SIKHS. 



and of grovelling mindi, whh pride in themfelves, he changed 

 the name of his followers from Sikh to Sinh or lion ; thus 

 giving to all his followers that honourable title which had 

 been before exclufively afTumcd by the Rajapute, the firll 

 military clafs of Hindoos ; and every Sikh felt himlelf at 

 once elevated, by this proud appellation, to a footing with 

 the firft clafs. The difciples of Govind were required to 

 devote themfelves to arms ; always to have Heel about them 

 in one fhape or other ; to wear a blue drefs ; to allow their 

 hair to grow ; and to exclaim, when they met each other, 

 " Wa ! Guruji ka khalfalt ! Wa ! Guruji ki futteh !" /. e. 

 Succefs to the ttate of the Guru ! Viftory attend the Guru ! 

 Guru Govind inculcated his tenets upon his followers by his 

 preaching, his atlions, and his works. He is faid to have 

 firft inftituted the Guru-mata, or ftate council, among the 

 Sikhs, whicli meet at Amritfar ; by which inftitution he 

 gave that form of a federative republic to the commonwealth 

 of the Sikhs, which was moft calculated to roufe his fol- 

 lowers from their indolent habits, and deep-rooted preju- 

 dices, by afiigning to them a perfonal (hare in the govern- 

 ment, and placing within the reach of every individual, the 

 attainment of rank and influence in the ftate. The emperor 

 Aurungzebe, aided by the rajas who were hoftile to Govind, 

 purfued him and his followers to Chamkour, and encom- 

 paUed it on all fides. The fiege was caxricd on with great 

 vigour ; and though Govind manifefted an invincible fpirit, 

 and performed prodigies of valour, he was at laft over- 

 powered by numbers ; and reduced to the neceffity of making 

 his efcape from Chamkour in a dark night, covering his face, 

 as it is faid, from ftiame at his own difgrace. After his 

 flight, a fenfe of his misfortunes, and the lofs of his children, 

 deprived him of his reafon, and he wandered about for a 

 confiderable time in the moft deplorable condition. At 

 length, having obtained from the emperor Behadur Shah a 

 fmall mihtary command in the Deccan, he was ftabbed by a 

 Patan foldier's fon, and expired of his wounds, A.D. 1708, 

 at Naded, a town fituated on the Caveri river, about 100 

 miles from Haiderabad. Guru Govind was the laft acknow^- 

 ledged religious ruler of the Sikhs. A prophecy had limited 

 their fpiritual guides to the number of ten ; and their fuper- 

 ftition, aided, without doubt, by the aftion of that fpirit of 

 independence which his inftitutions had introduced, caufed 

 Its fulfilment. Banda, a devoted follower and friend of 

 Guru Govind, eftablifhed the union of the Sikhs under his 

 banners ; and his grief at the misfortune of his prieft, is faid 

 to have fettled after the death of Govind into a gloomy and 

 defperate defire to avenge his wrongs. The confufion which 

 took place on the death of Aurungzebe, which happened 

 A.p. 1707, was favourable to his wilhes. Having obtained 

 a viaory over the Mahometans in a bloody aAion, Banda, 

 encouraging the Sikhs, and hardening them by his leftbns to 

 deeds of the moft horrid atrocity, fubdued all the country 

 between the Setlej and the Jumna, and crofling that river, 

 made inroads into the province of Sharanpour, which hes a 

 lew miles to the N.E. of Delhi, between the rivers Jumna 

 and the Ganges. The march of the Sikhs was attended 

 with the exercife of the moft wanton barbarity ; life was 

 only granted to thofe who conformed to the religion, and 

 adopted the habits and drefs of the Sikhs ; and if Behadur 

 Shah had not quitted the Deccan, which he did A.D. 17 10, 

 the whole of Hindooftan would probably have been fubdued 

 by thefe mercilefs invaders. The firft check which the 

 Sikhs received was from an army under fultan Kuli Khan. 

 They were afterwards defeated in a very defperate adion by 

 Abdal Samad Khan, an officer of the emperor Farakhfeir, 

 after which the Sikhs were never able to make a ftand, but 

 were hunted like wild beafts from one ftrong hold to another, 



4 



by the army of the emperor, by whom their leader, Banda, 

 and his molt devoted followers, were at laft taken, after hav. 

 ing fuffered every extreme of hunger and fatigue. Great 

 numbers of the Sikhs were put to death, after the furrender 

 of Lohgad', a fortrefs 100 miles N.E. of Lahore ; but 

 Banda was fent, with the principal chiefs of the tribe, to j 

 Delhi, where, after having been treated with every kind of 

 obloquy and infult, they were executed. 



After the defeat and death of Banda, refentment prompt* 

 ed to every meafure that could be devifed, not only to de- 

 ftroy the power, but to extirpate the race of the Sikhs. 

 From the Mahometans they met with no quarter ; and after 

 the execution of their chief, a royal edift was ifTued, order- 

 ing all who profefted the religion of Nanac to be taken and 

 put to death wherever found ; and by way of giving greater 

 effeft to this mandate, a reward was offered for the head of 

 every Sikh. During the interval that elapfed between the 

 defeat and death of Banda, and the invafion of India by 

 Nadir Shah, a period of nearly 30 years, we hear nothing 

 of the Sikhs ; but when that event occurred, they are faid 

 to have fallen upon the inhabitants of the Panjab, who 

 fought fhelter in the hills, and to have plundered them of 

 that property which they were endeavouring to fecure from 

 the rapacity of the Perfian invader. Enriched with thefe 

 fpoils, fays the author whofe account of them we are now 

 citing, the Sikhs left the hills, and built the fort of Dale- 

 wal, on the Ravi, from whence they made predatory incur- 

 fions, and are ftated to have added, both to their wealth and 

 reputation, by harafling and plundering the rear of Nadir 

 Shah's army, which, when it returned to Perfia, was encum- 

 bered with fpoil, and marched, from a contempt of its ene- 

 mies, with a difregard to all order. 



The weak ftate to which the empire of Hindooflan was 

 reduced, and the confufion into which the provinces of La- 

 hore and Cabul were thrown, by the death of Nadir, were 

 events of too favourable a nature to the Sikhs to be ne- 

 glected by that race, who became daily more bold, from their 

 numbers being greatly increafed by the union of all thofe 

 who had taken flielter in the mountains ; the re-admiflion into 

 the feft of thofe who, to fave their lives, had abjured, for a 

 period, their ufages ; and the converfion of a number of 

 profelytes, who haftened to join a ftandard under which rob- 

 bery was made facred, and to plunder was to be pious. 



Aided with thefe recruits, the Sikhs now extended their 

 irruptions over moft of the provinces of the Panjab ; and 

 though it was fome time before they repoflefled themfelves 

 of Amritfar, they began, immediately after they quitted 

 their faftneftes, to flock to that holy city at the periods of 

 their facred feafts. Some performed this pilgrimage in fe- 

 cret, and in difguife ; but in general, according to a con- 

 temporary Mahometan author, the Sikh horfemen were 

 feen riding, at full gallop, towards " their favourite fhrine 

 of devotion. They were often llain in making this attempt, 

 and fometimes taken prifoners ; but they ufed, on fuch oc- 

 cafions, to feek, inftead of avoiding, the crown of martyr- 

 dom :" and the fame authority ftates, " that an inttance 

 was never known of a Sikh, taken in his way to Amritfar, 

 confenting to abjure bis faith." 



Encouraged by the confufion which took place on the firft 

 Afghan invafion, A.D. 1746, the Sikhs made themfelves 

 mafters of a confiderable part of the Dooab of Ravi and Ja- 

 lendra, and the country between the rivers Ravi and Beyah, 

 and that river and the Setlej, and extended their incurfions 

 to the neighbouring countries. But though they were fe- 

 verely and repeatedly checked by Mir Manu, the governor 

 of Lahore, yet, after his death, they availed themfelves of 

 all the advantage* which th* local diftraftions of a falling em- 

 pire 



