was any exception it was 
 Jamadar Khushhal Singh, a man of inferior ability 
 and degraded habits. But he was served with a 
 devotion which he did not deserve. Sirdar Eateh 
 Singh of Kapiirthala, for whom he publicly made 
 a theatrical demonstration of affection, exchanging
 
 g6 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 turbans in sign of perpetual brotherhood, and who 
 had fought by his side in the campaigns of twenty- 
 years, he endeavoured to despoil of his possessions. 
 Sirdar Hari Singh Nalwa, the Murat of the Khalsa 
 and the most dashing of his generals, had no sooner 
 fallen in battle with the Afghans in his service, than 
 he seized all his large estates and left his four sons 
 to comparative poverty. He did not approve of 
 hereditary wealth and honour, and, like Tarquinius 
 Superbus, struck down all the tall poppies in his 
 garden. Sirdar Fateh Singh Kalianwala was one of 
 the most powerful Sikh leaders in the early years 
 of the century. At Wazirabad on one occasion, Ranjit 
 Singh asked him to draw his forces on one side that 
 he might see their numbers. To his disgust the 
 greater part of the troops present followed the banner 
 of Fateh Singh. This was enough for the jealous 
 spirit of the Maharaja who soon afterwards, in 1807, 
 was besieging the fort of Narayangarh in company 
 with Fateh Singh, as chief in immediate command. 
 After an ineffectual siege of a fortnight, the Maharaja 
 reproached the Sirdar for his apathy, saying that he 
 preferred remaining at his side to leading the troops 
 in the field. Fateh Singh, angry at the undeserved 
 sarcasm, at once assaulted the fort by a breach which 
 proved impracticable, and was repulsed and slain. 
 The Maharaja had got rid of his rival, and made 
 over all his estates to another chief. 
 
 The Eamgarhia mid was one of the most powerful 
 of the Sikh confederacies, and when Ranjit Singh
 
 THE MAHARAJA 97 
 
 deteriuined to break it up, he feigned a warm affection 
 for its leader Sirdar Jodh Singh. He had a contract 
 of friendship between himself and the Ramgarhia 
 family drawn up, and in the temple of Amritsar, 
 before the Sikh Scriptures, he stamped the paper, 
 in his royal and illiterate way, with his open palm 
 dyed with saffron. For some years he allowed the 
 contract to have effect, for Jodh Singh had become 
 a devoted adherent and his forces were useful in 
 many a campaign. But, in 1816, when the Sirdar 
 died, the opportunity of the Maharaja came. Hav- 
 ing summoned the heirs to meet him at Nadaun 
 to arrange for the succession, he surrounded the re- 
 ception tent with troops, took them prisoners, and 
 then marched a strong force against Amritsar and 
 seized all the Ramgarhia estates. 
 
 With another Jodh Singh, a famous fighting-man, 
 chief of Wazlrabad, he acted in a somewhat similar 
 manner. The Maharaja, thinking him too powerful 
 to attack, invited him to Lahore on a friendly visit. 
 Suspecting Ranjit Singh's intentions, he brought a 
 large force with him which he was asked to send 
 back, a request with which he was too proud to refuse 
 compliance. He attended the Darbar the next day 
 with only twenty -five followers, whom he left outside. 
 He was received by the Maharaja with the utmost 
 cordiality, but suddenly, Ranjit Singh, rising, made 
 a sign to his people to seize the Sirdar. He, drawing 
 his sword, called on them to come on as he would 
 not be taken alive and had never learned to turn 
 
 G
 
 98 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 his back on an enemy. His courage so impressed 
 the Maharaja that he dismissed the chief with 
 honour, rich presents, and an addition to his estates. 
 So far the story is as creditable to Eanjit Singh as to 
 the Sirdar ; but when, shortly afterwards, Jodh Singh 
 died, leaving only infant sons, the Maharaja seized 
 all his possessions ; and although he promised to 
 restore Wazirabad when the eldest son should have 
 reached his majority, he never kept, and probably 
 never intended to keep, the promise. 
 
 It was not well for a chief to make too ostentatious 
 a display of his wealth. When the young chief of 
 Batalah married his sister to Sirdar Sher Singh, the 
 families spent two lakhs of rupees on the festivities, 
 the like of which had never before been seen in the 
 Gujranwala district. But when the Maharaja heard of 
 it, and of the boasts of the girl's mother that she had 
 two parolahs ^ of rupees, he at once sent and said that 
 a family which could spend so much on a marriage 
 must be able to afford him a contribution of Rs. 50,000. 
 
 With all his rapacity Ranj it Singh was not cruel or 
 bloodthirsty. After a victory or the capture of a 
 fortress he treated the vanquished with leniency and 
 kindness, however stout their resistance might have 
 been, and there were at his Court many chiefs despoiled 
 of their estates but to whom he had given suitable em- 
 ploy, and who accepted their position with the resigna- 
 tion born of Eastern fatalism, which takes the sharpest 
 
 * Parolah, a Punjabi word for a large basket of clay and wicker- 
 work used for storing grain.
 
 THE MAHARAjA 99 
 
 sting out of defeat. The Sirdars who had been the 
 leaders of the several confederacies which he over- 
 threw, were all in this fashion reduced from equality 
 and rivalship to honourable subjection; and, in 
 addition, there was a large group of Muhammad an 
 Khans and nobles who would have received short 
 shrift from Govind Singh, but whom Ranjit Singh 
 wisely attached to his fortunes, thereby materially 
 strengthening his position in the western districts. 
 The heads of the Mussulman tribes of Sials, Ghebas, 
 Tiwanas and Kharrals, and the family of Nawab 
 MuzafFar Khan of Multan were included in this 
 group. 
 
 The manner in which the Maharaja became pos- 
 sessed of the Koh-i-Niir, the most famous diamond in 
 the world, and the mare Laili belonging to the Afghan 
 governor of Peshawar, an animal as famous in her 
 time as the Koh-i-Nlir itself, are excellent examples of 
 the character of the Maharaja for unscrupulousness and 
 pertinacity, and find their place more appropriately in 
 this chapter than in one more purely historical. 
 
 The Koh-i-Nur is too well known for description. 
 Supposed to have been worn by the Pandus of Hindu 
 mythology it emerges into the light of history in the 
 sixteenth century with the Emperors Shah Jahan and 
 Aurangzeb, of whose throne it was the chief ornament. 
 The next owner wa'S that prince of robbers, N^dir 
 Shah, who obtained it when he plundered Delhi. On 
 his murder it became the prize of Ahmad Shah 
 Abdali, and at last, in 1813, when Maharaja Eanjit 
 
 G %
 
 lOO RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 Singh found an opportunity of seizing the diamond, it 
 was in possession of Shah Shuja, the ex-monarch of 
 Kabul, who had been ousted by his brother, and who 
 came to the Punjab as an exile. Ranjit Singh, partly 
 for political reasons, desiring to have in his hand a 
 weapon which he could use against the Afghan 
 usurper, but chiefly in order to obtain the celebrated 
 jewel, offered Shah Shuja an asylum at Lahore. The 
 Sikh chroniclers of E-anjit Singh have asserted that 
 Shah Begam, the wife of Shah Shuja, sent a messenger 
 to the Maharaja, promising him the Koh-i-Nlir, if he 
 would protect her husband and not surrender him to 
 Fateh Khan, the governor of Peshawar, his deadly 
 enemy ; that the Maharaja at once accepted the pre- 
 sent, and sent his trusted general, Mokham Chand, to 
 escort the exiled monarch with all honour to Lahore. 
 The story told by Shah Shuja diflfers from this, 
 and states that the subject of the Koh-i-Niir was 
 never mentioned until Ranjit Singh had him safely in 
 Lahore in the house assigned him for a residence, when 
 he sent brusquely to demand it. The poor fugitive 
 denied having the stone with him ; Ranjit Singh sent 
 back and offered a large estate in exchange. Shjih 
 Shuja again asserted that it had been placed for 
 security in the hands of a shraf or money-lender, but 
 that it would become available when the friendship 
 between the Maharajd and himself had taken a definite 
 shape and was secured by sufficient guarantees. 
 Ranjit Singh lost his temper, and forgetting the 
 Oriental duty of hospitality, placed a guard of soldiers
 
 THE MAHArAjA 10 1 
 
 round the Afghan's house and searched anyone who 
 left it, allowing no food to be sent in. Forged letters 
 were produced which it was stated had been inter- 
 cepted from Shah Shuja to his friends in Afghanistan, 
 calling upon them to invade the Punjab and liberate 
 him. 
 
 The Shah was threatened with imprisonment in the 
 fortress of Govindgarh, and at length, after two months' 
 resistance, wearied out with perpetual harassing, 
 seeing his family and servants half-starving and 
 appreciating that longer refusal would only end in 
 his captivity or death, he promised to give up the 
 diamond if the Maharaja^ on his part, would promise 
 him protection and friendship in the most solemn 
 manner. This the Maharaja did, having a document 
 drawn up in which he promised on the Adi Granth 
 and the Granth of the loth Keign, to be ever the 
 friend of Shah Shuja and to endeavour to restore him 
 to the throne of Kabul. The Afghan then invited 
 Ranji't Singh to come and receive the diamond in 
 person. He arrived with a few attendants and was 
 received in silence which was unbroken for an hour, 
 when the Maharaja reminded his new friend and 
 prisoner of the object of his visit. The Shah ordered 
 one of his servants to bring the diamond. A packet 
 was brought in and unwrapped, and when the Maha- 
 raja saw that it was really the stone he coveted he 
 seized it and left the house without even bidding 
 farewell to the prince. Nor was this all ; for, some 
 time afterwards, hearing that his visitors were still
 
 loa RANJIT SINGH 
 
 the possessors of some magnificent jewels, he sent 
 Bhai Earn Singh with one of his wives to search the 
 house and even the zenana of Shah Shuja and bring all 
 the valuables that were found. This was done, and 
 it is said that the lady even searched the persons of 
 the wives and female attendants of the Shah, and 
 everything worth carrying away was kept by the 
 Maharaja. 
 
 The Koh-i-Niir remained at Lahore till 1 849, when 
 on the annexation of the Punjab it was surrendered 
 as a token of submission to the Queen of England. 
 To her, as the representative and successor of the 
 Emperors of Delhi, it legitimately descendedj quite 
 apart from the right of conquest, on the termination 
 of a war forced on the English by the Sikh army. 
 
 The story of the famous mare Laili can be briefly 
 told. She was renowned for her beauty throughout 
 Afghanistan and the Punjab, and Ranjit Singh, in 
 i8a6, sent to her owner. Sirdar Yar Muhammad 
 Khan, governor of Peshawar, to demand her sur- 
 render which was refused. Straightway Sirdar Budh 
 Singh Sindhanwalia, one of the best of the Sikh 
 generals, was sent to take possession of the mare, 
 and at the same time to attack Khalifa Syad Ahmad, 
 who was preaching a jihad or holy war against the 
 Sikhs in the Peshawar hills. He defeated the enemy, 
 with great loss on both sides, but when he reached 
 Peshawar was informed that Laili had died. On his 
 return to Lahore it was ascertained that this story 
 was false, and another force, under the nominal
 
 THE MAhArAjA 103 
 
 command of Prince Kharak Singh, was despatched to 
 Peshawar with orders to buy the mare, or seize her, 
 and if Yar Muhammad would not part with her to 
 depose him fi'om the governorship. The Prince 
 marched to Peshawar, and Yar Muhammad, who con- 
 sidered that his honour was involved in not sur- 
 rendering the mare, fled to the hills. Prince Kharak 
 Singh, after holding Peshawar for eight months, retired, 
 leaving Sirdar Sultan Muhammad Khan as governor ; 
 but the Sikh army had not proceeded further than 
 Attock when Yar ]\Iuhammad returned and drove out 
 the new governor. General Ventura, who had been 
 left in command of the Sikh army at Attock, was 
 now directed by the Maharaja to try his hand at the 
 business of the acquisition of the horse, for which he 
 was to ofier any price which would be accepted, but, 
 if refused, was to renew hostilities. While Yar 
 Muhammad was hesitating as to his reply. Khalifa 
 Syad Ahmad again descended from the hills and 
 ravaged the villages north of Peshawar, and the 
 governor, who attempted to drive him back, was 
 killed in the fight which ensued. Laili however had 
 not been surrendered, and General Ventura, after 
 having defeated Syad Ahmad, encamped before Pe- 
 shawar and demanded the animal from Sultan Mu- 
 hammad Khan, whom he promised to confirm in the 
 governorship if he gave her up. But Sultan Muhammad 
 tried as many subterfuges as his brother, and it was 
 not till Ventura had arrested him in his own palace 
 and thi-eatened to hold him a prisoner till Laili was
 
 I04 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 given up, that persistence obtained its deserved success, 
 and the General, becoming the happy possessor of the 
 coveted mare, took her to Lahore where she was 
 received with much rejoicing by the Maharaja. 
 
 Whether the real horse was given up is still doubt- 
 ful, for there are few created beings that an Afghan 
 cannot or would not deceive. Certainly, at Rupar in 
 1 83 1, when the Maharaja visited the Governor-General, 
 a brown horse was shown as LaiH. When Hiigel 
 visited Lahore he especially begged to be allowed to 
 see the famous horse, which the Maharaja told him 
 had cost him sixty lakhs of rupees and twelve 
 thousand men. He describes Laili as magnificently 
 caparisoned, with gold bangles round his legs, a dark 
 grey, with black points, thirteen years old and fully 
 sixteen hands high. This was the horse Ventura 
 assured Hiigel that he had obtained with so much 
 difiiculty at Peshawar ; but, on the other hand, Sikh 
 records always speak of Laili as having been a mare 
 which the name would seem to confirm. So the sex 
 of the true Laili must remain a historical puzzle. 
 Certain it is, that no horse, since that which caused 
 the fall of Troy, has ever been the source of so much 
 trouble and the death of so many brave men. 
 
 The Maharaja was a very hard drinker, and it was 
 his indulgence in frequent and fiery potations which 
 killed him, as it has killed a large number of 
 Indian princes in whose States there is no public 
 opinion sufficiently strong to restrain them from 
 habitual intemperance.
 
 THE MAHArAjA 105 
 
 It has been asserted by some of those -who are fond 
 of depreciating their own countrymen that intemper- 
 ance in India is a vice due to foreign importation, and 
 that the Hindus, before the conquest of the country 
 by England, were a perfectly sober people. This was 
 not the case in the Punjab or among the Sikhs. 
 They were ahvays a hard-drinking race. Take the 
 time with which the last chapter is concerned, when 
 the name of the English was unknown to the Sikhs. 
 Eaja Amar Singh of Patiala died of intemperance 
 in 1 781, as had his father Sardul Singh in 1753, and 
 his younger brother Lai Singh. Almost every great 
 family had the same record. The sword and the bottle 
 were equally destructive to the barons of the Khalsa. 
 
 The favourite liquor of the Maharaja Ranjit w^as 
 a fierce compound distilled from corn-brandy, mixed 
 with the juice of meat, opium, musk and various 
 herbs. Of this he drank large quantities in the 
 evening and at night. Most of his courtiers, with the 
 exception of the Muhammadan Fakirs, were ready to 
 please him by joining in his drinking bouts and in- 
 deed were habitually as drunken as himself. But 
 with all this hard drinking, which was the custom of 
 his age and country and should not be regarded as 
 anything unusual, the Maharaja was always fit for 
 business at the proper and assigned time. Every 
 foreign visitor to his Court was struck with his in- 
 telligence, eager curiosity, and general information, 
 and there was nothing of which he was fonder than 
 to discuss the manners and constitutions of other
 
 io6 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 countries and to hear about the armies and cam- 
 paigns of Europe. His manners to strangers were 
 particularly pleasing and courteous, and many ac- 
 counts are extant by travellers, who visited Lahore 
 during the latter years of his reign, which attest the 
 fascination he exercised over those in immediate 
 relation to him. 
 
 Like most men who have been distinguished in 
 history for administrative vigour and military genius, 
 Ranjit Singh was very susceptible to feminine in- 
 fluence. His experiences were not however such as 
 to give a favourable impression of the manners and 
 morals of the ladies of the Punjab. His grandmother, 
 Mai Desan, was killed by his father for an intrigue 
 with a Brahman ; and Eanjit Singh is said to have 
 killed his own mother Rani Raj Kour, popularly known 
 as Mai Malwai, for a similar offence. Of his own 
 wives and mistresses, the chronicle is too scandalous 
 for more than passing mention in this place. When 
 he had secured the legitimate succession in the person 
 of his son Kharak Singh, he cared little for the dis- 
 creditable intrigues of his harem. Many children 
 were fathered upon him by these ladies, either for 
 political objects or in the hope of obtaining his special 
 favour j and although the astute Maharaja was never 
 deceived, he generally accepted the children as his 
 own, with a certain grim amusement, and would ask 
 why fortune had favoured him in so extraordinary a 
 manner. To his son, Kharak Singh, and to his 
 grandson, Nao Nihal Singh, he sent several ladies of
 
 THE MAhArAjA 107 
 
 more than doubtful reputation from his own zenana ; 
 one of these being the beautiful Isar Kour, who was 
 so cruelly forced to become Soil on the death of 
 Maharaja Kharak Singh. 
 
 Kanjit Singh married eighteen wives ; nine by the 
 orthodox ceremonial and nine by the simpler rite of 
 throwing the sheet, which has been already described. 
 Only a few of these require any special notice ^. 
 
 Mahtab Kour was the first in order, married in 
 1786, a match which gave Ranjit Singh his command- 
 ing position, she being the granddaughter and heiress 
 of the powerful Kanheya baron Jai Singh. Her 
 mother, the widow Sada Kour, a truly remarkable 
 woman, who realized that if her daughter was to 
 retain her influence she must present her husband 
 with an heir, procured a boy during one of the 
 Maharaja's expeditions and passed him off as her 
 daughter's. The child, named Ishar Singh, only lived 
 a year and a half ; and Sada Kour determined to try 
 the effect of twins. When Ranjit Singh had started 
 on his Cis-Sutlej expedition of 1807, it was given 
 out that Mahtab Kour was pregnant, and on his return 
 twin sons were presented to him, one purchased from 
 a chintz-weaver, and the other the offspring of a 
 slave-girl in Mai Sada Kour's house. Ranjit Singh at 
 first refused to have anything to say to the children, 
 but the following year, when he was almost at war 
 
 ^ The full details of all the wives and children, real and reputed, 
 of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, his son, grandson, and successors, will be 
 found in The Punjab Chiefs.
 
 io8 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 with the English over the Cis-Sutlej question, he 
 thought it necessary to conciliate his terrible mother- 
 in-law who had the Ramgarhia barons at her back, 
 and acknowledged the boys, treating them as his own 
 and allowing them the title of Prince. One of them, 
 Tara Singh, was an idiot ; the other, Sher Singh, 
 grew up an exceedingly handsome, brave and stupid 
 man, and succeeded to the throne after the death of 
 Nao Nihdl Singh, but was assassinated in 1 843 by the 
 Sindhanwalia chiefs. 
 
 The second wife of the Maharaja was Raj Kour, 
 the daughter of Earn Singh, a Nakkai chief. She 
 was married in 1798, and four years later gave birth 
 to Kharak Singh, who was the only child, legitimate 
 or illegitimate, by a wife or a slave-girl, ever born to 
 Ranjit Singh. Kharak Singh succeeded his father 
 without opposition, but was a man of weak intellect 
 and was no more than a puppet in the hands of his 
 ambitious son, Nao Nihdl Singh, and the intriguing 
 Rajas of Jammu, who poisoned him when they had 
 had enough of him. Nao Nihal Singh, in his turn, 
 was assassinated as he was returning from his father's 
 cremation. 
 
 The other wives were of less importance. One, 
 whom the Maharaja married in 1833, in orthodox 
 fashion and with great splendour, was a courtesan 
 named Gul Begam of Amritsar city. When still a 
 young man, in 1806, a yet more famous woman of 
 the same professional courtesan class, named Moran, 
 obtained great influence over him, and Ranjit Singh
 
 THE MAHARAJA 1 09 
 
 was not ashamed to parade, very drunk, on an 
 elephant, during the Holi festival, with Moran by his 
 side. She obtained a gi'ant of Firozpur, and sent 
 troops to reduce it, though without success ; and 
 coins, with her name and effigy, were struck in carica- 
 ture of the East India Company which, in popular 
 Indian belief, was a woman. 
 
 Another woman who rose to fame, or rather to 
 notoriety, after the death of the great Maharaja, was 
 Jindan, the reputed mother of Maharaja Dhulip Singh. 
 She was the daughter of Manna Singh, a trooper in the 
 service of the palace, and as a clever mimic and dancer 
 she attracted the notice of the old Maharaja and was 
 taken into the zenana, where her open intrigues caused 
 astonishment even in the easy Lahore Court. A 
 menial servant, a water-carrier, of the name of 
 Gulu, was generally accepted as the father of Dhulip 
 Singh. At any rate, the father was not Maharaja 
 Ranjit Singh, who was paralysed several years be- 
 fore the birth of the child. Nor did he ever marry 
 Jindan by formal or informal marriage. Many be- 
 lieved that DhuKp Singh was not born of Jindan at 
 all ; but was brought into the palace to favour an 
 intrigue of the Jammu Rajas, Ghulab Singh and Dhyan 
 Singh, who required a child to put forward when 
 all the other possible heirs, real or reputed, of the 
 Maharaja should have perished ; and it is certain that 
 Jindan and the child were for some time sheltered at 
 Jammu and only produced at a convenient time. 
 However this may be, in the wild anarchy which
 
 no RAN J It SINGH 
 
 succeeded the death of Sher Singh, when all the scum 
 of the pot rose to the surface, Jindan, with her last pro- 
 fessed lover, Eaja Lai Singh, played a conspicuous and 
 infamous part, and her debaucheries and her unworthy 
 paramour were in large part the cause of the Sutlej 
 war and the ruin of the Sikh kingdom. DhuHp 
 Singh, a child of nine years, was the titular Maharaja 
 when the British army reached Lahore after the cam- 
 paign ; and as it was convenient to accept the status 
 quo, and as a nominal ruler was required for a country 
 which the English Government had then no desire to 
 annex or permanently occupy, the reputed child of 
 the servant-maid and the water-carrier was confirmed 
 on the throne of the Lion of the Punjab. Fortune, 
 with her ever-turning wheel, must have laughed at 
 the transformation.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Coukt of Ranjit Singh 
 
 A DRY record of the campaigns fought by the 
 Maharajd,, the principalities he annexed and the 
 chiefs he overthrew, would have little interest for the 
 English reader, who rather desires to know what 
 manner of man the Maharaja was ; by what means 
 and instruments he obtained his astonishing success, 
 and what was the character of the chiefs who sur- 
 rounded him. An attempt will be made in this 
 chapter to give portraits of the principal courtiers of 
 the Maharaja, some of which were drawn by me 
 many years ago when the originals they represent 
 were still alive, or from the faithful accounts given to 
 me by their sons or companions ^. 
 
 The Maharaja was far too astute a man to trouble 
 himself about the antecedents of his subordinate 
 officials. So long as a man did him good service in 
 the cabinet or the field, he was trusted and rewarded. 
 As soon as he found his confidence betrayed, or the 
 instrument he had chosen inefficient or unworthy, he 
 
 ' In The Punjab Chiefs.
 
 112 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 threw it contemptuously aside ; so contemptuously 
 that he often did not deign to punish the offender. 
 But, generally, looking at the career of the Maharaja 
 from the time that he securely established his throne 
 after the capture of Multan in 1818, it is astonishing 
 to see with what fidelity he was served and how few 
 of his officials turned against him. It is true, little 
 was to be gained by revolt or treachery, for in every 
 department of the State corruption was the rule. 
 Officials might squeeze the peasantry at their plea- 
 sure so long as they paid their due proportion of the 
 revenue into the royal treasury. The only limit to 
 oppression was the resistance of the people which, in 
 the hot-blooded Punjab, is certain to occur at a known 
 and fixed point of the political thermometer. The Jat 
 Sikh, or the Muhammadan of the Jehlam district, will 
 not endure more than the normal and traditional 
 amount of official robbery ; when more than this was 
 attempted, his hand and those of his clansmen flew to 
 their swords and a good deal of trouble was the result. 
 The Sikh Sirdars were granted estates liable to 
 feudal military service, and they maintained in addition 
 a motley crew of armed followers of their own, and a 
 princely state within their own districts. To many 
 of them were also assigned tracts of country to 
 administer, although administration meant little more 
 than the collection of the Government revenue. In 
 these cases the whole work fell on the money-lender 
 and the Brahman land-agent, to whom the Sikh Sirdar 
 assigned his responsibilities, deducting a large com-
 
 HIS COURT 113 
 
 mission for himself; how much, his master rarely 
 cared to inquire. As it was then in the Punjab so is 
 it to-day in some of the Feudatory States of India. 
 There are many vast estates granted to his courtiers 
 by the late Maharaja Sindhia, which were never visited 
 by the assignees, who only asked that the rents should 
 be regularly transmitted to Gwalior. On these distant 
 properties every villainy and oppression was common : 
 all financial and judicial control being in the hands of 
 some greedy Brahman or Baniya on a nominal salary, 
 who waxed rich on what he stole from his master and 
 plundered from the people. 
 
 Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a superstitious but 
 not a religious man. His wild youth and stormy 
 manhood had left him neither the leisure nor the 
 inclination to master the metaphysical niceties of 
 Guru Nanak or to follow the complicated rules of 
 conduct enjoined by Guru Govind Singh. He was 
 an opportunist, to whom only those doctrines were 
 agreeable which allowed him to rivet his authority 
 more closely on the rude Jats he ruled. Thus he 
 gave large gifts, on convenient occasions, to Sikh 
 temples and priests ; and several of the most influ- 
 ential of the religious leaders, Babas and Bhais, 
 found an honourable place at his court. Nor did 
 these holy men, who were but half educated at the 
 best, and who understood the mysticism of Nanak 
 as little as the Sikh priests of to-day, care much 
 for orthodoxy so long as they were well paid for ac- 
 quiescence in heterodoxy. The main idea of Sikhism 
 
 H
 
 114 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 was the destruction of Islam, and it was unlawful 
 to salute Muhammadans, to associate with them, or 
 to make peace with them on any terms. But several 
 of the most trusted of the Maharaja's ministers were 
 of this hated creed. Even the employment of Brah- 
 mans was expressly forbidden by Govind Singh, who 
 had been cast out and denounced by this spiritual 
 aristocracy of Hinduism for his abolition of caste 
 and denial of their authority. Yet Jamadar Khushhal 
 Singh, Baja Tej Singh, Raja Sahib Dyal, Raja Rallia 
 Ram, Diwan Ajodhia Parshad, Pandit Shunkar Nath, 
 and numerous other prominent Darbar officials were 
 Brahmans. The tolerance of the Maharaja was due 
 rather to indifference and selfishness than to any en- 
 lightened sentiment, and it may be doubted whether 
 religious toleration has any securer basis in any time 
 or country. Intolerance is born of strong passionate 
 beliefs ; and fanaticism only dies out as doubt enters, 
 and the fire of religious enthusiasm burns low. But 
 whatever its origin, the liberalism of the Maharaja 
 had an excellent efiect upon his administration, and 
 his example was at once followed by other Sikh 
 States. To-day there is no sign of the old intolerance 
 favoured by Govind — an intolerance quite as ferocious 
 as that of Muhammadanism itself. The greatest of the 
 Sikh Principalities of the Cis-Sutlej, that of Patiala, 
 has during the last three reigns been admirably 
 served in the offices of Prime Minister and Foreign 
 Secretary by two Muhammadan gentlemen. Kha- 
 lifas Syad Muhammad Hassan, and Syad Muhammad
 
 HIS COURT 115 
 
 Hussain, who, for ability, integrity, and accomplish- 
 ments, have no superiors in any native Court ; while 
 in the Sikh States of Kapurthala, Nabha, and Jind, 
 officials of the same creed hold places of honour and 
 responsibility. As to Brahmans, it is doubtful whether 
 the rules of Guru Govind Singh ever passed beyond 
 the authority of a pious opinion ; for the weight 
 of the Hindu theocracy bore heavily on the necks 
 of all who had once been subjected to it, and the 
 most audacious among the Sikhs could not openly 
 outrage the popular sentiment in favour of the 
 sanctity of the Brahman. But whatever the rules of 
 Sikhism might enjoin, it was virtually impossible to 
 carry on a complex administration without making 
 use of the only classes, Muhamraadans and Brahmans, 
 who had any hereditary capacity for government. 
 
 Democracies may assert the equality of intellect and 
 extol the carriere ouverte aux talents, but the practice 
 of Republics in Europe and America gives the 
 doctrine the lie. Governing is an art which may 
 no doubt be brilliantly practised without special 
 training by some men of exceptional genius ; but, 
 as an ordinary accomplishment, it must be painfully 
 and laboriously acquired, while hereditary aptitude 
 and the class and family traditions of rule are very 
 important factors in its success. Now, to the Brah- 
 mans and the Muhammadans alone did the hereditary 
 talent of government belong in the days of Ranjit 
 Singh. The former had created the existing Hindu 
 system of polity, and while to the fighting class 
 
 H 2
 
 1 16 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 they had cleverly assigned the glory and danger 
 of kingship, they had retained the substantial power 
 in their own hands. They were the spiritual guides 
 and the worldly advisers of the monarch ; their 
 authority overshadowed his; he reigned and they 
 governed. So with the Muhammadans. For several 
 hundred years, by invasion and conquest, they had 
 ruled India as a military Empire ; and although they 
 were no more able to dispense with the inevitable 
 Brahman than the Hindu monarchs they superseded, 
 yet Muhammadan Emperors were naturally served 
 largely by officials of their own creed, who had 
 either originally accompanied the army of invasion 
 or had descended from its chiefs and officials ; 
 while the great majority of Hindu converts to Islam 
 who obtained profitable employment were the most 
 intelligent of the Hindu community, for to accept 
 the creed of the conqueror is an obvious proof of 
 exceptional astuteness. 
 
 Against the cultured intelligence of these races 
 what had the poor Jat cultivator, as stupid as his 
 own buffaloes, to oppose ? Not to him the triumphs 
 of diplomacy and the conflict of quick intellects in 
 the atmosphere of a court. He could do no more 
 than plough straight and fight. In an intellectual 
 competition with Brahmans and Muhammadans he 
 was as a cart-horse matched against thoroughbreds. 
 Mahardja Ranjit Singh recognised this truth very 
 early in his career. It was pressed on him, in 1807, 
 by Sirdar Fateh Singh Kalianwala, before mentioned,
 
 HIS COURT 117 
 
 when he lay dying of a wound received in the un- 
 successful storm of Narayangarh. The chief is said 
 to have counselled him never to appoint any Jat 
 Sikh to a position of authority about the court, but 
 to confine them to military service. Whether the 
 story be true or not it is certain that the Maharaja 
 observed the principle and, while his bravest officers 
 and generals were Jats, in the council he gave his 
 confidence to Brahmans, Eajputs, Muhammadans : or 
 even to Khattris, like Diwan Sawan Mall. As it 
 was then so it is at the present time. Two genera- 
 tions of British rule have not modified in any 
 essential particular the character of the Jat Sikhs. 
 They are still as impatient of education, as slow 
 witted, as simple in their habits and ideas as when 
 Ranjit Singh formed them, for a few jears, into the 
 semblance of a nation. 
 
 The most conspicuous figure in th^ eyes of 
 foreigners visiting the court of the Maharaja was 
 Fakir Azizuddin, his Foreign Minister. He, with his 
 brothers Nuruddin and Imamuddin, was descended 
 from a Muhammadan family of Bokhara of great 
 respectability, and in that country many of his 
 descendants still reside. Ilis father, Ghulam Mo- 
 haiuddin, was a clever medical practitioner. In 1799 
 the principal Lahore phj'sician, with whom Azizuddin 
 was studying, placed the youth in attendance on 
 Ranjit Singh, when that chief, soon after his capture 
 of Lahore, was sufi'ering from ophthalmia. The skill 
 and attention of the young doctor won the chief's
 
 Il8 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 regard. Azizuddin received a grant of several villages, 
 was appointed personal physician to the Maharaja, 
 and as Ranjit's territories increased the wealth and 
 estates of Azizuddin grew also. It was his wise 
 influence in 1808 which prevented Ranjit Singh from 
 declaring war with the British, when they first 
 curbed his power by confining his conquests to the 
 north of the Sutlej. The Maharaja was so con- 
 vinced of the wisdom of Azizuddin's advice on this 
 occasion that he never undertook any serious opera- 
 tions without consulting him. In all matters con- 
 nected with Europeans and the English Government 
 Azizuddin was specially employed, and to his en- 
 lightened and liberal counsels it may be attributed 
 that throughout his long reign the Maharaja main- 
 tained such close friendship with the English Govern- 
 ment. Trusting implicitly to its good faith, he would 
 set out with his whole army on distant expeditions, 
 leaving only the Fakir with a few orderlies for the 
 protection of Lahore. Azizuddin was occasionally 
 employed on military service, and whenever it was 
 necessary to send a special embassy, as to Lord 
 William Eentinck in 1831 and to Amir Dost Mu- 
 hammad in 1835, the Fakir was always selected 
 and was always equal to the emergency. On the 
 historical occasion of the Maharaja's meeting with 
 the Governor-General at Rupar in 1831, which has 
 been called the meeting of ' the field of cloth of gold,' 
 and on the equally memorable and magnificent visit to 
 Lord Auckland at Firozpur in 1838, the most onerous
 
 HIS COURT 119 
 
 part of the duties fell to the share of Fakir Azizuddin. 
 He was one of the ablest and certainly the most 
 honest of all Ranjit Singh's courtiei's. 
 
 Azizuddin was of so engaging a disposition, and so 
 perfect a courtier in his manners, that he made few 
 declared enemies, though many were doubtless jealous 
 of his influence. One reason of his popularity, as a 
 Muhammadan minister at a Hindu Court, was the 
 liberality of his belief. He was a Sufi, a sect held, 
 indeed, as infidel by orthodox Muhammadans, but to 
 which the best thinkers and poets of the East have 
 belono-ed. He had no love for the barren dog- 
 mata of the Kuran, but looked on all religions as 
 equally to be respected and disregarded. On one 
 occasion Ranjit Singh asked him whether he preferred 
 the Hindu or the Muhammadan religion. * I am,' he 
 replied, 'a man floating in the midst of a mighty 
 river. I turn my eyes towards the land, but can 
 distinguish no difference in either bank.' He was 
 celebrated as the most eloquent man of his day, and 
 he was as able with his pen as with his tongue. 
 Tlie state papers drawn up by him are models of 
 elegance and good taste, according to the Oriental 
 standard. He was himself a ripe scholar in all 
 branches of Eastern science, and was also a generous 
 and discriminating patron of learning. At Lahore 
 he founded at his own expense a College for the study 
 of Persian and Arabic, and to this institution many 
 of the Arabic scholars of the Punjab of the past 
 generation owed their training.
 
 I20 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 As a poet Azizuddin may be allowed a high place. 
 His Persian verses, of the mystical character which 
 the Sufis afiect, are often beautiful, and distinguished 
 by simplicity and great elegance of style. A few 
 stanzas, literally translated, are inserted here to show 
 the character of Sufi religious poetry : — 
 
 ' If you attentively regard the world 
 You will find it fugitive as a shadow: 
 Why should you vex yourself with vain desires 
 When you have no power to perform 1 
 Forget yourself, and leave your work with God ; 
 Trust yourself with all confidence to Him. 
 Wait with patience until He shall hless you, 
 And thank Him for what He has already given. 
 Stop your ears from the sound of earthly care; 
 Eejoice in God and be hopeful of His mercy. 
 The wise would consider me as an idolater 
 Should I thoughtlessly speak of myself as "/"; 
 To the wise and to those who most nearly know, 
 It is a folly for any mortal to assert " / am "; 
 Although able to vanquish Sahrab, Zal, and E,ustam, 
 Yet at the last your stabihty is but as water. 
 It is a vain thought that your reason may spin 
 His imaginings, as a spider spins her web. 
 It is well that I should breathe the air of freedom, 
 For I know that everything is dependent upon God.' 
 
 The elaborately polished manners of Fakir Azizud- 
 din, and his exaggeration of flattery and compliment, 
 struck foreigners the more strangely at so rough and 
 rude a court as that of Lahore. What was the 
 natural atmosphere in the courtly Muhammadan circles 
 at Bokhara and Delhi seemed somewhat grotesque in
 
 HIS COURT J 21 
 
 the Minister of an illiterate Sikh chief. On Baron 
 Charles Hugel, who travelled in the Punjab in 
 1835-36, and whose narrative is perhaps the most 
 delightful of any which have been written on that 
 country previous to its annexation, the personality of 
 the Fakir made an immense impression, and he gives 
 many instances of his flowery discourse. He, as 
 usual, was the intermediary between the Maharaja 
 and his European guest, who was almost persuaded 
 to accept the Maharaja's service on the princely 
 salary of Rs. 6000 a month, the ability and accom- 
 plishments of the young traveller having aroused 
 the Maharaja's surprise. It is evident that the Baron 
 entertained a sincere admiration for the Minister, in 
 spite of his extravagant compliments, which were, 
 after all, no more than the habitual conversational 
 currency of the Persian language. 
 
 In 1842, Azizuddin, having been deputed to meet 
 Lord EUenborough at Firozpur, where a grand Darbar 
 was to be held, explained away an apparent dis- 
 courtesy in the failure of the Sikh envoy to meet the 
 Governor- General with such courtesy and ability that 
 the Governor-General declared him in full Darbar to 
 be ' the protector of the friendship of both States ' and 
 presented him with his own gold watch, which I have 
 often seen in the possession of his son, who was for 
 several years one of my secretaries at Lahore^. Fakir 
 Azizuddin died in December, 1845, just before the 
 
 crushing defeats of the first Sikh War. With his dying 
 * Saj'ad Jamaluddin, Mir Mimsbi, Secretariat.
 
 122 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 breath he protested against the march of the Sikh 
 army to the Sutlej ; performing, though in vain, his 
 last service to both the English and the Lahore States. 
 Of all his family, many of whom I have known, his 
 nephew Shamshuddin most resembled him. He is now 
 dead, but for many years I enjoyed his intimate friend- 
 ship, and I have never in India met a man of more 
 refined manners^ or a greater flow of eloquence of the 
 florid Persian order. The younger brothers of Azizud- 
 din, Imamuddin and Nuruddin, were both important 
 members of the Maharaja's Court, although their 
 position was not so conspicuous as that of their elder 
 brother. Nuruddin especially enjoyed a very general 
 respect in the country, and, after the war of 1 846, when 
 Raja Lai Singh was deposed for treason, Nuruddin 
 was appointed one of the Council of Regency to carry 
 on the administration until the majority of the infant 
 Maharaja Dhulip Singh. The elder brother was 
 ordinarily known at court by the title of the Fakir 
 Sahib ; not that the style of Fakir which the family 
 were proud enough to retain signified, as the word 
 ordinarily implies, any vow of poverty, for the brothers 
 were all wealthy. Nuruddin was known at court as 
 the Khalifa Sahib, and Imamuddin was, during the 
 greater portion of Ranjit Singh's reign, and until the 
 time of Maharaja Sher Singh, governor of the im- 
 portant fortress of Govindgarh, which commanded 
 the city of Amritsar. 
 
 Two prominent Muhammadans at court were the 
 Naw^b Sarafraz Khan of Miiltan and his younger
 
 HIS COURT \'2.'3> 
 
 brother Zu-1-fakar KMn, sons of the stout old chief 
 Muzalfar Khan, who had died sword in hand, with 
 five of his sons and a large number of his clan, 
 defending the breach when Kanjit assaulted and 
 captured the fortress and city. No victory of 
 the Maharaja had been more fiercely disputed or so 
 hardly won as this ; and when his power was securely 
 established over the Multan province, he had the 
 generosity to treat the sons of his vanquished enemy 
 with kindness and consideration. He brought them to 
 Lahore and settled pensions upon them, which were 
 continued to their representatives by the British 
 Government. 
 
 Another of the conquered Muhammadan chiefs who 
 figured in Ranjit Singh's train at Lahore was Khuda 
 Yar Khan, the Tiwana chief who, with his cousins, 
 was brought to Lahore in command of fifty Tiwana 
 horse, the boldest riders and the most picturesque 
 looking men to be found anywhere in the Punjab. 
 The Tiwanas have always been famous for their 
 gallant bearing, and under English officers have done 
 splendid service. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous figures at the Maha- 
 raja's Court was Jamadar Khushhal Singh. He 
 was the son of a Brahman shopkeeper in the Meerut 
 district. At the age of seventeen he came to Lahore 
 to seek his fortune and was taken into the Dhonkal 
 Singhwala Regiment, then newly raised, on five 
 rupees a month. He soon made friends with the 
 Maharaja's chamberlains, and was placed on the per-
 
 124 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 sonal guard of Ranjit Singh. Here, by his vigilance, 
 aided by good looks and soldierly bearing, he attracted 
 the favourable notice of the Maharaja. The story 
 told by the family is that one night Ranjit Singh 
 went out in disguise, and on his return to the palace 
 was stopped by Khushhal, who was on guard, and who 
 detained his master in the watch-house till morning, 
 and that this vigilance pleased the Maharaja so much 
 that he kept Khushhal by him as a personal attendant. 
 However this may be, it is certain that he rose daily 
 in his master's favour till, in iSii, he was appointed 
 Deorhiivala or chamberlain, with the title of Jamadar. 
 The appointment was one of importance. The cham- 
 berlain was master of the ceremonies, regulated 
 processions, and superintended the Darbar. It was 
 through him alone that any individual, however high 
 in rank, could obtain a private interview with the 
 Maharaja, although the daily Darbar was open to all 
 men of family or official importance. 
 
 Five years after he arrived at Lahore he was bap- 
 tized as a Sikh, and after this grew rapidly in favour 
 and became very wealthy ; as his influence with his 
 master was used to obtain bribes and contributions 
 from all attending the court. He was employed on 
 various military duties, and in 1832 was appointed 
 governor of Kashmir under Prince Sher Singh, where 
 his oppression converted a year of scarcity into one of 
 famine. He was not a man of any particular ability, 
 and although the Maharaja is said to have been 
 attracted by his good looks in the first instance,
 
 HIS COURT • 125 
 
 3'et his portraits taken later in life present him 
 as a coarse, vulgar looking man, far inferior to the 
 handsome Sikh Sirdars. He was unpopular at 
 court, and always showed himself something of a 
 tyrant. 
 
 His nephew, Tej Singh, who followed him to Lahore, 
 also rose to favour and was made a Raja. He was 
 commander-in-chief of the Sikh army during the first 
 campaign with the English, and was accused both of 
 treachery and cowardice. But the temper of the Sikh 
 army was so suspicious, and the circumstances under 
 which he held command were so difficult, that those 
 who have most carefully examined the action of 
 Tej Singh at the time are inclined to acquit him of 
 anything beyond vacillation and weakness. 
 
 The most famous of the fighting chiefs, and the one 
 to whom the Maharaja was most attached, was Hari 
 Singh Nalwa, who was born, like Ranjit Singh him- 
 self, at the town of Gujranwala. He was not only 
 the bravest, but the most skilful of all the Maharaja's 
 generals, and was employed to command all expeditions 
 of exceptional difficulty. He was chiefly instrumental 
 in the capture of Multan in 1 8 1 8, and in the following- 
 year he commanded a division of the army invading 
 Kashmir, of which country he was afterwards ap- 
 pointed governor ; but his talents did not lie in the 
 direction of administration, and he became so un- 
 popular that the Maharaja was compelled to recall 
 him. After this he was chiefly employed on the Pun- 
 jab frontier as governor of Hazara, and subsequently
 
 126 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 of Peshawar, where, in 1837, he was slain in a pitched 
 battle witli the Afghans. 
 
 After Hari Singh Nalwa, the most conspicuous 
 fighting chief was Sirdar Attar Singh Sindhanwalia, 
 who from his strength and courage was considered the 
 champion of the Khalsa. He was a member of the most 
 powerful family in the Punjab proper, that to which the 
 Maharaja himself belonged. The Sindhanwalias were 
 a turbulent race, and Attar Singh, his brother Lehna 
 Singh, and his nephew Ajit Singh were all conspicu- 
 ous in the intrigues which preceded and followed the 
 death of Ranjit Singh, They represented the opposi- 
 tion to the power and influence of the three Jammu 
 Kajas, and all died violent deaths. 
 
 Raja Gulab Singh, Raja Dhyan Singh and Raja 
 Suchet Singh, were of a Dogra Rajput family of 
 humble origin, hut by sheer force of character and 
 ability, rose to great power during the latter days of 
 the monarchy. Raja Dhyan Singh, the second brother, 
 was, during the Maharaja's lifetime, the most impor- 
 tant of the three. He succeeded Jamadar Khushhal 
 Singh in charge of the Deorhi, and was virtually for 
 some years Prime Minister, being the channel of com- 
 munication between the Maharaja and the people, 
 and having general control of all departments except 
 those of finance and foreign affairs, which were re- 
 spectively in the hands of Raja Dina Nath and Fakir 
 Azizuddin. His brother, Gulab Singh, was generally 
 employed on military duties, but after the death of 
 the Maharaja and the murder of his brother, Dhyan
 
 HIS COURT 127 
 
 Singh, he became for a time the most important 
 person in the Lahore State, and his services to the 
 British during the first Sutlej campaign were such 
 that he was granted the independent sovereignty of 
 the Province of Kashmir by the Governor- General. 
 There are, perhaps, no characters in Punjab history 
 more repulsive than Eajas Dhyan Singh and Gulab 
 Singh ; their splendid talents and undoubted bravery 
 only render more conspicuous their atrocious cruelty, 
 their treachery, their avarice, and their unscrupulous 
 ambition. The third brother, Suchet Singh, was the 
 handsomest man in the Sikh army and a very splendid 
 figure at court. He had little of the ability of his 
 brothers, and played altogether a subordinate part in 
 Lahore politics. Raja Hira Singh, the nephew of 
 Raja Dhyan Singh, was a young man of great promise ; 
 he succeeded his father as Prime Ministei', but like 
 him, was assassinated during the troubles which pre- 
 ceded the first Sikh War. 
 
 Among the men who rose to power during the 
 latter days of the Maharaja's life, no one was more 
 remarkable than Raja Diua Nath. He has been well 
 and happily styled the Talleyrand of the Punjab, and 
 his life and character bear a strong resemblance to 
 those of the European statesman. Revolutions in 
 which his friends and patrons perished passed him 
 by ; dynasties rose and fell but never involved him in 
 their ruin ; in the midst of bloodshed and assassina- 
 tion his life was never endangered ; while confiscation 
 and judicial robbery were the rule of the State, his
 
 128 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 wealth and power continually increased. His saga- 
 city and far-sightedness were such, that when, to other 
 eyes, the political sky was clear, he could perceive 
 the signs of a coming storm which warned him to 
 desert a losing party or a falling friend. Honest men 
 do not survive many revolutions, and the Raja's 
 falseness was the measure of his success. He was 
 patriotic, but his love of country was subordinate to 
 his love of self. He hated the English with a bitter 
 hatred, for they were stronger than he or his country; 
 but his interests compelled him to serve, like Samson, 
 the Philistines he hated. He was not without his 
 own notions of fidelity, and would stand by a friend 
 as long as he could do so with safety to himself. Even 
 when he deserted him it was more from thoughts of 
 danger to his wealth and influence than from personal 
 fear, for Eaja Dina Nath was physically brave, and 
 also possessed, in an eminent degree, moral courage ; 
 though it did not lead him to do right regardless of 
 consequences. He possessed immense local knowledge 
 and as vast a capacity for work; but his desire of 
 keeping power in his own hands had an evil efiect 
 on the progress of business. He was an accomplished 
 man of the world, courteous and considerate ; well 
 educated, though nothing of a scholar, and in conver- 
 sation with Europeans he would express himself with 
 a boldness and apparent candour that were as pleasant 
 as they are unusual in Asiatics. 
 
 It was only in 1834 that Raja Dina Nath was made 
 Finance Minister, for which his qualifications were
 
 HIS COURT 129 
 
 exceedingly high, but the Maharaja had for many 
 years reposed great confidence in him, and he was on 
 all occasions of importance one of his most trusted 
 advisers. After the death of his master he retained 
 great influence with the chiefs and the army, and on 
 the British occupation of Lahore was appointed to 
 the Council of Regency, of which he was a most able 
 and useful member. Although his position at the 
 head of the Financial Department gave him many 
 opportunities of enriching himself at the public ex- 
 pense, of which there is every reason to believe he 
 availed himself, he still worked more disinterestedly 
 than others, and was of great service to the Resident 
 at Lahore. Without his clear head and business-like 
 habits it would have been almost impossible to disen- 
 tangle the Darbar accounts, and after the annexation 
 of the Punjab Dina Nath's aid in revenue and jagir 
 matters was almost as valuable as before. At the 
 time of the revolt of the Sikh army in 1848, it was 
 asserted by some that Raja Dina Nath was a traitor 
 at heart; that he had himself encouraged the rising; 
 and that had he not been a wealthy man, with houses 
 and gardens and many lakhs of rupees in Lahore, con- 
 venient for confiscation, he would have joined the rebels 
 without hesitation ; but these stories were perhaps in- 
 vented by his enemies. Certain it is that on his being- 
 recalled to Lahore he zealously carried out the wishes 
 of the British authorities in confiscating the property 
 of the rebels and in counteracting their schemes. 
 Among the constant, though generally silent atten- 
 I
 
 130 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 dants in Darbar, must be mentioned the Sikh priests, 
 Bhai Ram Singh, Bhai Govind Ram and Bhai 
 Gurmukh Singh. The first two of these were the 
 grandsons of a famous Sikh priest and prophet who 
 lived at Lahore, the object of universal respect on the 
 part of the Sikhs during the greater part of the 
 eighteenth century, and who died at nearly a hundred 
 years of age, two years after the Maharaja captured 
 the city of Lahore in 1802. Ranjit Singh had the 
 greatest respect for this holy man and granted estates 
 to his grandsons. Of these. Ram Singh had the most 
 influence, and during a campaign his tent was regularly 
 pitched next to that of Ranjit Singh. A messenger 
 from the Maharaja was always sent to escort them to 
 Darbar, and they were treated with high honour. Bhai 
 Gurmukh Singh was the son of Sant Singh, the guardian 
 of the sacred temple of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, 
 who had been a soldier as well as a priest and 
 served with the army on several occasions with great 
 credit. When he gave up worldly aflfairs and devoted 
 himself to the reading and expounding of the Sikh 
 scriptures, he sent his son Gurmukh Singh to court. 
 The youth soon became as great a favourite as his 
 father had been, although his influence was never equal 
 to that of his enemy and rival, Bhai Ram Singh. 
 
 Other men of importance at Lahore were Misr Rallia 
 Ram, Chief of the Customs Department, with his 
 son, afterwards Raja Sahib Dyal ; the Sirdars of 
 the great house of Attariwala, Sirdars Chatar Singh, 
 Sher Singh and Sham Singh ; the two former of
 
 niS COURT 131 
 
 whom were the principal leaders of the Sikh rebel- 
 lion in 1848 ; the Sirdars of the house of Majithia, of 
 whom Sirdar Desa Singh and his son Sirdar Lehna 
 Singh were the most conspicuous. Lehna Singh was 
 known as Hasviuddaula, the Sword of the State, and 
 was a man of considerable ability. He was a skilful 
 mechanist and an original inventor. He much im- 
 proved the Sikh ordnance; and some very beautiful 
 guns of his manufacture were taken at Aliwal and 
 elsewhere. Among other things he invented a clock 
 which showed the hour, the day of the month, and the 
 changes of the moon. He was fond of astronomy and 
 mathematics and was master of several languages. As 
 an administrator he was very popular. The poor 
 were never oppressed by him, his assessments were 
 moderate and his decisions essentially just. As a 
 statesman, he may be said to have been almost the 
 only honest man in Lahore. Fraud and corruption 
 were supreme, but the hands of Lehna Singh were 
 always clean: surrounded by the most greedy and 
 unscrupulous of schemers, he preserved his honesty 
 unsullied. 
 
 Had a man of the reputation and administrative 
 talent of Lehna Singh taken the lead in 1845 in the 
 Punjab, the great troubles which came upon the 
 country might have been averted. But he was no 
 true patriot. He did not understand that the religion 
 of a statesman, and indeed of every honest man, is to 
 stand by his country in times of danger, sharing her 
 griefs and, if need be, falling with her fall. 
 
 I 2
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Army and Administration of the 
 MahAraja 
 
 The military genius of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was 
 not so much shown in his generalship, for in this he 
 was surpassed by many of his officers and Sirdars, 
 as in the skill with which he formed a powerful, 
 disciplined, and well equipped army out of the raw 
 Sikh levies, turbulent and independent, who had been 
 accustomed to carry their swords from one leader to 
 another as they saw the best chance of plunder, and 
 who changed their masters as often as it suited their 
 inclination or convenience. 
 
 When his grandfather, Charrat Singh, and his 
 father, Mahan Singh, had command of the Sukar- 
 chakia confederacy, the Sikhs were a thoroughly 
 republican body. Chiefs and leaders arose with more 
 or less authority, as was inevitable in anarchic days, 
 when every man owned what he could take by force 
 and hold against all comers, but this leadership gave 
 no man a more intrinsically honourable position in 
 the eyes of the people. The Sikh theocracy had
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 133 
 
 equality and fraternity for its foundations far more 
 literally than has been the case with the modern 
 republics of Europe and America. 
 
 An account of the organisation and system of 
 fighting of the Sikhs has been given in a preceding 
 chapter. They were essentially horsemen, not foot- 
 men. The infantry soldier was considered altogether 
 inferior to the cavalry, and was, in time of war, 
 left behind to garrison forts^ to look after the women, 
 or to follow, as best he could, the fighting force, until 
 ho, in his turn, could afford to change his status and 
 buy or steal a horse for his own use. 
 
 Maharaja Eanjit Singh, very early in his career, 
 recognised, with his usual sagacity, that the Sikh 
 system was unsuited to the genius of the people, and 
 that until it was modified he could not hope to win 
 solid victories over regular troops like the English, 
 whose drill and tactics he studied with infinite pa- 
 tience, or even over the Afghans, who in the time of 
 Ahmad Shah were faiily disciplined, and formidable 
 opponents even in the open country, while in the 
 hills they were almost invincible. When he had 
 thoroughly mastered the secret of the superiority of 
 the British organization, against which all the mili- 
 tary races of India had tried their strength in vain, 
 he resolved to create an army on similar lines, while 
 he determined, not less resolutely, to keep peace with 
 the only power which he had learned to respect. 
 With these ideas, the Maharaja changed the entire 
 organisation of the Khalsa army. The cavalry
 
 134 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 ceased to be the most important arm, and the infantry 
 became the favourite service. The change was facili- 
 tated by the employment of European officers, French 
 and Italian, whom the Maharaja engaged when he 
 failed to obtain the loan of officers of the East India 
 Company's service. These foreign generals introduced 
 the system which had become general in Europe, where 
 the value of infantry as against cavalry was univer- 
 sally acknowledged. Some of them were men of 
 considerable ability and quite competent to perform 
 all they promised in increasing the efficiency of the 
 Lahore army. The infantry under their instruction 
 became a most formidable body of troops, well disci- 
 plined and steady, though slow in manoeuvring. Their 
 endurance was very great, and a whole regiment would 
 march 30 miles a day for many days together. 
 
 Enlistment in the regular army during the Maharaja's 
 reign was entirely voluntary,but there was no difficulty 
 in obtaining recruits, for the service was exceedingly 
 popular. The cavahy was constituted much in the 
 same manner as in the early days of the Khalsa, when 
 clouds of horsemen hung on the skirts of the Afghan 
 armies, afraid to venture an attack upon regular 
 troops, but cutting off convoys, and endangering the 
 communications of the enemy. This is no doubt one 
 of the principal duties of light horse ; but the Sikh 
 cavali-y were, as a rule, miserably mounted and armed, 
 and became more celebrated for taking to flight when 
 attacked than for any display of valour. On foot the 
 Sikh is the bravest and steadiest of soldiers ; but on
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 135 
 
 horseback, although there are some crack cavahy 
 regiments of Sikhs in the English service that can 
 hold their own with any horsemen in the world, they 
 are surpassed by Afghans and Hindustanis who are 
 inferior to them as infantry. In the Maharaja's army 
 the infantry were the pick of the youth of the 
 country ; only the handsomest and strongest men were 
 selected, while the cavahy were irregular troops, the 
 contingents of his different Sirdars, and not appointed 
 for any considerations of bravery or strength. The 
 horses were small, weak, and ill-bred, and the accou- 
 trements were of the roughest and coarsest kind. In 
 the armies of the Sikh States at the present day, all 
 of which I have often reviewed and inspected, and 
 one of which it was my duty to reorganise, the same 
 practice prevails. The infantry are in size and 
 physique equal to the Sikhs in the British army ; 
 while the cavalry regiments have been turned into a 
 hospital for old and decrepit pensioners, who can sit 
 on a horse, although they cannot fight or perform any 
 service requiring bodily exertion. 
 
 I have already referred to the Akalis as the only 
 infantry soldiers who, in the old Khalsa days, en- 
 joyed any consideration. The Maharaja was afraid to 
 interfere too closely with these men ; for though little 
 better than drunken savages, they were supposed by 
 the Sikhs to possess a semi-sacred character, and 
 were, moreover, useful when desperate deeds were to 
 be done which the rank and file of the army might 
 have declined. They nearly embroiled the ]\Iaharaja
 
 136 RAN JIT SINGH 
 
 with the English by their fanatical attack upon Mr. 
 Metcalfe's Mussulman escort in 1809 ^, and their reck- 
 less valour turned many a wavering fight into a 
 victory. They were identical in character and in the 
 manner of their onslaught with the Ghazis of Afghanis- 
 tan and the Soudan, whose fierce and terrible attack 
 shakes the nerves of all but the steadiest and most 
 seasoned troops ; but the Sikh soldiers of God drew 
 their courage more from drink and maddening drugs, 
 than from the depths of religious enthusiasm which 
 inspires the wild children of Islam. They were an 
 unmitigated nuisance and danger during the Maha- 
 raja's reign, and more than once they attempted his life. 
 Their insolent swagger and hatred to Europeans 
 made them so obnoxious during the early years of 
 the British occupation and annexation, that visits to 
 the Temple of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, where 
 the Akal Bungah formed their head-quarters, were 
 always attended with some risk. The Maharaja was 
 tolerant or indifferent, and desii-ed his Muhammadan 
 subjects to perform their ceremonial without molesta- 
 tion, yet it was found necessary to prohibit the call 
 to prayer of the Muezzin^ as it roused the Akalis to 
 fury. The Maharaja tried to reduce these fanatics 
 to something like order by forming them into a corps 
 of irregular cavalry, 3000 strong, but this had little 
 
 ' The steadiness with which the Envoy's disciplined escort 
 repulsed the raging mob of Akalis made a great impression on 
 Ranjit Singh, and not only disposed him to peace, but determined 
 him to train and discipline his own troops in like fashion.
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 137 
 
 effect, and they always dismounted for a charge, in 
 which the two-handed sword was their favourite 
 weapon. The steel quoits, which they invariably 
 wore on their turbans, six to eight inches in diameter, 
 thin and with a sharp cutting edge, were not the 
 formidable weapons they were pretended, and were 
 as dangerous to friends as foes. I have never met an 
 Akali who could make good or sure practice with 
 tliem, and I have often thrown against them with 
 success. Their effective range is from sixty to one 
 hundred yards. 
 
 Of the foreign officers who entered the Maharaja's 
 service General Ventura was the most important. He 
 was an Italian of honour and reputation, who had 
 served under Napoleon in the armies of Sj)ain and 
 Italy, and who, after the peace, finding his occupation 
 gone, became a soldier of fortune ready for adventure in 
 any part of the world. Of similar character and stand- 
 ing was General Allard, another of Napoleon's officers, 
 who had won distinction by his ability and gallantry in 
 many campaigns. These men first tried their fortune 
 in Egypt and Persia, but finding no opening under 
 Shah Abbas, the ruling monarch, they travelled to 
 India, via Herat and Kandahar, and were engaged by 
 the Maharaja after some hesitation and a prolonged 
 examination of their qualifications. Both served 
 Ranjit Singh long and faithfully. Allard was allowed 
 to raise a corps of dragoons, and Ventura was placed 
 in command of the Fouj Khds or special brigade, the 
 first in rank, discipline and equipment in the Sikh
 
 138 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 army. Its normal strength was four infantry batta- 
 lions and two regiments of cavalry, and although the 
 Maharaja at one time raised it to five battalions of 
 infantry and three cavahy regiments, it was after- 
 wards reduced, at Ventura's request, to its former 
 numbers. In command of this force the general 
 served in many campaigns with distinction, chiefly in 
 the hills and around Peshawar. The Maharaja always 
 treated him with confidence and respect, and further 
 appointed him Kazi and governor of Lahore, which 
 gave him the third position in Darbar. Colonel 
 Court, a Frenchman, educated at the Ecole Poly- 
 technique of Paris, commanded two battalions of 
 Gurkhas. Colonel Gardner was an Irishman, of less 
 education and character, but of considerable ability, 
 employed in the artillery \ Colonel Van Cortlandt 
 was another ofiicer, of mixed parentage, who on the 
 downfall of the Sikh monarchy entered the service 
 of the British Government in a civil capacity, and also 
 performed excellent military service during the Mu- 
 tiny. General Avitabile was a Neapolitan by birth, 
 who came to Lahore some years later than Ventura, 
 after service in Persia. He was generally employed 
 in administrative work, first in charge of the Rechna 
 
 * Colonel Gardner has been dead for many years. When I knew 
 him he was a pensioner, very rarely sober, of the late Maharaja of 
 Kashmir. He allowed me to read his manuscript narrative of the 
 later years of the Maharaja, and the events which succeeded his 
 death. These most interesting and valuable papers, which were en- 
 trusted to the late Mr. Frederick Cooper, C.B., have disappeared, and 
 the loss from a historical point of view is considerable. (See p. 8.)
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 139 
 
 Doab, the country between the rivers Ravi and 
 Chenab. Afterwards he held for some years the 
 most troublesome charge in the Punjab, that of the 
 Peshawar district, where his stern and ferocious 
 methods reduced that wild tract to something like 
 order for the first time in its history. His name is 
 still remembered with awe by the turbulent tribes in 
 the neighbourhood af the Khaibar, numbers of whom, 
 thieves and murderers, he hung around the walls of 
 the city. His code of punishment was Draconian, 
 and although the English rule is mild in comparison 
 with that of this ferocious Italian, yet those who have 
 to administer law and maintain order on the North- 
 West Frontier of India must have a quick and heavy 
 hand ; and the slow and cumbrous procedure of High 
 Courts and barrister judges is mere folly when com- 
 pared with the gallop after a criminal^ caught red- 
 handed before he has reached his asylum in the hills, 
 a short shrift and the nearest tree. 
 
 The foreign officers entertained by the Maharaja, 
 especially General Ventura in command of the Fouj 
 Khas, and Court in charge of what was known as the 
 French Legion, very much improved the discipline 
 and tactical power of Ranjit Singh's army. They 
 were not, however, entrusted with the supreme com- 
 mand in expeditions which was nominally given to 
 one of the princes, Kharak Singh, or Sher Singh, or 
 to one of the principal Sirdars. Of all the generals of 
 the Maharaja, the best was probably Diwan Mokham 
 Chand, a hhattri by birth, who from 1806 to 1814,
 
 140 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 when he died, was the virtual commander-in-chief of 
 the Sikh army, and was associated with all his 
 conquests. His grandson, Ram Dydl, killed in Hazara 
 in 1820, was also a skilful commander, who would 
 have risen to distinction if he had lived. Misr 
 Diwan Chand, another Hindu of the trading class, 
 and as such disliked by the Sikh Sirdars, was the 
 conqueror of Multan in 1818, and the leader of the 
 successful expedition against Kashmir in the follow- 
 ing year. Among the Sikh chiefs who were most 
 distinguished were Sirdar Fateh Singh Kalianwala ; 
 Sirdar Nihal Singh Attariwala, who took a dis- 
 tinguished part in almost all the Maharaja's campaigns 
 from the year 1801 to 1817 ; Sirdar Fateh Singh 
 Ahluwalia, the ancestor of the Kapiirthala Rajas ; 
 Sirdar Budh Singh Sindhanwalia, and his brother, 
 Attar Singh, who, after the death of Sirdar Hari 
 Singh Nahva at Jamrud in 1836, was considered the 
 champion of the Khalsa. Hari Singh was a leader of 
 infinite dash and gallantry, and was adored by the 
 army ; ever ready to fight and win, without counting 
 the odds against him. His son, Jowahir Singh, who 
 was a great friend of mine, inherited all his father's 
 valour, and it was he who led the splendid charge of 
 irregular cavalry against the English at Chilianwala, 
 which so nearly turned the victory into a catastrophe. 
 I might mention the names of many other famous 
 captains of the Maharaja whose names are still house- 
 hold words in the Punjab, but they would have little 
 interest to English readers.
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 141 
 
 As to the constitution of the Sikh army under 
 Ranjit Singh and his successors, we have fairly exact 
 information from the pay abstracts and returns found 
 in the Lahore ofHces after the occupation in 1846. 
 The composition of the Fouj Khas, which was under 
 the command of General Ventura, may be taken as 
 a specimen. He resigned in 1843, disgusted at the 
 growing anarchy, and foreseeing the ruin which must 
 ensue. It was not before he had received practical 
 proof of the danger of remaining after the death of 
 his master ; for both he and General Court had been 
 attacked by three regiments of the latter's battalion, 
 and Ventura had been obliged to use his artillery to 
 protect himself and his friend. 
 
 The Fouj Khas was composed, before the Sutlej War 
 of 1 845, as follows : — 
 
 Eegular Infantry . . . .3176 
 Eegular Cavalry . . . .1667 
 Artillery with 34 gurs . . . 855 
 
 5698 
 
 The infantry force included the Khas battalion, 
 strength 820 men ; a Gurkha battalion, 707 men ; 
 Dewa Singh's battalion, 839 men ; and the Sham Sota 
 battalion, 810 men. 
 
 The cavalry force was composed of a grenadier 
 regiment, strength 730 men ; a dragoon regiment, 750 
 men ; and a troop of life guards, 187 men. 
 
 The artillery was the corps known as that of Ilahi
 
 142 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 Bakshj and was commanded by a Mussulman general 
 of that name, the best artillery officer in the Sikh 
 army. 
 
 The pay of the whole brigade was Rs. 96,067 (then 
 about ;^io,ooo) per mensem. 
 
 After the death of the Maharaja in 1839, great 
 changes occurred in the composition of the army. 
 His strong hand had kept down mutiny and complaint, 
 though even he was once constrained to take refuge in 
 the fort of Govindgarh from the fury of a Gurkha 
 regiment which could not obtain its arrears of pay. 
 His successors, fearing for their lives and power, 
 were compelled to increase the numbers and pay of 
 the army, till it at leng-th became an insupportable 
 burthen to the State and a standing menace to other 
 Powers. 
 
 At the time of the Maharaja's death the regular 
 army, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, in numbers and 
 monthly cost, as compared with the figures under his 
 successors, stood as follows : — 
 
 Number. Guns. Cost 
 
 1839 Mahdrdjd Ranjit Singh 29,168 192 Es. 3,82,088 
 
 1840-43 Mahi'irdja Slier Singh 50,065 232 Es. 5,48,603 
 
 1844 Eiljd, Hira Singh 50,805 282 Es. 6,82,984 
 
 1845 Sirdar Jowihir Singh 72,370 381 Es. 8,52,696 
 
 The increase in the number of guns under Sirdar 
 Jowahir Singh was, in a great measure, nominal. 
 Few new guns were cast, but many old ones were taken 
 out of forts, furbished up, and placed on field carriages. 
 The irregular cavalry does not appear to have in-
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 143 
 
 creased in the same proportion as the regular array. 
 At the commencement of the Sutlej War in 1845 
 its numbers were 16,292. 
 
 The roll of the army in the whole Punjab at that 
 time was : — 
 
 Eegular Infantry . 
 
 . 53,756 
 
 Regular Cavalry 
 
 . 6,235 
 
 Irregular Cavalry . 
 
 16,292 
 
 Artillery . . . . 
 
 10,968 
 
 Camel Swivels 
 
 584 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 827 
 
 Total . 
 
 . 88,662 men 
 
 Guns — Field, 380; garrison, 104. Total 484. Camel 
 swivels, 308. 
 
 The irregular levies and jagirdari contingents of 
 horse, not included in the above, cannot be accurately 
 determined, but they may be fairly estimated at 
 30,000 men. These formed the picturesque element in 
 the Maharaja's reviews. Many of the men were 
 well-to-do country gentlemen, the sons, relations, or 
 clansmen of the chiefs who placed them in the field and 
 maintained them there, and whose personal credit was 
 concerned in their splendid appearance. There was 
 no uniformity in their dress. Some wore a shirt 
 of mail, with a helmet inlaid with gold and a kalgi 
 or heron's plume ; others were gay with the many 
 coloured splendours of velvet and silk, with pink 
 or yellow muslin turbans, and gold embroidered belts 
 carrying their sword and powder horn. All wore,
 
 144 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 at their back, the small round shield of tough buffalo 
 hide. These magnificent horsemen were armed some 
 with bows and arrows, but the majority with match- 
 locks, with which they made excellent practice. 
 
 The regular troops were much less picturesque than 
 the jagirdari horse. Their dress was a close imitation 
 of the scarlet uniforms worn by the British army, 
 singularly ungraceful on native troops. Their pay 
 compared favourably with that of the Company's 
 troops — Rs. TO per mensem for a foot-soldier — but on 
 the other hand they received no pension ; the 
 cavah-y received Rs. 25, but for this had to procure 
 and maintain a horse and accoutrements. 
 
 An account of the civil administration under 
 Mabaraja Ranjit Singh need not be lengthy, for I 
 have already described it as the simple process of 
 squeezing out of the unhappy peasant every rupee 
 that he could be made to disgorge ; the limit of 
 oppression being only marked by the fear of his 
 revolt or the abandonment of his land through dis- 
 couragement and despair. The Sikh farmer of revenue 
 did not wish to kill the goose that laid the golden 
 eggs, but he plucked its feathers as closely as he 
 dared. A few paragraphs from Land Revenue Settle- 
 ment Reports will show how the Sikh procedure 
 appeared in the eyes of the ofiicers of the British 
 Government, who administer a system which is as 
 different from that of the Sikhs as light from dark- 
 ness, and which indeed errs on the side of extravagant 
 generosity. The British Government might largely
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 145 
 
 increase the proportion which it claims of the rent 
 of the land throughout large tracts of India without 
 giving good grounds for reproach. In the Adminis- 
 tration Keport of the Punjab for 1872-73 I wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 'The Sikhs often actually took as much as one-half the 
 gross produce of an estate, besides a multitude of cesses ; 
 our demand never exceeds one-sixth, is frequently not more 
 than an eighth, a tenth, or a twelfth, and in some cases not 
 more than a fifteenth of the average gross produce valued at 
 average prices for a period of twenty to thirty years.' 
 
 The Customs Revenue in the latter days of Eanjit 
 Singh realized Es. 1,637,000, and the cost of collection 
 was Rs. 110,000, or nearly 7 per cent. Duties were 
 levied, under forty-eight heads, on almost every article 
 of common use, without any attempt to discriminate 
 between luxuries and necessaries, or to assess lightly 
 the articles used by the poor, such as fuel, grain, or 
 vegetables. The mode of collection was extremely 
 vexatious, the country being covered with custom 
 houses, at which merchants were treated with the 
 utmost insolence and oppression. An article paid 
 duty on being taken into a town, a second time 
 on being taken to the shop, and a third time on 
 re-export. 
 
 The following extracts from Settlement Reports 
 have been collected by Mr. Ibbetson, and printed in 
 his admirable Census Report for 1883. They express 
 vividly and clearly the Sikh method of administra- 
 tion, and taken from various districts and different 
 
 K
 
 146 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 authorities, give a fairer estimate of the system than 
 any single opinion could do ^. 
 
 First let us look to the frontier and Peshawar. 
 Capt. James writes as follows : — 
 
 'From 1800 to 1820, Peshdwar remained in a constant 
 state of excitement and confusion, passing from one ruler to 
 another, none of whom could exercise any real control over 
 its wild occupants, and the hill trihes transferring their 
 allegiance to the highest hidders. . . The periodical visits 
 of the Sikhs were calamitous to the people ; their approach 
 was the signal for the removal of property and valuables, and 
 even of the window and door-frames from the houses. 
 Crowds of women and children fled frightened from their 
 houses, and the country presented the appearance of an 
 emigrating colony. As the hated host advanced they over- 
 ran the neighbourhood, pillaging and destroying whatever 
 came within their reach and laying waste the fields. There 
 is scarce a village from the head of the valley to the Indus 
 which has not been burnt and plundered by the Sikh Com- 
 mander. His visitations were held "in such awe that his 
 name was used by mothers as a term of affright, to hush 
 their unruly children, and at the present day, in travelling 
 through the country, old greybeards, with many scars, point 
 
 * The Punjab Land Revenue Settlement Reports contain a vast 
 amount of interesting information, social, fiscal, and historical, 
 and are and will for ever remain a monument of the industry and 
 ability of English administrative officers. Mr. Barnes' original 
 Report on Kangra is a literary work of great merit ; so is the second 
 Report on the same district by Sir J. B. Lyall. The Peshawar 
 Report by Capt. James is full of valuable information. Nothing 
 that has been done in this dii'ectiou in the Punjab, or other parts 
 of India, surpasses in living interest, philosophic deduction, 
 industry and literary power, the Reports of some of our younger 
 civilians such as Messi's, Purser, Thorburn, Ibbetson, Wilson, 
 O'Brien, and others.
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 147 
 
 out the hills over which they were chased like sheep by the 
 Singh, and young men show where their fathers fought and 
 fell. Destruction was so certain that the few villages which 
 from the extreme difficulty of their position were either 
 passed by the enemy, or, resisting attack, were but partially 
 destroyed, claimed a triumph, and came to be looked upon 
 as invincible. 
 
 * But the people of this unhappy district did not enjoy peace 
 even during the respites which the withdrawal of the Sikhs 
 afforded them ; and it is hard to say whether they suffered 
 most from these terrible but passing invasions, or from the 
 bitter feuds which followed them, arising out of hostile acts 
 committed towards each other, either to find favour with the 
 invaders or to gratify personal feelings of hati'ed and revenge ; 
 for, as is common with people in such a depraved condition, 
 they had no scruple in betraying each other for such purposes, 
 and as spies or informers in bringing the Sikh scourge upon 
 their neighbours with a baseness from which their ancestors 
 would have revolted. One of the terms on which the Cham- 
 kain cliief held his tenure of the Sikhs was tbe annual pro- 
 duction of twenty Afridi heads, and the old man relates 
 ^without a blush the treacherous methods he was sometimes 
 compelled to adopt to fulfil the conditions of his tenure.' 
 
 In the Settlement Eeports of Colonel Cracroft and 
 Mr. E. L. Brandreth of the Rawal Pindi and Jehlam 
 districts, we read : — 
 
 ' Anarchy had reigned for centuries, and from the oldest 
 times the district had been overrun by hordes of invaders, 
 from Greeks to Afghdns. They swept through it and dis- 
 appeared. The temporary desolation, the plundered homes, 
 the deserted homesteads, were all things of the hour, and are 
 nov/ forgotten. But it was the rule of the Sikh Karddrs, too 
 
 K 1
 
 148 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 far oflf from Lahore to be under any check, that reduced the 
 Edjput and Ghakkar alike to their present state of poverty. 
 Their rule was a military despotism, and their aim to 
 exterminate all classes and families with any pretension to 
 ruling power, and their strongest measures were accordingly 
 levelled against the Ghakkars and all the gentry who shared 
 with them in the management of the country. Accordingly 
 we find them mere exiles or reduced to abject poverty, inso- 
 much that they are now often compelled to become tenants 
 under their former ploughmen. The high roads were univer- 
 sally unsafe. Passing through the limits of different tribes, 
 travellers and caravans had to satisfy the rapacity of each by 
 paying blackmail, or they had to submit to be plundered, 
 outraged, and ill-treated, happy sometimes to escape with 
 life.' 
 
 Eegarding the Sikh rule in the central districts, 
 Mr. Ibbetson writes : — 
 
 ' In the centre and south-west of the province the Sikh 
 rule was stronger and more equitable. In the earlier days, 
 indeed, previous to and during the growth of the misls, it 
 was nothing better than an organized system of massacre and ' 
 pillage. But as the Sikhs grew into a people, and a national 
 spirit developed, self-interest if nothing higher promjited a more 
 moderate government. Still, as Sir Eobert Egerton recorded, 
 the Sikh population were soldiers almost to a man, and their 
 one object was to wring from the Hindu and Muhammadan 
 cultivators the utmost farthing that could be extorted without 
 compelling them to abandon their fields. The Rdjput espe- 
 cially, who had refused to join the ranks of an organization 
 in which his high caste was disregarded, was the peculiar 
 object of their hatred and oppression. Not to be for them 
 was to be against them, and all who had any pretensions to 
 wealth or influence were mercilessly crushed. They promoted
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 149 
 
 and extended cultivation as far as was possible under a 
 system which held forth the minimum of inducement to the 
 cultivator, but they acknowledged nothing higher than the 
 husbandman, they respected no rights and they recognized no 
 property where such respect or such recognition conflicted 
 with their pecuniary interests, and he who was not a Sikh, 
 and therefore a soldier, was only valuable in so far as he 
 could be utilized as a payer of revenue. Their rule was just 
 and even in that they meted out oppression to all with an 
 equal hand.' 
 
 Now let us see what Sikh rule was in the Eajput 
 hills. The short-sighted Rajas had called in the 
 Gurkhas in their domestic squabbles, and, as with 
 the frogs and King Stork, these fierce mountaineers 
 established a reign of terror in the Kangra and Simla 
 hills, till, after three years of anarchy, the fair Kangra 
 valley became a desert, and the towns were depopu- 
 lated. The Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikhs 
 were called in, and the Gurkha host departed like 
 locusts. But the Sikh Kardars of the Maharaja were 
 not much better. Mr. Barnes, in his Settlement 
 Report of the Kangra district, writes : — 
 
 ' The Kdrdcir was a judicial as well as a fiscal officer. 
 But his fiscal duties were most important. Corrupt judg- 
 ments, or an insufficient police, were evils which might be over- 
 looked even supposing they excited attention ; but a Kdrdar 
 in arrears was an ofi'ender almost beyond the hope of pardon. 
 The problem of his life was therefore to maintain cultivation 
 at the highest possible level, and at the same time to keep 
 the cultivator at the lowest point of depression. The burthen 
 of the people was as heavy as they could bear ; the utmost
 
 150 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 limits of toleration had been attained. A native collector is 
 too discreet to ruin his tenants, but he will proceed to any 
 lengths short of actual destruction. His policy is to leave 
 nothing but a bare subsistence to the cultivator of the soil. 
 But the assessment was generally equal, and the burthen, 
 heavy indeed according to just and liberal principles, was still 
 impartially distributed.' 
 
 Diwan Sawan Mall, governor of Multdn, Leiah, Dera 
 Ghazi Khan, Khangarh, and Jhang, was the best of 
 all the Maharaja's administrators. Yet this is how 
 Mr. O'Brien, who made the land settlement of 
 Muzaffargarh, one of his districts, writes of him : — 
 
 ' Diwan Sawan Mall's government was better than anything 
 that had preceded it. Its sole object was the accumulation 
 of wealth for the Diwcin. The execution of public works, 
 the administration of justice and security of life and property 
 were a secondary consideration, and were insisted on only 
 because without them agriculture would not prosper, and 
 the revenue would not be paid. When one examines his 
 numerous cesses and sees how he levied dues to pay the 
 people's alms and perform their religious duties, and then 
 paid the poor and the Brahmans what he thought a fair 
 amount and pocketed the rest ; how he levied a cess in 
 return for keeping his word; and how he encouraged his 
 officials to take bribes and then made them duly credit the 
 amount in the public accounts, one's admiration for the 
 gTeat Diwan is less than it would be if based on written 
 history \' 
 
 * I have no doubt that the description here given of the Diwan's 
 procedure is correct, but I nevertheless believe that a much fairer 
 general view of his administration is given in my biography of 
 him and of Diwan Mulraj, his cruel and oppressive son, whose
 
 THE ARMY AND ADMINISTRATION 151 
 
 Such extracts might be supplemented by a hun- 
 dred others, recorded by British officers, whose task it 
 has been, through the forty-two years since annexation, 
 to efface the scars of the old wounds of the Punjab, and 
 to bring back to the long-devastated province happi- 
 ness, prosperity, and peace. But these will suffice to 
 point the moral to those in India and in England who 
 try to persuade the world that the British rule is 
 harsh and oppressive, and who would make the greatest 
 glory of our race, in the enlightened government of 
 Hindustan, a matter for reproach and shame. Those 
 who run may read, and the letters of light in which 
 our Indian work is written can be seen by all eyes 
 save of those who will not see. Anarchy, famine, 
 and rapine have been replaced by orderly and just 
 administration, under which every man enjoys his 
 own in peace, none making him afraid. Where, out 
 of twelve shillings' worth of produce, the Sikh 
 Government took six from the peasant as rent, the 
 British Government takes only two or one. The 
 
 treachery was a principal cause of the second Sikh War. The 
 little peculiarities of administration recounted by Mr. O'Brien are 
 venial in native eyes, and are common to almost every native 
 administration, and I speak v^ith experience, having been 
 intimately associated with the administration of at least 100 
 native States in North and Central India. Diwan Sawan Mall was 
 on the whole a beneficent and wise governor, and though corrupt 
 he was not oppressive. He turned what was a desert into a rich, 
 cultivated plain. The people still revere his memory. His son 
 Karm Narain was also beloved, but Mulraj was hated. Popular 
 sayings represent popular sentiment, and it was common to hear 
 that Miiltan was blessed with sdivan (the month of rain), Leiah with 
 karm (kindness), while Jhang, the district of Mulraj, was desolated 
 by mula (an insect that destroys the corn).
 
 15a RANJIT SINGH 
 
 population has enormously increased, and the culti- 
 vated area in a still greater ratio. And if England 
 were to withdraw her protecting hand, if she were to 
 proclaim the Pax Britannica at an end and retire 
 from India in a cowardly denial of her duties and her 
 rights, is there any one of knowledge who doubts that 
 in a very short time anarchy would return once more ; 
 that Sikhs, Marathas, and Afghans would again be 
 fighting ci outrance; that the children would again 
 be tossed on the sword and spear-points of invaders, 
 and the Punjab maidens again become the prey of the 
 ravisher, while the light of flaming villages would 
 nightly illumine the ancient walls of Delhi and 
 Lahore 1
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 His Early Conquests 
 
 Maharaja EanjIt Singh was the son of Sirdar 
 Mahan Singh, the enterprising and unscrupulous 
 leader of the Sukarchakia confederacy, and was born 
 in the year 1780. His family was of the Jat Sansi 
 tribe, nearly related to the Sindhanwalias who were, 
 at the time of Ranjit Singh's death, the most powerful 
 of all the Sikh nobles north of the Beas, and who still 
 take highest rank in the Punjab) although they now 
 number no distinguished men in their ranks. The 
 Sindhanwalias claim, like most other Sikhs^ a Rajput 
 descent, but they have also a close connection with 
 the thievish and degraded tribe of Sansis, after which 
 their ancestral home, Raja Sansi, five miles from the 
 city of Amritsar, is named. 
 
 The founder of the Sukarchakia and Sindhanwalia 
 family was a bold and successful robber, Budha 
 Singh, who, on his famous piebald mare Desi, was 
 the terror of the country side. He was wounded 
 some forty times by spear, matchlock or sword, and 
 died at last in his bed, like an honest man, in the year
 
 154 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 1718. His two sons, Chanda Singh and Nodh Singh, 
 were as enterprising as their father. About the year 
 1730 they rebuilt the village of Sukarchak in the 
 Amritsar district, and collecting round them a band 
 of hard-riding Sikhs, seized several villages in its 
 neighbourhood and in Gujranwala. From Chanda 
 Singh the Sindhanwalia chiefs descended, while Nodh 
 Singh was the direct ancestor of Eanjit Singh. He 
 was killed at Majithia, fighting the Afghans, leaving 
 one son, Charrat Singh, five years old, who became a 
 powerful Sirdar, and took command of the Sukar- 
 chakia mibl. Assisted by Sirdar Jassa Singh 
 Ahluwalia, and the Bhangi confederacy, he repulsed 
 Ubed Khan, the Afghan governor of Lahore, from his 
 head- quarters, Gujranwala, with the loss of guns and 
 baggage. He aided the Ahluwalia chief, Jassa Singh, 
 who had been attacked and plundered by some of the 
 Ramgarhias, to annex all their estates. He was 
 killed by the bursting of his matchlock while engaged 
 on an expedition against Raja Ranjit Deo of Jammu, 
 the cause of whose son, Brij Raj Deo, he had espoused. 
 Mahan Singh^ his eldest son, succeeded to the com- 
 mand of the confederacy, the influence and possessions 
 of which he largely increased. But he was only 
 eleven or twelve years of age when his father died, 
 and a catastrophe seemed imminent. The Rajput 
 Raja had summoned to his assistance Sirdar Jhanda 
 Singh, the head of the Bhangis ; while the Kanheyas 
 were aiding his rebellious son. The accident to 
 Charrat Singh seemed likely to give the victory to
 
 HIS EARLY CONQUESTS 155 
 
 the enemy, so his widow and Sirdar Jai Singh, the 
 Kanheya leader, bribed a sweeper, who shot Jhanda 
 Singh dead as he was riding with a few attendants 
 through the camp. His death ended the quarrel, and 
 the rival forces retired from Jammu. 
 
 In 1774, the year succeeding his father's death, Mahan 
 Singh married Raj Kour, the daughter of Raja Gajpat 
 Singh of JInd, who, six years later, became the mother 
 of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was significant that the 
 marriage of this lady gave rise to instant discord, 
 prophetic of the career of her son. Mahan Singh had 
 come to Jind with a great retinue and all the Phiil- 
 kian chiefs had assembled to meet him. During the 
 festivities a dispute arose between the chiefs of Nabha 
 and Jind regarding a grass preserve belonging to the 
 former, in which the Baratis or attendants on the 
 bridegroom had been allowed to cut fodder for their 
 horses. The agent of the Nabha chief attacked 
 them, and a fight was the result, which so wounded 
 the pride of the Jind Raja, the bride's father, that 
 although he kept silence till the wedding was over, 
 he determined on revenge, and soon afterwards, 
 taking Hamir Singh of Nabha prisoner by stratagem, 
 invaded his territory and seized a large portion 
 of it, the estate of Sangrur being held to the 
 present day. 
 
 For several years we hear nothing of the youthful 
 Mahan Singh, but in 1780, when he may be assumed 
 to have reached manhood, his famous son having been 
 born, the Rajput prince of Jammu died, and Mahan
 
 156 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 SiDgh commenced his career with a characteristic act 
 of treachery. Baja Brij Lai Deo succeeded his father 
 and made friends with Mahan Singh, exclianging 
 turbans as a sign of their lasting affection. Fortified 
 by this alliance he thought that he might regain some 
 of his lost estates from the Bhangi Sirdars, and invited 
 the Kanheyas, to whom he was tributary, to assist 
 him. They at first assented but soon deserted him, 
 and went over to the Bhangis, in aJliance with whom 
 they proposed to attack Jammu. The Raja applied 
 for assistance to his new brother-at-arms, Mahan 
 Siogh, who hurried northwards and attacked the 
 Kanheya camp, but was repulsed with loss. Mahan 
 Singh had to submit, and the Raja was compelled to 
 pay a tribute of Rs. 50,000 to Hakikat Singh, the 
 Kanheya chief. Some months afterwards, this tribute 
 falling into arrears, Hakikat Singh persuaded Mahan 
 Singh to join him in a raid on Jammu, dividing the 
 plunder between them. To this he assented, but 
 marching by a different road and reaching Jammu 
 the first, he found himself strong enough to attack 
 alone, and, forgetting his sworn friendship to the 
 Raja as well as his agreement with the Kanheya 
 Sirdar, he sacked and burnt the town and palace and 
 retired with great spoil before the arrival of Hakikat 
 Singh, who was naturally furious, but was unable to 
 avenge himself, and died soon afterwards. The sack 
 of Jammu brought upon Mahdn Singh the wrath of 
 the great Kanheya confederacy, and of its leader Jai 
 Singh, who attacked him with such energy that he
 
 HIS EARLY CONQUESTS 157 
 
 lost temporarily a large slice of territory, and had to 
 sue for forgiveness. This was refused unless he gave 
 up the plunder of Jammu, which the Sukarchakia 
 chief was determined not to do. So he formed a coali- 
 tion against the Kanheyas, among whom were Sirdar 
 Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, who had been stripped of his 
 estates some years before, and Eaja Sansar Chand, 
 the Katoch Raja of Kangra. The allies gave battle to 
 the Kanheyas near Batala, their head-quarters, and 
 defeated them with great loss. This was in 1784. 
 Sirdar Jai Singh never recovered this defeat. He 
 restored Kangra to the Katoch Raja, and to Jassa 
 Singh Ramgarhia all his lost possessions, and to Mahan 
 Singh's son Ranjit Singh he gave in marriage Mahtab 
 Kour, the infant daughter of his son Gurbuksh Singh, 
 who had been slain in the Batala fight. 
 
 It would be tedious to relate the intrigues and vio- 
 lence with which Mahan Singh's brief career was 
 filled. He was constantly at war with his neighbours 
 and rivals, chiefly the Bhangis, although one of their 
 most powerful leaders. Sahib Singh, had married his 
 sister. With this brother-in-law he was in frequent 
 conflict for the two years preceding his death, as he 
 wished to seize Sahib Singh's town of Gujrat, about 
 thirty miles north of his own capital of Gujranwala. 
 It was while besieging Sahib Sino;h in his fort of 
 Sodhran that he fell seriously ill. Karam Singh 
 Dula, a Bhangi chief of Chuniot, had hurried to the 
 assistance of Sahib Singh, and Mahan Singh at once 
 attacked him ; but, during the fight, he fainted away
 
 158 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 on his elephant, and the driver turned and carried his 
 master from the field. The leader absent, the Sukar- 
 chakia troops fled, and the siege was raised ; while 
 Mahan Singh retired to Gujranwala, where he died 
 three days afterwards, in the year 1792, when only 
 twenty-seven years of age. 
 
 Although Ranjit Singh was only twelve years old 
 when his father died, he had already accompanied him 
 on expeditions. A Sikh in those days learned the art of 
 war early. In 1790, his father was besieging Manchar, 
 the fort of Ghulam Muhammad, chief of the powerful 
 Mussulman tribe of Chattahs, with whom Mahan Singh 
 was always fighting. Hashmat Khan, the uncle of 
 the chief, climbed on the elephant on which Ranjit 
 was sitting, and was in the act of killing the child, 
 in which case the history of India and England 
 would have been materially changed, when he was 
 struck down by an attendant. When his father died 
 the prospects of Ranjit Singh would have been very 
 unfavourable had it not been for his mother-in- 
 law, Sada Kour, who was not only a woman of the 
 greatest ability, but had succeeded, as the widow and 
 hen-ess of Sirdar Gurbuksh Singh, to the head of the 
 Kanheya misl. This lady resolved, so far as she was 
 able, to retain the power in her own hands, and use 
 the force of both confederacies, Kanheyas and Sukar- 
 chakias, to break the power of all rivals. First she 
 determined to be avenged on the Ramgarhias, who 
 had joined in the attack on Batala, in which her 
 husband was killed; and, in 1796, uniting her own
 
 HIS EARLY CONQUESTS 159 
 
 troops with those of the young Ranjit Singh, she 
 besieged Sirdar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia in his fort 
 at Miani on the Beas river. After defending himself 
 for some time, his provisions fell short, and he asked 
 for help from Sahib Singh Bedi, the high priest at 
 Amritsar, The Bedi sent a messatje ordering Sada 
 Kour to raise the siege, but she, seeing her enemy was 
 at last in her power, refused obedience. Again Jassa 
 Singh sent an urgent message to the priest, who 
 replied ' They will not mind me, but God Himself will 
 aid you.' That very night the river Beas came down 
 in flood, and swept away a large portion of the Kan- 
 lieya camp, men, horses and camels. Sada Kour and 
 Ranjit Singh escaped with difiiculty, and retired to 
 Gujranwdla. 
 
 With this expedition the warlike instincts of the 
 young chief seemed to awake, and he determined to 
 become his own master and shake off the tutelage 
 which had been imposed upon him by both mother 
 and mother-in-law. The former was disposed of in 
 a summary fashion. She was a dissolute woman, and 
 chief among her lovers was Diwan Lakhpat Rai, who 
 was the general manager of the estates during the 
 minority. Ranjit Singh caused this man to be des- 
 patched on a dangerous expedition to Kaithal, where 
 he was killed, and as some say with the connivance 
 of Ranjit Singh. The lady disappeared ; according 
 to one report her son killed her with his own hands ; 
 according to another, he caused poison to be adminis- 
 tered to her. But these stories are opposed to what we
 
 i6o RANJIt SINGH 
 
 know of his character, which was singularly averse to 
 deeds of violence except in fair fight ; nor had he any 
 respect for female virtue or fidelity. Mahtab Kour 
 was probably shut up in a fortress, as an inconvenient 
 intriguer, where she shortly afterwards died. 
 
 The yoke of the mother-in-law, Sada Kour, was 
 far more difficult to shake off; and the young chief 
 did not at first feel strong enough to attempt it. She 
 had given the boy no education, and had encouraged 
 him in all the sensual pleasures which are too often 
 used by interested guardians in India to weaken 
 the character and health of youthful princes whose 
 power they desire to usurp or retain. Every day 
 we see similar intrigues in the Feudatory States, 
 with the same result. They severely test the tact 
 and courage of the British Resident, and are some- 
 times treated too timorously by the Indian Foreign 
 Ofiice. 
 
 Eanjit Singh was fortunately possessed of an intellect 
 which indulgence could not permanently cloud, and 
 of a powerful physique which withstood for many 
 years his habitual excesses. A special opportunity 
 for distinction arose when Shah Zeman, the grandson 
 of India's frequent invader Ahmad Shah, marched 
 southwards to recover, if possible, his ancestor's lost 
 provinces. In the year 1793 Zeman had succeeded 
 Timur on the throne, and two years later he invaded the 
 Punjab, advancing no further south than the Jehlam 
 river. But in 1797 and the following year he was 
 more successful, and occupied Lahore without any
 
 HIS EARLY COiXQUESTS i6i 
 
 serious opposition from the Sikhs, who pursued their 
 usual tactics of avoiding a pitclied battle, while 
 harassing the rear-guard of the Afghan army and 
 cutting off stragglers and plundering baggage. Some 
 of the Sikh chiefs thought it would be well to keep 
 on terms with Shah Zeman, and paid homage to him at 
 Lahore ; Ranjit Singh, who had taken the oppor- 
 tunity of the Afghan invasion to raid the country 
 south of the Sutlej, doing so by deputy, and when 
 domestic troubles recalled Shah Zeman to Afghanistan 
 Ranjit returned to Lahore, which a happy chance al- 
 lowed him to claim. Crossing the Jehlam in flood, the 
 Afghan monarch lost twelve of his guns, and not 
 being able to wait for their extrication, he promised 
 Ranjit Singh^, then master of that part of the country, 
 the grant of the city and district of Lahore, with the 
 title of Raja, if he would send them to him. This 
 task Ranjit Singh readily undertook and partly per- 
 formed, rescuing eight guns and sending them to 
 Peshawar ; and Zeman Shah kept his promise. It 
 was but a barren grant, and the Sikh chief was left 
 to obtain possession as he best could. 
 
 The city of Lahore, which has existed for over two 
 thousand years as a royal capital, had always been 
 the object of desire to the Sikh Sirdars, and during 
 the eighteenth century had been won and lost several 
 times. It was finally taken, in 1764, byLehna Singh 
 and Gujar Singh, two reckless Bhangi Sirdars, who 
 entered it through a drain one dark night, captured 
 the deputy governor at a nautch, and were in full 
 
 L
 
 l6z RANJIT SINGH 
 
 possession of the town by the morning. They divided 
 the city into three shares, one falling to Sirdar Sobha 
 Singh Kanheya, who was in the conspiracy, though he 
 arrived too late for the surprise. When Ahmad Shah 
 made his last descent on the Punjab, three years 
 later, he did not feel inclined to fight for Lahore, and 
 confirmed Lehna Singh in its possession. The children 
 of the partners were still in power when the grant 
 was made to Ranjit Singh. But the sons of Lehna 
 Singh and Sobha Singh were imbecile and debauched ; 
 and the third, Sahib Singh, the only one of any 
 ability, was absent. The people of Lahore disliked 
 their extortionate rule, and Ranjit Singh was told that 
 he would be welcomed as a deliverer. He accordingly 
 marched with a strong force to Lahore, the gates of 
 which were opened to him, and the two Sirdars fled 
 without ofiering any resistance. 
 
 The acquisition of Lahore in July, 1799, with the 
 legally acquired title of Raja, made Ranjit Singh, now 
 in his twentieth year, a very powerful chief. The 
 Sikh barons were filled with alarm at his success, and 
 the Bhangis were especially anxious to avenge the 
 capture of their principal town. In the following year 
 a coalition was formed against him, the most promi- 
 nent members of which were Sirdar Jassa Singh Ram- 
 garhia, and Sahib Singh and Gulab Singh Bhangis, 
 and it was proposed to assassinate him during a 
 conference to be held at Bhassin. But Ranjit Singh 
 was too clever to fall into the trap. He took so large 
 a force with him to Bhassin that the crime could not
 
 HIS EARLY CONQUESTS 163 
 
 be attempted, and, after two months passed in 
 hunting and feasting, he returned to Lahore. But 
 he was aware of the designs against him on the part 
 of the Bhangis, and resolved to anticipate them. In 
 1802 he sent to their head-quarters at Amritsar to 
 demand the surrender of the famous Zamzama gun ^ 
 which had been assigned to his grandfather Sirdar 
 Charrat Singh as his share of the plunder when Lahore 
 was captured in 1764. The Bhangis refused its 
 surrender, on which Ranjit Singh attacked their fort 
 at Amritsar, drove them to take refuge with the 
 Ramgarhias, with whom they had divided the city 
 of Amritsar, and annexed all their possessions. 
 
 By this bold and successful measure, Ranjit Singh 
 became possessed of the two Sikh capitals, poli- 
 tical and religious, and had little more to fear in 
 his career of conquest, for the great Kanheya con- 
 federacy was already in his hand, and the famous 
 Ramgarhia baron, Jassa Singh, was old and feeble, 
 and Ranjit Singh knew that he had not long to wait 
 before he should obtain his estates. He died the 
 following year, and his eldest son and successor, Jodh 
 Singh, who was a simple creature, though a brave 
 soldier, became so devoted a follower of the Maharaja 
 (as we may now call Ranjit Singh) that it would 
 have been superfluous villainy to have seized his 
 territory. He swore eternal friendship with Ranjit 
 
 ^ This famous gun, of which a complete history is given at 
 PP- 387-8 Punjab Chiefs, was cast at Laliore by Ahmad Shah in 
 1 761. It now stands in front of the Lahore Museum. 
 
 L 2
 
 1 64 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 Singh, who flattered and cajoled him in every way, 
 building his new fort of Govindgarh at Amritsar on 
 the plan of the Ramgarhia fortress. He accompanied 
 the Maharaja on many of his expeditions. It was 
 only on Jodh Singh's death, in 1816, when his suc- 
 cessors began to quarrel, that Ranjit Singh marched 
 against Amritsar, and after some severe fighting 
 captured the fortress, which he razed to the ground, 
 and then reduced the minor forts, about one hundred 
 in number, and annexed all the vast territory of the 
 confederacy in Amritsar, Jalandhar, and Gurdaspur. 
 To the heads of the conquered family he assigned 
 respectable jagirs, and gave them honourable 
 appointments in command of troops or about his 
 person. 
 
 The Nakkai confederacy was ruined in the year 
 1810. It will be remembered that Ranjit Singh had 
 married a Nakkai girl, in 1802, who became the 
 mother of his only child. But this alliance did not 
 do the relations any good. When Kahn Singh, the 
 nephew of Rani Raj Kour, became the head of the 
 family in 1807, the Maharaja tried to induce him to 
 come and reside at court. But Kahn Singh knew that 
 he should not be allowed to leave it again. Vestigia 
 nulla retrorsw^n, and stoutly declined the honour. 
 This did not save him, for the Maharaja annexed all 
 his estates, which were too close to Lahore, in Kastir, 
 Chunian, and Gogaira, to be successfully defended. 
 This incident is a fair example of the Maharaja's 
 methods. There was no pretended excuse, and Kahn
 
 HIS EARLY CONQUESTS 165 
 
 Singh, a near connection, had given no provocation 
 further than that he was too weak to resist. 
 
 The last of the great confederacies to fall before the 
 Maharaja was the Kanheya, of which his mother-in- 
 law, Mai Sada Kour, was the head. It has been 
 already related that this lady had presented him with 
 two boys, Sher Singh and Tara Singh, as the children 
 of her daughter, Mahtab Kour. The fraud was, for 
 reasons recorded in the next chapter, diplomaticallj^ 
 accepted by the Maharaja, who determined to 
 repay it when an opportunity occurred. It came 
 not till Sher Singh was about twelve years old, and 
 had been sent in nominal command of troops to 
 Hazara in the unfortunate expedition in which the 
 gallant Diwan Ram Dyal had been killed at Gandgarh 
 by the Yusafzais. On this occasion the young Sher 
 Singh was said to have behaved well, and on his 
 return the Maharaja suggested to Mai Sada Kour, who 
 had already adopted the boy as her heir, that the 
 time had come when she might appropriately give up 
 worldly affairs, and resign in favour of her grandson. 
 
 The old lady had no wish to perform this act of 
 renunciation, but she was encamped at Shahdera, 
 a few miles from Lahore, and refusal might have 
 unpleasant results. So she temporised, and returning 
 to her head-quarters at Batala, opened negotiations 
 with the English, asking to be permitted to come 
 under thieir protection, and live in Cis-Sutlej territory. 
 The Maharaja heard of these overtures, and summoned 
 the lady to his presence, where he repeated his orders
 
 1 65 RAN JIT SINGH 
 
 with many threats. The same night Mai Sada Kour 
 escaped in a covered litter; but was overtaken by 
 troops, captured, and confined in a fortress, where she 
 died soon afterwards, while the Maharaja annexed 
 all her great estates without any trouble : the only 
 forts which held out being Atalgarh, which was 
 gallantly defended by one of her women, and Mukeri, 
 which gave Diwan Devichand^ who had been sent 
 to reduce it, a great deal of trouble. Batala was 
 granted to Sher Singh in jagir, and the cunning lady 
 who had manufactured this false prince fell into the 
 pit which she had dug for others. At the same time 
 it must not be forgotten that, with all her faults, Mai 
 Sada Kour had acted well by the Maharaja, who 
 treated her with the blackest ingratitude. Her money 
 and her troops had enabled him to seize Lahore and 
 Amritsar, and had saved him from ruin in the doubt- 
 ful years which followed his father's death.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The English and the Cis-Sdtlej Territory 
 
 To one friendship the Maharaja remained ever con- 
 stant ; from one alliance he never sought to shake 
 himself free. This was the friendly alliance with the 
 British Government, then represented in Hindustan 
 by the East India Company, In the first years of the 
 century, before he had appreciated the power and 
 policy of the English, he was doubtful what line to 
 adopt towards his new neighbours, and in December, 
 1 808, had all but decided on war with them. But when 
 his and their position was once defined and assured 
 by the treaty of 1809, by which he renounced for ever 
 all supremacy over the Cis-Sutlej chiefs, he frankly 
 accepted the duties and responsibilities which the 
 agreement imposed, and for thirty years remained 
 the true and faithful ally of the British Government. 
 He trusted its word with a calculated confidence which 
 was astonishing in so suspicious and unscrupulous a 
 ruler, and which, at the same time, was the highest 
 proof of statesmanship. Nor was his confidence mis- 
 placed. The British Government invariably treated
 
 1 68 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 RaDJit Singh in a spirit of frankness and friendship : 
 they realized that he was a useful buffer between 
 their unconsohdated provinces and the unknown, 
 shadowy power beyond the passes of the North-West 
 frontier, whence so many invading armies had poured 
 down on the plains of Hindustan, and they never 
 made a hostile movement against him. The Lahore 
 State eventually fell from inherent weakness, and not 
 from any designs on it by the British Government. 
 
 The story of the origin of the connection of our 
 Government with the Cis-Sutlej States and the 
 Maharaja is a very instructive chapter of Indian 
 history, but it is too lengthy to be told here in any 
 detail. It is closely associated with the rise of the 
 Maratha power with its disciplined armies com- 
 manded by French generals, and with the romantic 
 career of George Thomas, the English adventurer, 
 who attempted, with much courage and audacity, to 
 found a kingdom in Northern India, and came within 
 a measurable distance of success. The mere outHne 
 of the situation is all that can be given ^. 
 
 The British power, at the beginning of this cen- 
 tury, was spreading fast, like a rising tide, over 
 Hindustan. The red line on the maps which marked 
 its frontier was ever widening, and it was Ranjit 
 Singh himself who truly prophesied that in time the 
 whole of Hindustan would be red. Bengal, Benares, 
 Oude, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Farukhabad, had in 
 
 ' The history of these events is given in full detail in The 
 Edjds of the Punjab, second edition, pp. 83-130.
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 169 
 
 turn fallen, when, on the nth of September, 1803, 
 General Lake defeated the Maratha army commanded 
 by Bourquien beneath the walls of Delhi ; and, four days 
 later, entered the capital of Hindustan as a conqueror. 
 On the ist of November the battle of Laswari was 
 fought, when the Marathas were again defeated with 
 great loss ; and Sindhia, by the treaty of Sirji Anjen- 
 gaom, ceded Sirsa, Hissar, Eohtak, Delhi, Gurgaon, 
 and Agra to the British Government. The three 
 first-named districts were not, however, taken under 
 British administration till the year 1 809. 
 
 The Cis-Sutlej chiefs, who had made friends with 
 the Marathas, General Bourquien having just over- 
 thrown their enemy George Thomas, fought at Delhi 
 against the English. They had miscalculated our 
 strength, and during the whole of the year 1804 they 
 gave great trouble in the neighbourhood of the 
 Jumna, and ravaged the country up to the walls 
 of Delhi. But after a severe defeat inflicted upon 
 them by Colonel Burn on the i8th of December, 
 1804, they thought it prudent to retire across the 
 river, and two of their most prominent leaders. Raja 
 Bhag Singh of Jind, and Bhai Lai Singh of Kaithal, 
 joined the English army, and afterwards remained 
 fast friends. 
 
 In October, 1804, Jaswant Rao Holkar, who had 
 gained a great victory over Colonel Monson's brigade, 
 besieged Delhi with a large force, but was repulsed 
 by Colonel Ochterlony and Colonel Burn. Two 
 months later, at Fatehgarh and Dig, the Marathas
 
 J70 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 were utterly routed by Generals Lake and Fraser, 
 with great slaughter, while their leader Holkar, left 
 without an army and after vain attempts to create one 
 south of the Sutlej, went northwards to seek among the 
 Sikh chieftains more trusty if not more efficient 
 help than he could obtain from Sindhia, who hated 
 him while he was compelled to appear his friend. 
 Holkar remained at Patiala for some months, but its 
 Maharaja woul4 not risk much to aid him, and the 
 other Cis- Sutlej chiefs, seeing that his cause was hope- 
 less, were equally discreet. At last, in October, 1 805, 
 Lord Lake having again taken the field against Holkar, 
 he fled to Amritsar and endeavoured to obtain the 
 alliance of Ranjit Singh, who was much inclined to 
 assist him. But he was dissuaded from this step, 
 which would have at once brought him into collision 
 with the English, by his advisers Fateh Singh Ahlu- 
 walia and the Raja of Jind. Lord Lake pursued 
 Holkar as far as the Beas, and had not the only 
 thought of the Governor- General been to conclude a 
 speedy peace, one of the most inveterate enemies the 
 English have ever had in Ladia would have been 
 utterly destroyed. At this time the periodical fit of 
 timidity had seized on the Court of Directors in 
 London. They had been frightened at the bold 
 policy of Lord Wellesley, the most eminent of all 
 Governors-General, and the feeble Cornwallis had 
 been despatched to reverse it. 
 
 Conciliation was foolishly considered to be wisdom. 
 A treaty was made with Holkar which restored to him
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 17 1 
 
 the greater part of the territory which had been 
 wrested from him, and a supplementary agreement, 
 dated the ist of January, 1806, was made with 
 Ranji't Singh and the Ahluwalia chief. This pro- 
 fessed to be a treaty of friendship and amity between 
 the Honourable East India Company and the Sirdars 
 Ranjit and Fateh Singh, by which the latter agreed 
 to cause Jaswant Eao Holkar to at once leave 
 Amritsar and never again to hold connection with 
 him, or aid him with troops, or assist him in any 
 manner whatever. The British Government, on its 
 part, promised that as long as those chiefs abstained 
 from holding any friendly connection with its enemies, 
 or from committing any act of hostility on their own 
 part against it, the British armies would never enter 
 their territories nor would the Government form any 
 plans for the seizure or sequestration of their posses- 
 sions or property. 
 
 These treaties, which excluded Holkar from the 
 Punjab, practically secured Ranjit Singh from English 
 interference in his plans of conquest north of the 
 Sutlej. The country held by Sikh chiefs south of 
 that river had not yet been the subject of arrange- 
 ment, and in the summer of the same year 1 806 the 
 disputes of the Phiilkian Rajas induced Ranjit Singh 
 to invade it. The condition of this unhappy country 
 was melancholy in the extreme. The districts between 
 the Sikh States and Delhi, acquired by the English in 
 1803, had been perhaps the most pitiable, but the lot 
 of the peasantry in the Sikh portion of the tract was
 
 172 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 almost as bad. Mr. Denzil Ibbetson's Settlement 
 Report on Karnal records : — 
 
 'So ended, in 1805, that terrible time called by the 
 people the Sikh hurly-bui'ly, or the Maratha, anarchy. 
 Its horrors still live vividly in the memory of the villagers. 
 The Sikhs never really established their grasp over the 
 country south of Panipat, and they held what they did 
 possess only as feudatories of the Mardthas. But the 
 whole period was a constant contest between the two 
 powers, and the tract formed a sort of no-man's-land between 
 their territories, and coveted by both and protected by 
 neither, was practically the pi'ey of the strongest and most 
 audacious freebooter of the day. Even as early as 1760, 
 Ntidir Shah had to approach Delhi by way of the Doab, as 
 owing to the constant passage to and fro of the Manithd 
 troops, the tract was so desolated that supplies were unpro- 
 curable, and forty years later, when we took over the district, 
 it was estimated that more than four-fifths was overgrovv'n 
 by forest, and its inhabitants either removed or extermina- 
 ted. The royal canal had long dried up, and thick forest 
 had taken the place of cultivation and afforded shelter to 
 thieves, vagabonds and beasts of prey. In 1827, Mr. Archer 
 remarked that only a very few years had elapsed since this 
 part of the country was inhabited wholly by wild beasts. 
 Deserted sites all along the old main road still tell how 
 even the strongest village had to abandon the spot where 
 their fathers had lived for centuries and make to themselves 
 new homes on sites less patent to the eyes of marauding 
 bands, Eevenue administration there was none ; the culti- 
 vator followed the plough with a sword in his hand ; the 
 collector came at the head of a regiment, and if he fared 
 well another soon followed him to pick up the crumbs. 
 
 It was at the invitation of his uncle Raja Bhag
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 173 
 
 Singh, of Jind, that Eanjit Singh, on the 26th of 
 July, 1806, crossed the Sutlej with a large force, with 
 the object of settling serious disputes which had arisen 
 between that chief and the Maharaja of Patiala. The 
 English viewed his approach with some anxiety, and 
 strengthened their garrison at Karnal ; but he was too 
 cautious to offend them, and contented himself with 
 seizing the town and district of Ludhiana and Ghum- 
 grana, which he divided among his friends. The 
 Ludhiana family was of ancient descent, Muhammadan 
 Rajputs, and it was represented by two widow ladies, 
 whom Ranjlt Singh plundered of all their possessions 
 without remorse. 
 
 The next year, about the same time, he returned to 
 Patiala with a large army under the command of 
 Diwan Mokham Chand, and effected a settlement 
 between the Raja Sahib Singh and his wife, the 
 famous Rani Aus Kour, much to the advantage of the 
 latter, who had bribed him highest. On this occasion 
 he seized on his return march many estates, Narain- 
 garh, Wadni, Morinda, Zira and others, chiefly in the 
 Firozpur district, and distributed them among his 
 adherents. 
 
 The Cis-Sutlej chiefs now perceived that by inviting 
 Maharaja Ranjit Singh to intervene in their disputes 
 they had, like Frankenstein, created a monster whom 
 they could in no way control. So in March, 1 808, the 
 Raja of JInd, the Bhai of Kaithal, Lai Singh, a very 
 influential chief, with the agent of Raja Sahib Singh 
 of Patiala, visited Delhi to ascertain from Mr. Seton,
 
 174 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 the Resident, if the British Government were pre- 
 pared to extend to them their protection. This the 
 British Government desired to do, but were uncertain 
 how best to act. They wished to limit the ambition 
 of the Maharaja to the north of the Sutlej. But, at the 
 same time, they were well aware of his determination 
 to bring all Sikhs, south as well as north of that 
 river, under his supremacy, and they were afraid of 
 thwarting him so abruptly as to cause a rupture of 
 friendly relations and throw him into the arms of 
 France. For, however strange it may seem in these 
 days, when the power of France in Hindustan is 
 represented by two or three insignificant settlements, 
 it was very different at the beginning of the century. 
 The Titanic contest between England and France, 
 of which the prize was the commercial and colonial 
 supremacy of the world, had been fought out in 
 India as fiercely as elsewhere, and only terminated 
 with the Peace of Versailles in 1783. Since then, the 
 tradition of hostility and hatred of England had been 
 fostered in native India by French generals of abihty, 
 like the Comte de Boigne, Perron and Bourquien, who 
 turned the Maratha hordes into a disciplined force 
 in the same manner as Ventura, Allard and Court 
 transformed, forty years later, the army of the Khalsa. 
 After this, more terrible than the wrath of kings of 
 France or the mad fury of the Republic, the shadow 
 of the genius and ambition of Napoleon clouded the 
 Asiatic as well as the European sky. The echo of the 
 cannon of Marengo, Austerlitz and Jena reached
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 175 
 
 Teheran and Lahore, and there was no Asiatic Court 
 which did not watch eagerly for news of the great 
 conqueror who seemed to rival Alexander the Great 
 or Tamerlane in the swiftness and sureness of his 
 successes. 
 
 Nor was their anxiety uncalled for. The ambition 
 of Napoleon knew no limits ; and at one time he 
 seriously proposed to revive the scheme of a French- 
 Indian Empire; which might earlier have been 
 founded by the illustrious Dupleix, had his ungrateful 
 country supported instead of deserting him. In 1808, 
 the time for realizing this dream had passed, and 
 Napoleon's idea of establishing in Persia a secure 
 base of operations and successively subduing Kabul 
 and Lahore was beyond his strength. But the know- 
 ledge of his intentions disquieted the English Govern- 
 ment, and it was to counteract them that Mr. Elphin- 
 stone was deputed to the Court of Kabul and Mr. 
 C. T. Metcalfe to come to terms with Ranjit Singh. 
 
 The Maharaja was quite astute enough to realize 
 the embarrassments of the English, but was not in a 
 position to profit by them. He felt himself anything 
 but secure. The English were irritated by his invasion 
 of Cis-Sutlej territory ; the Afghans were always 
 ready to strike from the north ; the Sikh barons of 
 the Punjab proper were restive and suspicious ; those 
 whom he had subdued, eager for revenge ; those whom 
 he had not yet attacked, fearful of his treachery or 
 violence. At the same time, his project of bringing 
 all the Cis-Sutlej States under his rule and forming
 
 176 RAN JIT SINGH 
 
 a kiDgxlom which should include all the children of 
 the Khalsa, was ever present with him, and he had 
 reasonable hope of its accomplishment. His three 
 Cis-Sutlej expeditions had shown him how weak 
 were the Phulkian Eajas and Malwa chiefs, so torn by 
 petty feuds as to be incapable of uniting against him ; 
 while the English Government had, hitherto, made 
 no direct remonstrance, and had even given the chiefs 
 who sought its protection at Delhi an evasive answer. 
 The announcement of the approach of the English 
 envoy, who left Karnal in the middle of August, 
 caused Ranjit some uneasiness, but he determined to 
 strengthen his position before the negotiations should 
 commence and formed an army at Kasur preparatory 
 to a new invasion of the Cis-Sutlej. Here Mr. Met- 
 calfe arrived on the nth of September, having visited 
 Patiala en route, where the Eaja again begged for 
 protection and vainly tried to induce him to take the 
 keys of the city, to be restored to him on behalf of 
 the British Government. 
 
 Mr. Metcalfe lost no time in placing before the 
 Maharaja the proposal which he was instructed to 
 make of an alliance, offensive and defensive, against 
 France, in the event of an invasion which both the 
 Government and the Lahore State were equally 
 interested in repelling. The Maharaja cordially as- 
 sented to the proposal, but requu-ed in return the 
 acknowledgment of his sovereignty over all the Sikh 
 States and people. This claim Mr. Metcalfe had no 
 authority to concede, and as he held out little hope of
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 177 
 
 a reference to Calcutta being successful, Ranjit Singh 
 struck his camp and crossed the Sutlej, whither the 
 Envoy, ho^Yever displeased at the discourtesy shown 
 him, had no option but to follow. From Khai to 
 Faridkot, which was captured ; from Faridkot to 
 Maler Kotla, where a heavy tribute was demanded, 
 Mr. Metcalfe accompanied the Maharaja's camp, and 
 it was only when the latter proposed to march to 
 Ambala, in the very heart of the States seeking 
 British protection, that the Envoy withdrew to 
 Fatehabad. He had submitted a draft treaty to the 
 Maharaja which was only concerned with the alliance 
 against France ; while that which Ranjit Singh pro- 
 posed in return asked not only for a firm alliance 
 with England^ but that no interference should be 
 allowed in his disputes with Kabul, and that his sole 
 and undisputed sovereignty over the whole Sikh 
 country, north and south of the Sutlej, should be 
 acknowledged. 
 
 The policy of the Maharaja was skilful, bold, and 
 deserved that success which it would probably have 
 achieved had the danger of a French invasion been 
 a real and not an imaginary one. He cared nothing 
 for France, and felt that Napoleon was not his enemy 
 but that of the English Government. If the English 
 desired him to join them against France, they must 
 be prepared to pay. So he pressed his claims on 
 the Envoy and the Governor- General with insistence ; 
 he seized everything of Cis-Sutlej territory that he 
 could while the negotiations were pending, in order 
 
 M
 
 178 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 that at their close, whatever the result, he might be 
 left in possession of what he had actually conquered ; 
 and he cleverly kept the Envoy in his camp to 
 weaken the resistance of the chiefs and to obtain some 
 sort of official sanction for his enterprise. 
 
 After Mr. Metcalfe had left the camp, the Maharaja 
 continued his career of conquest ; he seized Shahabad 
 and Ambala, and would have despoiled Patiala, but 
 he knew that this would cause a breach with the 
 English ; so he contented himself with summoning 
 the frightened Eaja Sahib Singh to his camp, where 
 he exchanged turbans with him and swore eternal 
 fiiendship. He then returned to Amritsar, where he 
 was rejoined by our Envoy on the loth December. 
 
 Instructions had now been received from Calcutta. 
 The impossibility of a French invasion was beginning 
 to be realized, and a treaty with Ranjit Singh against 
 so chimerical a danger was understood to be worth- 
 less, or, at any rate, not worth the concession of the 
 authority of so strong and unscrupulous a ruler being 
 extended over States which detested him and which 
 had eagerly claimed British protection. The Maharaja 
 was accordingly informed that the Governor- General 
 had learnt with great surprise and concern of his 
 pretensions south of the Sutlej, and was still more 
 astonished to find that he sought the assistance of the 
 British Government in his designs. He was told that 
 the Government was the successor of the Marathas, 
 whom they had defeated, and that during that contest 
 the Maharaja had himself suggested the Sutlej as a
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY 179 
 
 boundary. Since that time the Government had relieved 
 the Cis-Sutlej chiefs from all tribute and would not 
 allow them to be subjugated, but took them absolutely 
 under its protection. It was further intimated that 
 the Maharaja's conduct to the Envoy had been dis- 
 courteous and contrary to etiquette in invading Cis- 
 Sutlej territory while a reference was being made to 
 the Governor-General, and a demand was made that 
 all territories seized south of the Sutlej since the first 
 reference of the question to the British Government 
 should be restored and the Sikh army withdrawn to 
 the north of the river. 
 
 The Maharaja vainly tried to evade compliance 
 with these terms, of which he bitterly complained. 
 The Envoy, he said, had been sent to conclude a treaty 
 against France and cement a lasting friendship with 
 him, but the treaty had been altogether forgotten, and 
 the only friendship shown was in thwarting his most 
 cherished policy. His disgust was such that he pre- 
 pared for war. Troops and ammunition were collected 
 from all quarters ; the new fort of Govindgarh at 
 Amritsar was armed and provisioned for a siege, and 
 General Mokham Chand, the best of the Sikh generals 
 and a bitter enemy of the English, was recalled from 
 Kangra and marched to Phillaur on the Sutlej, opposite 
 the town of Ludhiana, where he encamped. To this 
 hostile movement the Government replied by sending 
 a British force to Ludhiana under Colonel Ochterlony, 
 who, passing Patiala and Nabha, was received with 
 many demonstrations of satisfaction and regard. The 
 
 M 2
 
 l8o RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 negotiations at Lahore meanwhile progressed slowly. 
 The Envoy was persuaded that the Maharaja, who 
 talked of joining his army on the Sutlej, had deter- 
 mined on war, and he advised the Commander-in- 
 Chief to invade the Punjab as the best way of termi- 
 nating a situation which was becoming intolerable. 
 But wiser counsels at last prevailed with the Maharaja, 
 who saw that further resistance was hopeless, and 
 on the 2nd April, 1809, he evacuated Faridkot and 
 withdrew his Ambala garrison to the north of the 
 Sutlej. No further difficulties were raised to the con- 
 clusion of the treaty, which was signed on the 2.5th 
 April and ratified by the Governor-General on the 
 30th May following. By it the British Government 
 agreed to abstain from any interference with the 
 territories and subjects of the Maharaja north of the 
 Sutlej, while he agreed to respect the territories of the 
 chiefs south of the river, who, in a supplementary 
 proclamation, were assured of British protection, 
 without interference in their rights and authority and 
 without payment of tribute, subject to certain obliga- 
 tions of aid and assistance against any common 
 enemy. 
 
 The history of the Cis-Sutlej States from this time 
 until the first Sikh War was distinct from that of 
 Lahore. The Maharaja honourably observed his en- 
 gagements, and, recognising that the power of the 
 English was invincible, he frankly and for ever 
 abandoned his dream of Cis-Sutlej supremacy and 
 turned his attention to the expulsion of the Afghans
 
 THE CIS-SUTLEJ TERRITORY l8l 
 
 from the northern districts of the province^ and the 
 reduction of Multan, Kashmir and the Derajat. 
 Wliether he was serious in preparing for war in 
 the early part of 1809 is doubtful. Mr. Metcalfe 
 certainly believed him to be so ; but at that time the 
 great sagacity and shrewdness of the Maharaja were 
 only imperfectly known, and it is more probable that 
 he was only playing a game of brag to the last, in the 
 hope that the British Government might withdraw 
 a portion of their demands. In this he was partially 
 successful, for he was only compelled to restore the 
 Cis-Sutlej districts seized during his last campaign. 
 Those of former years which he had retained or given 
 to his Sirdars were left to him, though he was not 
 permitted to claim allegiance from the Cis-Sutlej 
 chiefs even for lands which he himself had given 
 them.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Later CoNquESTS 
 
 A BRIEF sketch must now be given of the principal 
 victories of the Maharaja over Muhammadan rivals and 
 enemies ; the subjugation of the Mussulman tribes in 
 the north and central districts, and the acquisition of 
 Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar, and the Derajat^. 
 
 The ancient city and district of Multan were ruled 
 by an Afghan family of the royal blood, who were 
 appointed Nawabs in 1738, at the time of Nadir 
 Shah's invasion, when the Mughal Government was 
 anxious to strengthen its outlying provinces by a 
 system of decentralization which it was too weak to 
 control. Between 1771 and 1779, the city was held, 
 with some intervals, by the Bhangi Sirdars, but they 
 were finally ousted by King Timiir, and in the last- 
 named year, Muzaffar Khan was appointed governor. 
 He was a brave and energetic man, and held his owd 
 
 ^ The full account of the Maharaja's Multan campaigns is to be 
 found in the biographies of the Saddozni Chiefs of Multan and 
 Diwjin Sawan Mall, at pp. 475 489 and 272-285 of the Punjab 
 Chiefs, and the Kashmir campaign in the biography of Diwan 
 Mokham Chand, pp. 551-560
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 183 
 
 gallantly against both the Sikhs and the neighbour- 
 ing tribes, Sials and others, who attacked him. In 
 1802, Muzaffar Khan first saw the young chief Ranjit 
 Singh, who had marched from Lahore to spy out the 
 land. The Nawab came out to meet him, thirty miles 
 from the city, and the chiefs, having interchanged 
 valuable presents, parted very good friends. Again, 
 in 1806, after having reduced Jhang, Ranjit Singh 
 marched towards Multan and reached Mahtam, twenty 
 miles north of the city, when the Nawab, who had 
 no wish to fight, gave him Rs. 70,000 to retire. The 
 next year, his appetite whetted by what he had so easily 
 won, the Maharaja returned and attacked Multan 
 in force. The town was in part captured, but the 
 fort held out against aU the Sikh efforts, and an 
 agreement was concluded, through Sirdar Fateh Singh 
 Kalian wala, by which the Maharaja retired on receiv- 
 ing a large sum of money. Nawab Muzafiar Khan, 
 weary of war, now made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
 on his return vainly tried to induce the English to 
 take him under their protection. But this the 
 British Government declined. Multan was remote and 
 beyond the sphere they then desired to influence. 
 
 At the beginning of 1810, Ranjit Singh again 
 marched against Multan. He had just met the 
 Afghan Shah Shuja at Khushab, and the exiled 
 monarch wished the Sikhs to take Multan and make 
 it over to him. Muzaffar Khan had, in 1803, repulsed 
 an attack of the Shah's troops, and, in the hope of 
 conciliating him, had more than once offered him an
 
 1 84 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 asylum at Multan, but Shah Shuja wished to obtain 
 the city and province as his own by conquest. Ranjit 
 Singh treated the weak-minded prince with great 
 respect, but, failing to obtain any money from him, 
 determined to take Multan on his own account. On 
 the 24th February, 18 10, ho arrived before the walls, 
 and the next day took possession of the city. 
 
 For some time the fort was bombarded without 
 effect ; mining was then resorted to ; but the besieged 
 countermined with success, and blew up the battery 
 of Attar Singh Dhari, killing him with twelve of his 
 men. On the 21st of March a general assault was 
 ordered, but the Sikhs were repulsed with great loss, 
 and they now grew disheartened, for provisions had 
 become very dear in the camp. Diwan Mokham 
 Chand, the General, was dangerously ill, and several 
 leaders had been slain, while scarcely any impression 
 had been made on the citadel. On the 25th another 
 assault was made with the same result. It was neces- 
 sary to raise the siege, and Ranjit Singh, to his 
 intense mortification, had to accept from Muzaffar 
 Khan the terms which he had many times rejected, 
 namely, two and a half lakhs of rupees, twenty war 
 horses, and a contingent in time of war. Having 
 received 30,000 in earnest of the ransom, the Maha- 
 raja retired from Multan on the 14th April. 
 
 Seeing that his own strength was insufficient for 
 the capture of Multan, Ranjit Singh addressed the 
 Governor-General, requesting the co-operation of 
 British troops. His proposition was not well received.
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 185 
 
 the more so as he proposed that the force, instead of 
 marching through the Punjab, should pass across the 
 sterile country south of the Sutlej. Shah Shuja even 
 prepared for an independent attack on Multan, but 
 he Avas wise enough to relinquish an idea which could 
 have had no chance of success. 
 
 In February, 1816, an irregular attack was made 
 upon Multan by the Sikhs. A strong force had been 
 sent to Bahawalpur and Multan to collect the tribute, 
 and there being some delay in Muzaffar Khan's pay- 
 ment^ Phiila Singh Akali, mad and drunk with bhang, 
 led a storming party of fanatics like himself against 
 the town, and with such impetuosity did they make the 
 attack that they gained possession of some of the out- 
 works of the citadel. But Fakir Azizuddin made due 
 apologies, the Nawab paid his tribute quicker than 
 he would otherwise have done, and the Sikh army 
 proceeded towards Mankera. In 181 7 a Sikh army 
 under Diwan Chand marched against Multan and 
 attacked the fort, but was repulsed, and retired on 
 payment of ten thousand rupees. These attempts, 
 however, were not made in earnest. The Maharaja 
 was collecting his strength for a great effort, and had 
 sworn that Multan, which had so often defied him, 
 should yet be his. During the cold weather of 1817 
 he was gathering supplies and men from all quarters, 
 and in January, 181 8, an army of 18,000 men^ under 
 the nominal leadership of Prince Kharak Singh, but 
 in reality commanded by Misr Diwan Chand, marched 
 from Lahore. On the way to Multan, the forts of
 
 1 86 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 Khangarh and Muzaffargarli were taken ; the city was 
 invested and captured early in February, and the 
 bombardment of the fort commenced. The Nawab 
 had a garrison of only 2000 men, and the citadel was 
 not provisioned for a siege, but he made a defence the 
 like of which the Sikhs had never before seen. 
 
 Till the 2nd June the bombardment went on. Two 
 large breaches had been made in the walls, for the 
 great Bhangi gun, the Zamzama of Ahmad Shah, had 
 been brought from Lahore, and had been four times 
 fired with eflfect. More than one assault was given 
 by the Sikhs, but they were repulsed, on one occasion 
 with the loss of 1 800 men. The gates were blown in, 
 but the garrison raised behind them mounds of earth 
 on which they fought hand to hand with the Sikhs. 
 The defenders of the fort were at length reduced to 
 two or three hundred fighting men, most of them of 
 the tribe or family of MuzaSar Khan. The rest had 
 either been killed or had gone over to the enemy, for 
 they had been heavily bribed to desert their master. 
 
 At length, on the 2nd June, an Akali, by name Sadhu 
 Singh, determined to surpass what Phiila Singh had 
 done in 1816, rushed with a few desperate followers 
 into an outwork of the fort, and, taking the Afghans 
 by surprise, captured it. The Sikh forces, seeing this 
 success, advanced to the assault and mounted the 
 breach at the Khizri Gate. Here the old Nawab, 
 with his eio-ht sons and all that remained of his 
 garrison, stood, sword' in hand, resolved to fight to the 
 death. So many fell beneath the keen Afghan swords
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 187 
 
 that the Sikhs drew back and opened fire on the little 
 party with their matchlocks. ' Come on like men,' 
 shouted the Afghans, 'and let us fall in fair fight.' 
 But this was an invitation which the Sikhs did 
 not care to accept. There died the white-bearded 
 Muzaffar Khan, scorning to accept quarter, and five 
 of his sons. A sixth was wounded severely in the 
 face, and two accepted quarter and were saved. Few 
 of the garrison escaped with their lives \ and the 
 whole city was given up to plunder. The fort of 
 Shujahabad was also reduced and five guns taken from 
 it. After this the walls of Multan were repaired, a 
 garrison of six hundred men was placed in the fort, 
 and the Sikh army returned to Lahore. Multan was 
 known to be very wealthy, and the share of the 
 Maharaja amounting to only two lakhs of rupees he 
 issued an order that all ofiicers and soldiers should 
 restore their plunder, and that if any was found with 
 them after a certain date the penalty would be certain 
 death. This order brought in some five lakhs to the 
 State treasury, but the plunder of Multan was 
 estimated at two millions sterling. It was supposed, 
 in popular belief, to bring no luck to its possessors, 
 most of whom died in poverty or were killed in battle -. 
 In the spring of the following year, 1819, the 
 Maharaja annexed to his dominions the province of 
 
 * Maharaja Eanjit Singh told the traveller Moorcroft that five 
 hundred of the garrison survived and received quarter. This was 
 incorrect. At the time of the last assault there were not 300 
 fighting men in the fort, and most of these fell at the breach. 
 
 ^ Punjab Chiefs, 487.
 
 1 88 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 Kashmir, long coveted and many times vainly 
 attacked, which more than doubled the area of his 
 possessions. This strange and beautiful land of moun- 
 tain and valley, rising in successive ranges from the 
 low hills of Jammu and the Punjab border line to the 
 giant peaks of everlasting snow double the height of 
 the Alps, had been for several centuries the prize of 
 successive conquerors, who specially valued it for its 
 delightful climate in the summer months, when the 
 plains of India were as a furnace, and the invaders 
 from the north thought longingly of their cool and 
 pleasant homes in Teheran and Kabul. 
 
 Until the beginning of the thirteenth century 
 Kashmir had been ruled by its Hindu princes ; then 
 a Muhammadan dynasty succeeded for two hundred 
 and fifty years ; and, after several unsuccessful expedi- 
 tions, Akbar the Great, in 1588, established the 
 Mughal rule, which lasted for a century and a half. 
 It was during this period that the fame of Kashmir 
 for loveliness among the mountain regions of the world 
 became so great. Powerful emperors, more wealthy 
 and luxurious than any then reigning in Europe, 
 Aurangzeb, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, made 
 annual visits to its pleasant valleys, carrying with 
 them their entire court, the transport of which ex- 
 hausted the resources of the country. In Kashmir 
 they built palaces and pleasure grounds, some of which 
 still remain to testify to the magnificence and selfish- 
 ness of the monarchs, who took so much from the 
 people and gave so little in return.
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 189 
 
 The Mughal dynasty passed away, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durani, 
 who conquered Kashmir in 1752, and ruled it, he and 
 his successors, with a harshness and rapacity which 
 made the Mughal yoke appear light. After seventy 
 years, the Sikhs became the masters of the country, 
 and they in turn gave way to the Eajputs. Eaja 
 Gulab Singh of Jammu, the servant and counsellor 
 of the great Ranjit Singh, was granted the sovereignty 
 of Kashmir and its dependencies by the English in 
 the year 1846. 
 
 It will be remembered that Jammu was closely 
 connected with the fortunes of the Sukarchakia 
 family, the father of the Maharaja having plundered 
 this city, then belonging to Eaja Brij Lai Deo, his 
 unfortunate ally. Jammu, in those days, had no 
 connection with Kashmir. It had been ruled for 
 several thousand years by a Hindu dynasty of 
 Eajput blood, and, although tributary to the Mughal 
 Emperors, it had shaken itself free after their decline, 
 and regained a short-lived independence, which was 
 overwhelmed by the rising power of the Sikhs ; first by 
 the Bhangi Sirdars, to whom Eaja Eanjit Deo was 
 compelled to pay tribute, and then by the Sukarchakias 
 under Mahan Singh. Eanjit Deo is still remembered 
 in the hill country with genuine respect. He was 
 a just judge and a liberal administrator, and it was a 
 misfortune for his people that he was not strong 
 enough to resist the wild Sikh levies, flushed with 
 the new wine of religious enthusiasm, and as keen for
 
 190 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 the plunder of the orthodox Hindu as of the hated 
 Mussulman. It was to this family that the three 
 brothers, the Eajas Gulab Singh, Dhyan Singh, and 
 Suchet Singh, the most powerful members of the 
 Lahore Court, in the later days of the Maharaja's life, 
 belonged ; or, at any rate, they produced a plausible 
 genealogy which was sufficient to impose on the 
 illiterate monarch and strengthen their claims to 
 succeed to the Jammu heritage. Whether of princely 
 descent or not, they certainly, in intelligence and 
 personal advantages, were men of great distinction, 
 and eminently deserved their success in a community 
 where honest virtue was ridiculous and violence and 
 fi-aud could alone ensure victory. 
 
 In the year 1811 the Maharaja prepared for the 
 conquest of Kashmir, and first reduced the hill States of 
 Bhimbar and Rajaori, ruled by Muhammadan families 
 of Rajput descent, and Kiilu in the following year. 
 He then formed an alliance with Fateh Khan, 
 Minister of Shah Mahmiid of Kabul, who had crossed 
 the Indus bent on the reduction of Kashmir and on the 
 expulsion of the governor, Atta Muhammad Khan. 
 The alliance was made only to be broken, both the 
 Maharaja and Fateh Khan determining to trick each 
 other at the first opportunity ; but it was necessary for 
 the moment, as neither dared to march through the 
 hills leaving a hostile army behind him. General 
 Mokham Chand was placed in charge of the Sikh 
 force, which was to receive a third part of the 
 Kashmir plunder, and he marched with Fateh Khan
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 191 
 
 from Jehlam. When, however, the latter had reached 
 the Pir Panjal range, Fateh Khan, thinking that 
 enough had been done to secure the Maharaja's 
 neutrality, pressed on by double marches with his 
 hardy mountain troops, without giving Mokham 
 Chand any notice of his intentions ; while the Sikhs, 
 never of much use in the hills, were unable to move 
 owing to a heavy fall of snow. The Diwan saw the 
 design of Fateh Khan, but he was not disconcerted. 
 He promised the Rajaori chief a jagir of Rs. 25,000 
 if he would show him a pass by which he might reach 
 the valley at the same time as Fateh Khan, which he 
 contrived to do with a handful of troops under Jodh 
 Singh Kalsia and Nihal Singh Attari. He was thus 
 present at the capture of Shergarh and Hari Parbat 
 and the reduction of the valley, which was a work of 
 no difficulty, for the governor had fled and little 
 resistance was offered ; but his force was too small to 
 be of much account, and Fateh Khan declared that 
 the Sikhs were not entitled to their share of the spoil. 
 Shah Shuja, the ex-king of Kabul, who had been 
 detained a prisoner in Kashmir, was made over to 
 Diwan Mokham Chand, and brought by him to Lahore, 
 where the Maharaja, much annoyed to hear that 
 Wazir Fateh Khan refused to share the plunder, 
 determined on revenge. He opened negotiations with 
 Jahandad Khan, brother of the late governor of 
 Kashmir, who held the fort of Attock commanding 
 the passage of the Indus, and induced him to 
 surrender it to a Sikh force. It was now Fateh
 
 193 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 Khan's turn to be angry, and he demanded the 
 restoration of the fort, but Ranjit Singh refused until 
 he should receive his share of the Kashmir plunder. 
 Fateh Khan, in April 1813, set out from Kashmir, 
 leaving his brother, Azim Khan, behind as governor, 
 and invested Attock. A relieving force was hurried 
 up from Lahore, and Mokham Chand was again in 
 chief command. For long the armies lay opposite 
 each other, the Sikhs suffering somewhat in the 
 frequent skirmishes and afraid to force a general 
 engagement, till the garrison of the fort had ex- 
 hausted its supplies, and it was necessary to relieve 
 it or abandon it altogether. The Diwan then deter- 
 mined on fighting, and at Haidaru, a few miles from 
 Attock, he drew up his force in order of battle. 
 
 It was opened by a brilliant cavalry charge led by 
 Dost Muhammad Khan, afterwards the celebrated 
 ruler of Kabul, which broke the Sikh line. One Sikh 
 wing was thrown into complete disorder, and lost 
 some guns. The Afghans, thinking the victory won, 
 dispersed to plunder, when the Diwan led up his 
 reserves in person and drove back the enemy at all 
 points with great loss. Fateh Khan had already 
 fled, believing Dost Muhammad to be slain, and the 
 Afghan army retired upon Kabul, whence the Wazir 
 led an expedition against Herat to endeavour to 
 recover the reputation he had lost before Attock. This 
 action of Haidaru was fought on the T3th July, 1813, 
 and was the first time that the Maharaja had met the 
 Afghans in a pitched battle. It had important and
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 1 93 
 
 far-reaching results. But the confi deuce which it gave 
 to the Sikhs did not save them from a disastrous 
 defeat the following year, when the Maharaja, be- 
 lieving that, with Fateh Khan absent and the Afghans 
 demoralised, he might seize Kashmir as an easy prey, 
 massed an army at Sialkot on the plains below 
 Jammu and prepared to march on the valley. Diwdn 
 Mokham Chand, the great general, was ill, and indeed 
 died a few months later. He had strongly dissuaded 
 the Maharaja from the undertaking, urging that the 
 time was inopportune, the hill Kajas hostile, and the 
 commissariat and transport insufficient. But the 
 Maharaja would listen to no advice. He took charge 
 of one division himself, and entrusted another to 
 Diwan Ram Dyal, a gallant young man, a grandson of 
 Mokham Chand, who had already won his spurs in 
 several engagements. Raja Agar Khan of Rajaori, 
 where the army first halted, gave the Maharaja the 
 advice to divide his force, one half under himself 
 to proceed by way of Punch, and the other under 
 Ram Dyal by the Bahramgalla route. The plan, which 
 may have been necessary from the difficulties of 
 transport on hill roads, had the unfortunate result 
 that the one division could not render any assistance 
 to the other, and that an active enemy could destroy 
 both in detail. This was done by the governor of 
 Kashmir. He attacked Ram Dyal with his whole force 
 as the Sikhs, thoroughly exhausted by a fatiguing 
 march, descended from the Pir Panjal pass into the 
 valley. Ram Dy^l fought well, but was overpowered 
 
 N
 
 194 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 by numbers, and lost a large number of men. He 
 contrived, however, to fight his way to a strong 
 position in the valley, and waited for reinforcements, 
 which the Maharaja sent him under Bhaya Ram 
 Singh, an unenterprising oflacer^ who failed to reheve 
 him, and returned to the Maharaja. Ranjit, finding 
 that an advance was impracticable in presence of 
 the superior and victorious force of the enemy, deter- 
 mined to retreat. The hill Eajas rose behind him ; 
 heavy rain turned the streams into torrents and 
 made the road impassable, and it was only after great 
 difficulty and heavy loss that Ranjit Singh fought his 
 way out of the hills and reached Lahore. Ram Dyal, 
 left to his own resources, behaved so gallantly that 
 Azim Khan was compelled to come to terms with the 
 enemy he could not annihilate, and gave him a safe 
 conduct to the Punjab. 
 
 This was a disastrous expedition, and the Maharaja's 
 generalship was much at fault. But his perseverance 
 was more remarkable than his strategical ability, and 
 the next year he was on the watch for another oppor- 
 tunity to seize Kashmir. This did not at once arrive, 
 forWazir Fateh Khan returned from Herat and Kabul 
 and joined his brother Azim, the governor, and the 
 two united were too strong to attack. Ranjit Singh 
 was, however, able to avenge himself on the Rajaori 
 Raja for his treachery, and burnt his palace and town. 
 The opportunity came in 1819, when the Maharaja, 
 taking advantage of the absence of the governor, sent 
 a strong force into Kashmir under the command of
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 1 95 
 
 Misr Diwan Chand, who had the year before taken 
 Miiltan, while Ram Dyal commanded the rear division. 
 This last was prevented from marching by heavy rain, 
 and had no share in the fighting. But little resistance 
 was made. Zabar Khan, the locum tenens, took to 
 flight, and the province of Kashmir was annexed by 
 Ranjit Singh to his dominions ; Moti Ram, the son of 
 Diwan Mokham Chand and father of Ram Dyal, being 
 the fii'st governor. 
 
 The history of the province from this time until its 
 grant by the English to Raja Gulab Singh differs 
 little from that of other Sikh districts except that, 
 being far removed from Lahore, the governors were 
 able to fleece the people with more than the usual 
 impunity. Sometimes the oppression they exercised 
 was so intolerable that insurrection, the popular reply 
 to oSicial tyranny, warned the Maharaja that it was 
 time to replace an obnoxious lieutenant by one less 
 rapacious. The Diwans Moti Ram and his youngest 
 son Kirpa Ram were, on the whole, the best governors 
 that the valley had in these hard days, and their rule, 
 with two breaks, lasted till 1831. The former was 
 an indolent man who did not trouble himself much 
 about administration, but he was kind-hearted and 
 Uked by the people. When his eldest son Ram Dyal 
 was killed in Hazara in 1820, he resigned the appoint- 
 ment and wished to retire to Benares, and the Maha- 
 raja sent as his successor the fighting Sirdar Hari 
 Singh Nalwa. But his ideas of government were so 
 primitive that the Kashmiris revolted, and it was 
 
 N 2
 
 196 RANJIt SINGH 
 
 necessary to send back Diwan Moti Ram, who 
 remained in charge till 1826, when the family fell 
 into disgrace owing to the sinister influence of Raja 
 Dhyan Singh, and Diwan Chiini Lai, a man of no 
 account, took his place for a year and a half. Then 
 Diwan Kirpa Ram became governor. He was in- 
 telligent, with unusual ideas of magnificence for a 
 man of the trader class, and beautified the capital 
 with many fine buildings and pleasure grounds. The 
 Rambagh garden at Srinagar, where stands Maharaja 
 Gulab Singh's monument, was laid out by him. 
 
 In 1828 Kashmir suffered much from earthquakes; 
 many public and private buildings were destroyed, 
 with great loss of life. After the earthquake came 
 the cholera, a worse epidemic than that which had 
 ravaged the province in the time of Moti Ram. In 
 1 83 1, Kirpa Ram again incurred the enmity of Raja 
 Dhyan Singh. He had given protection to Raja Faiz 
 Talab Khan of Bhimbar, whom both the Dogra 
 Rajas hated and wished to capture ; while Kirpa 
 Ram resolutely refused to give him up. He was re- 
 called from Kashmir, and soon afterwards left the 
 Punjab for Benares, to join his father. His family 
 for three generations had done good and brilliant 
 service for the Maharaja, but this did not save them 
 from the ingratitude of their master, who cared 
 nothing for men whose work was done, or who had 
 become obnoxious to a new favourite. This absolute 
 selfishness of Ranjit Singh, and the shameful manner 
 in which he ignored faithful service were the most
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 197 
 
 unpleasing features in his character. Diwan Mokham 
 Chand, the founder of the Diwan family, was his best 
 and most successful general, and it was in great 
 measure owing to his military ability that the 
 Maharaja established himself as sole ruler of the 
 Punjab. But this did not save his son Moti Ram or 
 his grandson Kirpa Ram from constant slights, fines, 
 confiscation and eventual ruin. 
 
 The conquest of Kangra with the surrounding hill 
 districts had been completed by the Maharaja in 
 1809, and was signalised by one of his usual acts of 
 treachery. Raja Sansar Chand Katoch was the head 
 of the noblest Rajput house, and was generally 
 respected for his abilities as much as for his ancient 
 family. During the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century, when everything was in confusion, he ex- 
 tended his rule over all the neighbouring Rajput 
 States, and successfully withstood many combinations 
 made against him. In 1784, he obtained from Sirdar 
 Jai Singh Kanheya the famous Kangra fort, a place 
 impregnable by the arms and artillery of those times, 
 and the possession of which gave the control of the 
 neighbouring country. The Maharaja had long de- 
 termined to oust him from this point of vantage, and 
 the opportunity came when the Gurkhas, on the 
 invitation of the Kehlor Raja, Mahan Singh, invaded 
 Kangra and invested the fortress. The siege was pro- 
 tracted for years and Sansar Chand might at last 
 have wearied out his persistent enemy, had he not, in 
 an evil hour, asked for the assistance of Ranjit Singh,
 
 198 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 who intrigued with both sides and gained possession 
 of the fortress by pretending to be a relief sent by 
 the Nipalese general, Amar Singh Thappa. Once 
 inside, he laughed at both Rajputs and Gurkhas, and 
 held it for himself. The ruse was brilliant and 
 worthy of such admiration as history gives to suc- 
 cessful treachery. 
 
 It was not till many years afterwards that the 
 Mahar^jd Eanjit annexed the whole of the Kangra 
 States and added it to his own dominions. The great 
 Raja Sansar Chand had died, and his son, Anrodh 
 Chand, was the tributary chief in his room, when 
 Raja Dhyan Singh, the Maharaja's evil genius, ever 
 anxious to justify his claim to pose as the legitimate 
 representative of the ancient house of Jammu, per- 
 suaded his master to demand the hand of one of 
 Anrodh Chaud's sisters for his son, Hira Singh, a 
 handsome boy who had become a great favourite at 
 court. The proud Rajput, who, from the heights of 
 his Katoch ancestry, looked down upon the Dogra 
 Rajas as upstarts, refused the alliance, and fled from 
 Lahore with his family across the Sutlej to British 
 protection. The Maharaja, furious at the rebuff, 
 forthwith confiscated all his estates, and the following 
 year, 1839, desiring to humiliate the Rajput prince, 
 he himself married two of the illegitimate half-sisters 
 of Anrodh Chand, one of whom died before Ranjit 
 Singh, and the other became 8aH at his death. 
 
 The conquest by the Maharaja of Peshawar and 
 the hill country of Hazara, which was a difficult and
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 199 
 
 lengthy operation, costing him much in money, 
 officers, and troops, must be briefly noticed, together 
 with the reduction of the Muhammadan tribes of the 
 Punjab, who were quite as fond of fighting and as 
 gallant soldiers as the Sikhs themselves. What they 
 did not possess was the power of organization and 
 combination, for which the Maharaja was so con- 
 spicuous, and which enabled him to subdue separately 
 tribes which united might have successfully resisted 
 him. There was no Mussulman of genius to gather 
 together his co-religionists under the green flag of 
 the Prophet, and to founds in the Northern Punjab, a 
 Muhammadan kingdom to rival and counterbalance the 
 Sikh monarchy of Lahore. A few fanatics like Syad 
 Ahmad Shah, at the head of heterogeneous assemblies 
 of mountain warriors, gave at times an infinity of 
 trouble, and preached a holy war against Sikhs and 
 infidels ; but their fierce enthusiasm burned out as 
 quickly as straw, and they could only destroy and 
 not build up. The victory rested, as it was bound to 
 rest, with the slow-witted, strong and stubborn Sikhs, 
 directed by the persistence of their great Maharaja, 
 slow, and sure, and irresistible as the rising tide. 
 
 This sketch of the Sikhs and their master would 
 give to English readers a very false idea of the 
 Punjab if it allowed them to conceive it as a province 
 chiefly inhabited by a Hindu population among 
 which the unoiihodox sect founded by Govind Singh 
 rose to sudden and exceptional importance. The 
 Punjab is to-day, and was in Ranjit Singh's time,
 
 200 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 almost equally divided between Hindus and Muham- 
 madans. In the large towns of the south and central 
 districts there is a considerable Mussulman element, 
 but, generally, it may be said that the districts east 
 of the Chenab river are Hindu, and those to the 
 west are Muhammadan. As we approach the North- 
 West frontier and the mountain ranges, the percentage 
 of Hindu residents continually diminishes, until, in 
 the frontier districts, the population is almost en- 
 tirely Muhammadan, the exceptions being the traders 
 and money-lenders who are almost always Hindus, 
 and who flourish even in the fanatical cities of 
 Central Asia. Many of the Muhammadan tribes are of 
 great importance and antiquity, and special mention 
 may be made of the Ghakkars, Jodrahs, Janjoahs, 
 Awans, Tiwanas, Sials, Kharrals, Khattars, Ghebas 
 and Kokhars who inhabit the plain country west of 
 Lahore, or the broken and hilly regions between the 
 Indus and the Chenab rivers ^ Some few of these 
 claim a foreign descent ; the Ghakkars from Persia ; 
 the Awans from Afghanistan or from the Bactrian 
 Greeks ; but it is doubtful whether this signifies more 
 than may be affirmed of all the Aryan races of India 
 who were the product of successive waves of foreign 
 conquest. Little is to be found in the records of these 
 tribes to show that theii* antecedents difier in any 
 important particular from the Eajputs or the Jats. 
 They are, in as true and complete a sense, children of 
 
 ' The detailed history of these tribes is given in the Punjab 
 Chiefs, pp. 502 to 606.
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 20i 
 
 the soil, autochthones, as any of the Hindu tribes, 
 and their early adherence to the creed of Isldm has 
 rather served to stereotype their racial peculiarities 
 than to change or impair them. The close connec- 
 tion between many of these tribes is well known. 
 The Tiwanas, Sials, Ghebas and the Daudpiitras of 
 Bahawalpur have all descended from a common ances- 
 tor, although the latter amuse themselves by tracing 
 back their lineage to Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet 
 Muhammad. But these, with most of the ancient 
 tribes of the Punjab, are of Eajput descent. It seems 
 probable that three important Eajput invasions 
 occurred in the Punjab. The first was antecedent to 
 all historical records, perhaps not later than 2500 
 years B. c, and the princes of Katoch and Chamba and 
 the Jalandhar hills, whose ancestors ruled over the 
 Pari and Rechna Doabs, are its living representatives. 
 The second immigration was a thousand years later, 
 when Ujamida, the son of the founder of Hastinapur, 
 led his Yadu Rajputs to the north of the Jehlam and 
 founded a dynasty which ruled the country from 
 Rawal Pindi to Miiltan. Lastly came the emigrations 
 from the south, extending over a long series of 
 years, from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries of the 
 Christian era, when Rajputs of many and various 
 races came to the Punjab, the descendants of whom 
 are the Jats, Tiwdnas, Sials, Ghebas, Kokhars and 
 many well-known tribes. 
 
 The Punjabi Muhammadans form a very important 
 part of the native army of India. Although I have
 
 202 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 said that the Sikhs, taking them all round, in peace 
 and in war, in the demoralising quiet of cantonment life 
 or in the fierce delights of a campaign, are the finest 
 mihtary material in India^ yet the Punjabi Muhamma- 
 dan is not far behind. In battle his wild enthusiasm 
 is perhaps more irresistible, and his bravery and 
 love of fighting are equally great. But his steadiness 
 in the face of inaction, reverse, or defeat is not equal 
 to that of the Sikh, nor is he so content to serve on 
 garrison duty, in peaceful times, far from his native 
 land. He is not so universally useful as the Sikh ; 
 so unemotional, so ready to take the good and the evil 
 of military service with an equal mind. But he is a 
 splendid fighter, and the Tiwanas, Sials, and Multanis 
 gained much distinction both in 1849 and 1857 fighting 
 on the side of the English. 
 
 The Maharaja first attacked and subdued those 
 tribes which were in the near neighbourhood of 
 Lahore. Fii'st came the Kharrals, who held some 40 
 villages about Shaikhopura and Jhang, a turbulent 
 and thievish race, ever impatient of control. More 
 fanatical than other Muhammadan tribes, they sub- 
 mitted with the greatest reluctance to Hindu rule, 
 and it was as much as Diwan Sawan Mall and the 
 Sikhs could do to restrain them, for whenever an 
 organized force was sent against them they retreated 
 into the marshes and thick jungles, where it was 
 impossible to follow them. The Maharaja annexed 
 their country in 1803, and then turned to their 
 neighbours, the Sials, who inhabited the tract about
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 203 
 
 Jhang, Leiah and Chuniot. He exacted a ransom of 
 Rs. 60,000 a year from Ahmad Khan, the chief, and 
 three years later seized the country, farming it to 
 Sirdar Fateh Singh Kalianwala. The Tiwanas were 
 too strong to be openly attacked at this time, 
 though, in this same campaign of 1803, the Maharaja 
 treacherously entrapped Khan Beg Khan, one of the 
 tribal chiefs, and made him over to his brother, who 
 put him to death, Ranjit Singh taking a lakh of 
 rupees as the price of blood. It was not till 181 7 
 that he seriously attacked the Tiwana chief at Niirpur 
 and took the fort ; and though Ahmad Yar Khan, the 
 then chief, regained his territory, it was only for 
 a short time, and with the aid of the Nawab of 
 Mankera, a rival and enemy, he was compelled to 
 make final submission to Ranjit Singh. An oppor- 
 tunity for revenge on Nawab Hiifiz Ahmad Khan 
 of Mankera soon arrived, when the Maharaja attacked 
 him in 1821. The Tiwanas joined in this expedi- 
 tion with enthusiasm. It was a difficult work, for 
 Mankera was situated in the true desert, and was 
 surrounded by a cordon of twelve forts, within which 
 no wells had been sunk. But the perseverance of the 
 Maharaja, who commanded in person, overcame all the 
 physical difficulties of the undertaking. He moved 
 steadily on, sinking wells as he advanced, and at last 
 invested the fort, which, after a siege of twenty-five 
 days, surrendered ; the Nawab being allowed to retain 
 the governorship of Dera Ismail Khan, a most trouble- 
 some district, which the Sikhs were unable to control.
 
 204 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 The Tiwanas had shown so much gallantry during 
 this campaign that the Maharaja took fifty of them 
 to Lahore as his personal body-guard. They are 
 certainly a most picturesque race, and I well re- 
 member the rival Tiwana chiefs, Fateh Sher Khan 
 and Sher Muhammad Khan, at the great Vice-regal 
 Darbar of Lord Lawrence in 1864, at Lahore, as the 
 most splendidly handsome of all the nobles in that 
 historic gathering. The town of Kasur, about fifty 
 miles south of Lahore, was the head-quarters of a 
 powerful Muhammadan family of Pathan origin, who 
 had successfully held their own against the Sikhs 
 during the latter half of the eighteenth century, and 
 who had joined the cabal against Ranjit Singh when 
 he obtained possession of Lahore in 1800. The 
 Maharaja attacked them several times, and, in 1807, 
 he marched with all his forces against Kasur, and 
 drove out Nawab Kutbuddin, who retired to his 
 estate of Mamdot on the south bank of the Sutlej 
 which is still held by his descendants. 
 
 The chivalrous tribe of Ghakkars, who played a 
 conspicuous part in Indian history, and ruled Kash- 
 mir for many years^ and had fought, not without 
 glory, with invading emperors, was never able to 
 make much head against the Sikhs after the signal 
 defeat of Sultan Mukarab Khan, in 1765, by Sirdar 
 Gujar Singh Bhangi under the walls of Gujrat, which 
 then, with a large part of the Rawal Pindi, Jehlam 
 and Gujrat districts, was a Ghakkar possession. They 
 were crushed by the exactions of the Maharaja's
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 205 
 
 deputies, Budh Singh Sindhanwalia and Raja Gulab 
 Singh of Jammu, and, in 1818, their last semblance 
 of authority was swept away. It was reserved for 
 the English Government to restore, in some degree, 
 the fortunes of this ancient race. 
 
 The Awans were a tribe too scattered to make 
 an effective resistance to the Sikhs. Their principal 
 village, Shamsabad, was destroyed by General Mokham 
 Chand in 181 3, to punish them for their involuntary 
 hospitality to the Kabul army while investing Attock. 
 But their hereditary holdings in Rawal Pindi, Jehlam, 
 and Shahpur were not interfered with, though they 
 had to pay tribute to the Sikh governors of the district. 
 The same remark applies to the Janjoahs, who had 
 a friendly partnership with Mahan Singh, the father 
 of the Maharaja. 
 
 The Chibs, an ancient Rajput tribe, scattered 
 thi'ough the low hills bordering the Kangra, Jammu, 
 and Gujrat districts, had, in gi-eat part, become 
 Muhammadan, although, in Kangra, they retained their 
 original faith. They had been often attacked by the 
 Bhangi Sirdars and also by Sirdar Maban Singh 
 Sukarchakia, but their country was difficult and their 
 reduction was left to the Maharaja himself. After 
 taking Gujrat from Sirdar Sahib Singh, in 1810, 
 Ranjlt Singh marched against Chunian and Mangha, 
 the two strong forts of Raja Umr Khan, the Chib 
 chief, who was compelled to submit, and on his death, 
 a few months later, the whole of his possessions were 
 confiscated.
 
 2o5 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 The same year the Maharaja marched against Fateh 
 Khan, the Baluch chief of Sahiwal^ a man of great 
 influence; who had successfully withstood the Bhangi 
 Sirdars, and had won back from them many con- 
 quered districts. The father of the Mahdraja com- 
 pelled him to pay a small tribute^ which, in 1804, 
 Ranjit Singh largely increased. But it was paid with 
 some irregularity ; an excuse for annexation, which 
 the Maharaja readily availed himself of. In 1810, 
 he marched against Fateh Khan and captured his fort 
 by surprise, carrying him to Lahore, where he was 
 given a sufficient jaglr and lived for a few years, till 
 tired of a life of inaction he fled from court, and, 
 hunted from one asylum to another, died at Bahawal- 
 pur, in exile, in i Sao. 
 
 Thus all the Mussulman chiefs and nobles fell, one 
 by one, under the supremacy of Maharaja Ranjit 
 Singh, and by the year 1820 his power may be said 
 to have been consolidated and absolute throughout 
 the whole Punjab proper, from the Sutlej to the Indus. 
 To the south it was opposed by the British Pro- 
 tectorate, and in the north by the Afghan rulers of 
 Kabul, who claimed, by right of conquest and in 
 the name of Ahmad Shah Durani and Timur, the 
 sovereignty of Northern India. 
 
 The battle of Haidaru has already been noticed, in 
 which the Sikh army defeated Wazir Fateh Khan 
 and Dost Muhammad Khan, afterwards Amir, under 
 the w^alls of Attock. Then followed the repulse of 
 Diwan Ram Dyal in Kashmir, with the disastrous
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 207 
 
 retreat of the Maharaja, and the final subjugation 
 of the province in 1819. The work of subduing the 
 fierce Mussulman tribes of Hazara, who have so often 
 given trouble since the English conquest and have 
 necessitated numerous military expeditions, was a 
 very difficult matter. The Sikhs were never fond of 
 hill fighting, while the Afghans and Yusafzais are 
 much more at home in the hills than in the plain 
 country, and their national system of attack has been 
 developed by the wild and mountainous nature of 
 the country in which they fight. The governor of 
 Hazara, Sirdar Hukma Singh Chimni, who had been, 
 in 1 8 14, appointed to the command of Attock and 
 Hazara, after he had by a brilliant feat of arms driven 
 the Afghans out of the Attock fortress (which they 
 had recovered by a coup de main), was a brave 
 soldier, but a ruthless administrator. His arbitrary 
 ways and especially his hanging of a wealthy and 
 influential chief, Syad Khan, had roused the whole 
 country side, and compelled the Maharaja to recall 
 him in 1819, and appoint Diwan Ram Dyal in his 
 place. 
 
 This young and incautious general, accompanied 
 by Prince Sher Singh, as nominal commander, and 
 Sirdar Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, marched through 
 the hills as far as the fort of Gandgarh, where the 
 tribes of Yusafzai and Swat had assembled to oppose 
 them. The Sikhs were outnumbered, and the tribes 
 had gained confidence by more than one victory over 
 the troops of the late governor. The fight was kept
 
 ao8 RANJIT SINGH 
 
 up the whole day till sunset, when the Sikhs, tired 
 out, returned to their entrenchments. Diwan Earn 
 Dyal, with a small personal escort, was among the 
 last to leave the field, and the enemy, seeing him 
 separated from the main body, attacked him with 
 impetuosity, and after an obstinate resistance killed 
 him and all his followers. When the Sikhs saw that 
 their general was dead they were much disturbed, 
 and the next day retreated, burning all the villages 
 in their track. The loss of Diwan Eam Dyal was 
 much felt by the army ; but there were many good 
 officers to take his place, chief of whom were Sirdars 
 Hari Singh Nalwa and Budh Singh Sindhanwalia, the 
 Maharaja's cousin. He was succeeded in the governor- 
 ship of Hazara by one of the Majithia Sirdars, Amar 
 Singh, who was not more fortunate than Ram Dyal, 
 and was killed by the Dhund and Tarin tribes in 
 precisely the same manner, being surprised with his 
 escort while resting after a sharp engagement. 
 
 The city and province of Peshawar became tributary 
 to the Maharaja in 1823. It was then held for the 
 Afghan monarch by Yar Muhammad Khan, whose 
 brother, Muhammad Azim Khan, had succeeded Fateh 
 Khan as the nominal minister but virtual ruler of 
 Kabul and Northern Afghanistan. The latter, dis- 
 pleased with his brother, the governor of Peshawar, 
 for making terms of friendly and subordinate alliance 
 with the Maharajd, marched with a strong force from 
 Kabul, and, raising the wild Yusafzai tribes in a 
 jihdd against the Sikhs, met them in battle at
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 209 
 
 Theri, near Naoshera, halfway between Attoek and 
 Peshawar. It was a critical contest, and decided, 
 once for all, whether Sikhs or Afghans should rule 
 east of the Khaibar and the mountains of the 
 North- West frontier. The Maharaja commanded in 
 person on the left bank of the Kabul river, where 
 the Yusafzais were posted. The Akalis the Sikh 
 fanatics, and the Ghazis the devotees of Islam, met 
 in fair fight, which resulted in the repulse of the 
 former with the loss of their much-feared leader, 
 Phula Singh. But the Maharaja repulsed the tribes- 
 men ; while, on the other side of the river, Sirdar 
 Hari Singh Nalwa, commanding the main body of 
 the Sikh army, with General Ventura, Jamadar 
 Khushhal Singh, and Sirdar Budh Singh Sindhan- 
 walia, opposed the Afghans under Muhammad Azim 
 Khan, who did not make much of a stand, but re- 
 tired upon Peshawar and thence through the passes, 
 while the Maharaja occupied and plundered the 
 city. He then retired, leaving Yar Muhammad 
 Khan as governor, subject to payment of an annual 
 tribute. 
 
 From this time onwards, Hazara, Peshawar and the 
 frontier districts were a constant source of trouble 
 and expense to the Maharaja, and in frequent conflicts 
 with the Parakzai chiefs and the untamable and 
 fanatical tribes he lost many of his best officers and 
 troops. The long and monotonous record of frontier 
 fights can find no place in this brief sketch. The 
 situation was aggravated by the appearance of a 
 
 o
 
 Zio RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 religious leader, Syad Ahmad Shah, a Muhammadan 
 of Nasirabad, in the North- Western Provinces, who 
 with the righteous purpose of defending his creed 
 and co-religionists against Sikh attack, emigrated to 
 the Peshawar hill country and preached a jihdd or 
 holy war against the infidels. This man was the 
 founder of the sect of Indian Wahabis, who have at 
 different times given much trouble to the Indian 
 Government, though many of them are a loyal, law- 
 abiding people, distinguished from other Muhammadans 
 by a simpler and purer worship. Others, a fierce, 
 fanatical and seditious body, have always been in 
 opposition to the Government, and in times of trouble 
 have tried to stir up hatred and disaffection. But 
 while a, jihdd against the British Government, which 
 gives more absolute religious liberty to Muhammadans 
 than is enjoyed in any Mussulman country, has usually 
 been recognised by Indian Muhammadans as illegal, a 
 Jihdd against the Sikhs, in 1823, was a very different 
 matter. During the time of their supremacy the Mu- 
 hammadans had persecuted the Sikhs and killed their 
 prophets and defiled their temples, and now the day of 
 vengeance had come and the men of Islam were rolled 
 in the dust by the triumphant followers of Govind 
 Singh. 
 
 Sirdar Hari Singh Nalwa had been appointed 
 governor of Hazara, and his harsh conduct and 
 hatred of Muhammadans was always causing fanatical 
 outbreaks. In 1824, there was an insurrection in Dra- 
 band (Darhand), and the following year he was nearly
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 211 
 
 overwhelmed by a gathering of the Yusafzais, five 
 times as numerous as the Sikh force, whom he de- 
 feated after a most stubborn and gallant fight. To his 
 assistance Sirdar Budh Singh Sindhanwalia, a splendid 
 soldier, was despatched. This cousin of the Maharaja 
 had become suspect, and Ranjit Singh sent him to 
 the frontier in the hope that the chances of frontier 
 service would prevent his return to Court. The 
 origin of his disgrace was this. In 1825, the Maha- 
 rdja was ill at the Rambagh, in Amritsar, and his 
 physicians had given him up. Budh Singh, one of 
 the most powerful chiefs, with his reckless brothers 
 Attar Singh and Lehna Singh, determined to be pre- 
 pared for the worst, and attempted to surprise the 
 fort of Govindgarh at night, rightly thinking that the 
 possession of this fortress would give an immense 
 advantage to its holder in the scramble for territory 
 and power -which would follow the death of the 
 Maharaja. He heavily bribed the officers in charge, 
 and forged an order in the Maharaja's name for the 
 surrender to him of the fortress ; but the comman- 
 dant, Jamadar Khushhal Singh, suspected treachery, 
 and declared that he would not open the fort gates at 
 night to the Maharaja himself. So the plot failed; 
 and the Maharaja recovering and hearing the story, 
 a change of air to Hazara was considered advisable 
 for Budh Singh. Here he did excellent service. At 
 Akora he fought Syad Ahmad Shah and defeated him, 
 but lost five hundred men. The next day he advanced 
 to Jagira, where he was joined by the Dogra chiefs 
 
 2
 
 212 RAN J It SINGH 
 
 and the Attari Sirdars, the whole force amounting to 
 io,coo men with twelve guns. Their entrenchments 
 were soon surrounded by the large but undisciplined 
 army of the Syad, composed of Kabulis, Yusafzais 
 and Afghans. For some days the Sikhs remained in 
 their entrenchments, exposed to the incessant assaults 
 of the enemy, till, at length, the supplies and patience 
 of Budh Singh being exhausted, he led his men against 
 the enemy, and after a severe fight defeated them with 
 great slaughter. The Syad took refuge in the Yusafzai 
 hills, and it was two years before he recovered his 
 strength sufficiently to again take the field. 
 
 The Maharaja and Harl Singh Nalwa had both 
 advanced to the rehef of Budh Singh, but, finding their 
 assistance was not needed, they marched to Peshawar 
 to punish the Afghan governor for the encouragement 
 which he had uniformly given the Syad. The city 
 was pillaged, the palace of the Bala Hissar burnt, the 
 mosque defiled, and many of the trees, for which the 
 Peshawar valley is famous, were cut down. The 
 tribute was increased, and the Maharaja carried away 
 with him as a hostage the son of governor Yar 
 Muhammad Khan. 
 
 Continual fighting, raids and insurrections marked 
 the Sikh connection with Peshawar and the frontier 
 till 1833, when Shah Shuja, whose real power was 
 nominal, but who still maintained the style of king- 
 ship, ceded to Ranjit Singh, Multan, the Derajat and 
 Peshawar. But the gift had to be taken by fraud or 
 force, and Prince Nao Nihal Singh and Sirdar Hari
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 215 
 
 Singh were sent with 8000 men, under pretence of 
 demanding enhanced tribute, to seize the city. B}' 
 a ruse, pretending a wish to inspect the walls, the 
 Prince obtained possession ; the Barakzai Sirdars fled, 
 after brief resistance, and the Sikhs occupied the 
 coveted position. But the Afghans were not dis- 
 posed to allow them to hold it without opposition. 
 In 1835, Amir Dost Muhammad Khan invaded the 
 district with the intention of retaking the city ; but 
 Fakir Azizuddin, who was sent ahead of the army 
 to delay his advance, was so successful in his mission 
 that the Sikhs arrived in great force, and so nearly 
 surrounded the Afghans that the Amir had hastily to 
 retreat beyond the passes. 
 
 The reduction of the frontier was a matter beyond 
 the Sikh strength. After the capture of Peshawar, 
 Prince Nao Nihal Singh made a military promenade 
 in force through the districts, burning, plundering, 
 and collecting what revenue he could, and Diwan 
 Hakim Kai, the most prominent of rebels in 1849, 
 was appointed governor of Bannu, Tank, Dera 
 Ismail Khan, and Isakhel ; but the Sikhs never 
 obtained any real control of this wild strip of 
 country, and their influence ceased beyond the 
 range of their forts. They never collected revenue 
 except by armed force, and every two or three years 
 marched an army through the districts to sweep up 
 their arrears. This was amusingly shown when, in 
 1847, after the war, the attention of Colonel Law- 
 rence, the British Resident, was called by Raja Dina
 
 a 14 RAN J IT SINGH 
 
 Nath, the Chancellor, to the outstanding revenues 
 of Tank. ' There are nearly two years' revenue 
 unpaid,' said the Raj a, ' so it is about time to send 
 an army.' 
 
 Sirdar Hari Singh Nalwa remained at Peshawar 
 as Commander-in-Chief, and, in 1 836, was ordered to 
 build a fort at Jamriid to command the entrance of 
 the Khaibar Pass. This work was soon finished, of 
 no great strength, but sufficient to overawe the 
 Afridis and annoy any force marching from Kabul. 
 The Amir was furious, and determined to take up 
 the challenge thus thrown before his mountain gate- 
 way. 
 
 He despatched a force of 7000 horse, 2000 match- 
 lock men, and 18 guns from Jalalabad under his son 
 Muhammad Akbar Kb an, three other of his sons 
 accompanying, and being joined by some 20,000 
 tribesmen, they arrived in April, 1837, before Jam- 
 rud, then unprovisioned and garrisoned by only Hoo 
 Sikhs. Hari Singh was ill with fever in Peshawar 
 and made no sign, and the siege went merrily on for 
 six days, when the walls were breached so that 
 cavalry might have charged up them. At last, when 
 hope was almost gone, the great general turned out 
 all his garrison from Peshawar, 6000 foot, 1000 
 regular cavalry, and 3000 irregular, and marched to 
 the relief. 
 
 For some days the hostile forces lay opposite each 
 otlier, neither wishing to attack. At length Hari 
 Shigh decided on battle. His advance was, at fii-st,
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 215 
 
 irresistible, and the Afghans broke and fled; but 
 the Sikhs carried their pursuit too far, and were 
 overwhelmed by a charge of Afghan horse under 
 Sirdar Shamsuddin Khan. Hari Singh, seeing a 
 desperate effort could alon-e retrieve the fortunes of 
 the day, rode with his principal Sirdars to the front 
 and by his presence and example encouraged the 
 Sikhs to stand. The day might still have been won, 
 but Hari Singh fell, mortally wounded by two bullets 
 in the side and stomach, and his men, disheartened, 
 fell back under the walls of Jamrud and waited for 
 reinforcements. These at last arrived, when the 
 water and provisions had been exhausted, and 
 nothing remained for the besieged but to cut their 
 way through the enemy as best they might. But when 
 the news of the Afghan attack first reached Lahore, 
 a large part of the force which had been assembled 
 to do honour to the marriage of Prince Nao Nihal 
 Singh, was despatched north in all haste. The Prince 
 himself, his father Kharak Singh, General Ventura, 
 Jamadar Khushhal Singh, and all the flower of the 
 Sikh chivalry, formed so formidable an array that, 
 on their timely arrival at Peshawar, the Barakzai 
 Sirdars raised the siege and withdrew without further 
 fighting to Jalalabad. 
 
 During these years of storm and stress the Maharaja 
 had maintained a strict alliance with the British 
 Government, which was now, on its own account, 
 inspired by evil counsels, to commence a course of 
 interference in Afghanistan with the intention of
 
 21 6 RANjiT SINGH 
 
 setting aside the bold and capable family that had 
 seized power, in favour of the most feeble and in- 
 capable of all the effete Saddozai race. The negotia- 
 tions with Lahore, the arrangements with Ranjit 
 Singh and Shah Shuja, the successful commencement 
 of the enterprise and the overwhelming catastrophe 
 of its close, have all been told in detail elsewhere. 
 Here there is no space to dwell upon them. The 
 campaign was eminently distasteful to the Maharaja, 
 who recognised that it was undertaken with the in- 
 tention of circumscribing his power in the dii'ections 
 of Sind and Afghanistan, as formerly it had been 
 limited on the Sutlej. But, so far as he was able, he 
 furthered the plans of the Government as explained 
 to him by Sir WiUiam Macnaghten in May, 1838, 
 and prepared to bear his share of the burthen of the 
 campaign if only he was permitted by his chiefs, 
 with whom any co-operation with the English was 
 specially obnoxious. For the personal influence of 
 the Maharaja was waning, and the Jammu Rajas 
 Dhyan Singh and Gulab Singh were all-powerful at 
 Lahore. - 
 
 In the cold weather of 1838, when the British 
 army destined for the Afghan campaign was con- 
 centrated at Firozpur, and the Governor- General, 
 Lord Auckland, was visiting the Maharaja in great 
 state at Lahore, a second stroke of paralysis, caused 
 by excesses, anxiety and excitement, warned Ranjit 
 Singh that the time had come when he must leave 
 the scene of his conquests for ever. From this time
 
 LATER CONQUESTS ai7 
 
 till his death the following year he was only half 
 alive, yQi he still endeavoured to conduct business, 
 and sometimes he was mournfully carried in his 
 palanquin at a parade of his troops on the plain 
 below the Samman Burj of Lahore. But all knew 
 that the end must soon come, and each of the power- 
 ful Sirdars whom the fear of their master had alone 
 restrained from flying at each other's throats, pre- 
 pared for the struggle which was inevitable on his 
 decease. 
 
 On various occasions he had been attended by 
 English doctors, Murray in 1826 and M'Gregor after 
 his paralytic seizure in 1834, but he had not found 
 their prescriptions of much avail, partly from the 
 intractable nature of the disease, partly because he 
 would not give up hard drinking. He also tried 
 electricity and galvanism. The visit of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, Sir Henry Fane, with a number of 
 English officers on the occasion of the marriage 
 festivities of Prince Nao Nihal Singh, in March, 1837, 
 had done tlie Maharaja no good; for he thought it 
 due to hospitality to set an example of drinking, 
 which prepared him for the second paralytic stroke 
 in 1838. During his last illness. Fakir Azizuddin, 
 who was his medical adviser as well as his secretary, 
 attended him with the utmost devotion, administering 
 the medicine with his own hand and telling him news 
 from all quarters. Other famous native practitioners 
 were summoned ; but he refused to see the English 
 doctor whom the Governor-General sent him. But
 
 21 8 RANjtT SINGH 
 
 medicine could not cure him, even if the musk, 
 ambergris, pounded pearls, sandal and almonds, which 
 formed an important part of the native pharmacopoeia, 
 did not hasten the end. He summoned to his bed- 
 side Prince Kharak Singh, his only son, and pro- 
 claimed him his heir, with Dhyan Singh as minister, 
 a triumph which that wily fox was not destined to 
 enjoy for long. Then, after having given twenty-five 
 lakhs of rupees in alms to the poor and to the priests 
 of Nankhana, where the first Guru was born, and to 
 those of Dera Baba Nanak, where he died, the great 
 Maharaja was moved, according to Sikh and Hindu 
 custom, from his bed to a carpet on the ground, where 
 he breathed his last on the 27th June, 1839. 
 
 The six years which followed were a period of 
 storm and anarchy, in which assassination was the 
 rule and the weak were ruthlessly trampled under 
 foot. The legitimate line, Kharak Singh, the imbe- 
 cile, and his handsome, reckless, vicious son, Nao 
 Nihal Singh, was soon extinguished in blood. Then 
 came the turn of the impostors : Maharaja Sher Singh, 
 a drunken debauchee, murdered together with his 
 son by the fierce Sindhanwalias ; and Dhulip Singh, 
 the son of the dancing girl, whose end would have 
 been as swift and bloody as the others had not a 
 propitious fortune and the collapse of the Sikh 
 army allowed him a secure refuge in the um'equited 
 generosity of the British Government. 
 
 As Ranji't Singh had sown, so was the harvest. 
 The fathers had eaten sour grapes and the children's
 
 LATER CONQUESTS 219 
 
 teeth were set on edge. The kingdom founded in 
 violence, treachery and blood did not long survive its 
 founder. Created by the military and administrative 
 genius of one man, it crumbled into powder when the 
 spirit which gave it life was withdrawn ; and the 
 inheritance of the Khalsa passed into the hands of 
 the English, who will hold it against all comers if 
 only they rule with the justice, beneficence and 
 strength which alone make empires enduring.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adi Granth, translation, 39 : 
 composition, 41 : style, 43 : doc- 
 trine, 51-57. 
 
 Adoption, right of, 69. 
 
 Ahluwalia Misl, 7S. 
 
 Ahmad Shah Abdali, 73-77, 
 163. 
 
 Ahmad Shah, Syad, I99-209. 
 
 Akalis, 58, 86, 135, 185, 186, 
 209. 
 
 Ala Singh of Patiiila, 75. 
 
 Allabd, General, 137. 
 
 Amar Singh Ahluwalia, loS. 
 
 Amritsar, 80. 
 
 Anrodh Chand, 198. 
 
 Armt, Sikh, 83-87 : Mah^raj:i's 
 change of system, 132-144: 
 present value, 35-38. 
 
 Attab Singh Sindhanwalia, 126, 
 140. 
 
 Attab Singh, Sird& of Bhadaur, 
 48. 
 
 Auckland, Lord, 210. 
 
 AuRANGZEB, Emperor, 71, 188. 
 
 AviTABiLE, General, 138. 
 
 AwANS, 36, 205. 
 
 Azizuddin, Fakir, 117-122 : his 
 brothers, 122, 217, 
 
 Banda, 72. 
 
 Eh AG Singh, Eilja, 172. 
 Bhais, The, 130. 
 Bhangi Misl, 78, 154-ifii, 163, 
 182, 189, 205. 
 
 Bhimbae, 190, 196. 
 
 Brahman superiority, 28, 47, 57, 
 
 "5- 
 Beij Lal Deo, R^ja, 156, 189. 
 Budh Singh Sindhanwalia, 140, 
 
 209, 210. 
 
 Caste, abolition of, 58. 
 
 Chadab dalna, marriage, 63, 64. 
 
 Chattahs, The, 158. 
 
 Chibs, The, 205. 
 
 Cis-SuTLEj States, 19-24, 167- 
 
 181. 
 Civil Administeation, 144-152, 
 
 172. 
 Collaterals, Succession, 68. 
 Confederacies, The Sikh, 78-83. 
 Court, Colonel, 138. 
 Cunningham, Captain, 7, 40. 
 Customs Revenue, 145. 
 
 Dera Ismail Khan, 203. 
 Desa Singh Majithia, 131. 
 DHULfp Singh, Mah^rajd, 109, 
 
 218. 
 Dhyan Singh, R^j^, 126, 190, 
 
 198, 217. 
 Dina Nath, R^j^, 127-129, 213. 
 Diwan Chand Misr, 140, 185. 
 Dost Muhammad KhIn, 192. 
 Dulelwalas, 82. 
 
 English, The, and Ranjft Singh, 
 167-181, 215, 217.
 
 2%% 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Escheat, right of, 69. 
 
 Fane, Sir Henry, 217. 
 
 Fabidkot, 177, 180. 
 
 Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, 140, 
 
 207. 
 Fateh Singh Kalianwala, 96, 
 
 140, 203. 
 Fateh Khan, Wazir, 190-194. 
 
 Gajpat Singh, Edj^ of Jind, 155. 
 
 Gardner, Colonel, 138. 
 
 Ghakkaes, 36, 200, 204. 
 
 Ghebas, 201. 
 
 GulIb Singh, Raja, 126, 189, 
 190. 
 
 GoviND Singh, Guru, 44-51, 55, 
 58-60, 70. 
 
 Gbanth, The Adi, 39-57: of 
 Govind Singh, 48-58. 
 
 Gurkha invasion, 149, 197: sol- 
 diers, 36. 
 
 Har! Singh Nalwa, 96, 125, 140, 
 
 195, 209, 210-215. 
 HazIra, 198, 209. 
 HoLKAE, Jaswant R^o, 169 -171. 
 
 Illegitimacy, 68. 
 Infanticide, 59. 
 Irregular troops, 143. 
 
 Jammit, 189. 
 
 Jamrud, 214. 
 
 Janam Sdkhi of N^nak, 42. 
 
 Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, 76, 79, 
 
 154, 170. 
 Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, 80, 157, 
 
 169. 163. 
 Jats, The, 32, 116, 201. 
 Jhanda Singh, Bhangi, 154. 
 JoDH Singh Ramgarhia, 97, 163. 
 Jodh Singh, Wazlr^bdd, 97. 
 JowAHiR Singh, Sirdar, 66. 
 
 KAngra, 197. 
 
 Kanheyas, 79, 154, 156, 158, 
 
 165. 
 Karewa marriage, 63. 
 Kashmir, 188-196. 
 Kasur, 204, 
 
 Khalifa Syad Ahmad, 103. 
 
 Khalsa, The, 46, 83. 
 
 Kharak Singh, Mah^r^jd., 106, 
 
 108, 217. 
 Kharrals, 202. 
 Khushhal Singh, JamadiCr, 123, 
 
 209, 211. 
 KiEPA Ei.M, 195. 
 KoH-i-NuR, Diamond, 99-102. 
 
 KOKHARS, 201. 
 
 Krora Singhias, 81. 
 KUKAS, The, 61. 
 KuLU, 190. 
 
 Lahore, 161. 
 Laili, mare, 102-104. 
 Lake, Lord, 169-171. 
 Lehna Singh Majithu, 131. 
 Ludhiana, 173. 
 
 Macnaghten, Sir William, 216, 
 MahIn Singh, Sirddr, 153-158. 
 Mahtab Kour, 107. 
 Malee Kotla, 177. 
 
 MANKERi., 203. 
 
 Maratha States, 14: conquests 
 
 and repulse, 168-171. 
 Marriage rules, 62-65. 
 Metcalfe, Mr., Mission, 136, 
 
 176. 
 
 MOKHAN ChAND DiWAN, 1 39, 
 
 173, 179. 190, 193- 
 
 MoTi Ram, 195. 
 
 MuHAMMADANS as rulers, 116: 
 
 tribes, 200 : as soldiers, 36, 
 
 199-202. 
 
 MULRAJ DlWAN, 150. 
 
 MuLTAN, siege, 182-187. 
 Muzaffar Khan, Naw^b, 182- 
 187 : his sons, 123. 
 
 NADfR ShIh, 73. 
 
 Nakhais, 82, 164. 
 
 Nanak, Guru, 42, 44, 51-57. 
 
 Nao NihAl Singh, 108, 213, 217, 
 
 218. 
 Napoleon, likeness to Ranjlt 
 
 Singh, 10 : Indian projects, 174, 
 
 178. 
 NiSHANIAS, 81.
 
 INDEX 
 
 223 
 
 Pantheism, 53. 
 Peshawar, 19S, 208-215. 
 Phulkian, 78. 
 Polytheism, 54. 
 
 RajIoei, 190, 193. 
 
 Raj Kour, ioS. 
 
 Rajpdt Principalities, 13, 149, 
 201 : soldiers, 36 : women, 65. 
 
 Rallia Ram, i 30. 
 
 Ram Das, Guru, 43. 
 
 Ram Dyal Diwan, 140, 193, 207. 
 
 Ramgakhias, 80, 158. 
 
 Ran JIT Deo, R^ja, 154, 189. 
 
 Ranjit Singh, his likeness to 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, 9 : ap- 
 pearance, 88 : his character, ib. : 
 dress, 90: court, ill: religion, 
 113: toleration, 114: army and 
 administration, 132: early con- 
 quests, 153 : relations with the 
 English, 167 : Cis-Sutlej terri- 
 tory, 167 : later conquests, 182 : 
 his wives and children, 106 : 
 his parentage, 153: his death, 
 218. 
 
 Sada Kour Mai, 107, 158, 160, 
 
 165. 
 Sahib DyAl, RajiC, 130. 
 Sahib Singh, R£ija of Patidla, 
 
 173- 
 SahiwIl, 206. 
 
 Sansak Chand, Rijci, 157, 197. 
 Sail, or widow-burning, 65-67. 
 Sawan Mall Diwan, 150, 202. 
 Settlement Reports, 146. 
 Shahids, 82. 
 ShIh ShujA, 100, 183, 191, 212, 
 
 215. 
 Shah Zaman, 160. 
 Sham Singh Attari, 67. 
 
 Sher Singh, Mahiir^j^ 108, 165, 
 207, 212. 
 
 SiAls, 201. 
 
 Sikhs, The, M^lw^ Sikhs, 19: 
 Manjha Sikhs, 24 : chief dis- 
 tricts, ih. ; census population, 
 25-31 : Jit races, 32 : Rajput 
 origin, 33 : military value, 35- 
 38 : meaning of name, 43 : cog- 
 nomens, 87 : the early Sikh 
 army, 85-87: later, 133, 144: 
 democratic spirit, 132. 
 
 Sikh religion, 26-30, 39-69 : the 
 Adi Granth, 39-44: Nc^nak, 
 42 : Govind Singh, 44 : its dog- 
 mas, 51, 58 : rules of conduct, 
 58-60. 
 
 Sindhanwalias, 120, 153. 
 
 SiNGHPURIA, 80. 
 
 Sirhind, accursed, 50. 
 Succession of sons, 64 : of daugh- 
 ters, 65 : of collaterals, 68. 
 SucHET Singh, Rajc^, 126, 190. 
 
 SUKAECHAKIAS, 8l, 153-158- 
 
 Sultan Muhammad Khan, 103. 
 
 Tej Singh, Rajtl, 125. 
 Theism of the Granth, 53. 
 TiWANAS, 36, 123, 201, 203, 204. 
 Transmigration, 54, 55. 
 Treaty of 1809, 180. 
 Trumpp, Dr. Ernest, 40. 
 
 Van Cortlandt, Colonel, 138. 
 Ventura, General, 103, 137, 143. 
 209. 
 
 Wahabis, 210. 
 Wilson, H. H., 40. 
 
 Yab Muhammad Khan, 102, 280. 
 
 ZiN Khan, 75. 
 
 TEE END.
 
 RULERS OF INDIA 
 
 THE CLARENDON PRESS SERIES OF INDIAN 
 HISTORICAL RETROSPECTS. 
 
 Edited by Sir W. W. Hunteb, K.C.S.I., M.A., LL.D. 
 
 The following 29 volumes have been already published : — 
 
 I. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN PEOPLES, 
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