1869.] The District of Ludiana. 95 



The battle field of Aliwal is in the district, and during the mutiny 

 a skirmish took place here with the Jalandhar mutineers (see Cave 

 Browne's "Panjab and Delhi," pages 251 to 264. 



An account of the Ludiana district would not be complete without 

 reference to the new sect of Sikhs, the Kukas, who have lately made 

 some noise in the Panjab. Their founder, Ram Sing, is the son of a 

 carpenter, named Jassa Sing, and lives at Bhaini, a small village some 

 15 miles to the east of Ludiana. He is over 50 years of age, is 

 married, and has had two daughters married, to one of whom fur- 

 ther reference will be made. He served in the Khalsa army between 

 1844 and 1846. There is a story that, in 1850, Ram Sing was engaged 

 in the shop of one Panjaba, at that time a well known carpenter of 

 Ludiana, and embezzled a large sum of money belonging to his em- 

 ployer. With the capital so obtained, he started a shop at Bhaini in 

 partnership with some one else who, after a time, served Ram Sing 

 the same trick that the latter had played Panjaba. After this, Ram 

 Sing left for the Rawal Pindi district, and there became the disciple 

 of an Udasi faqir, named Balak Sing. 



Prom him Ram Sing received the religious impulse which has 

 since influenced his career. Balak Sing himself was but little known, 

 and has been dead for 8 or 9 years. Ram Sing began to proselytize 

 about 1858, and assumed the title of Bhai in 1860. 



Ram Sing, like most other reformers, repudiates the character of 

 innovater, and professes to be merely a restorer of the old religion. 

 He is a purist Sikh, acknowledges and reveres the ten gurus, and 

 the granths, and preaches the unity of G-od. He differs from the 

 orthodox Sikhs chiefly by .a more stringent enforcement of morality, 

 and by his iconoclastic tendencies, condemning the erection of tombs 

 and shrines. Notwithstanding these tendencies, he is constantly visiting 

 the sacred cities of the Sikhs, Amritsar, Mukatsar, and Anandpur 

 Makkowal. Like other Sfkhs, the Kukas wear the " kes" or long hair, 

 and are initiated by the sacrament " paiil." Ram Sing condemns ex- 

 cessive lamentation for the dead as being distrustful of the Deity. He 

 particularly warns his disciples against foolish extravagance in their mar- 

 riage expenses. He teaches them to believe in " heaven" and " hell." 

 A disciple and namesake of Ram Sing gave me the following list of 

 virtues especially inculcated by his guru — fear of God, faithfulness, 



