I 



SIKHS. 



pjre afforded them of extending and eftablifliing their power. 

 Their bands, under their moll aftive leaders, plundered in 

 every direAion, and were fuccefsful in obtaining pofleflion 

 of feveral countries, from which they have never fince been 

 expelled ; and their fuccefs, at this period, was promoted, 

 jnftead of being checked, by the appointment of their old 

 friend, Adina Beg Khan, to Lahore ; as that brave chief, 

 anxious to defend his own government againtt the Afghans, 

 immediately entered into a confederacy with the Sikhs, whom 

 he encouraged to plunder the territories of Ahmed Shah 

 Abdali. 



The Afghan monarch, refenting this predatory warfare, 

 in which the governor of Lahore was fupported by the 

 court of Delhi, determined upon invading India. Adina 

 Beg, unable to oppofe him, fled : and the Sikhs could only 

 venture to plunder the baggage, and cut off the itragglers 

 of the Afghan army, by which they fo irritated Ahmed 

 Shah, that he threatened them with punilhment on his re- 

 turn ; and when he marched to Cabul, he left his fon Tai- 

 mur Khan, and his vizir, Jehan Khan, at Lahore, with or- 

 ders to take vengeance on the Sikhs for all the excefTes which 

 they had committed. The firft expedition of Taimur Khan 

 was againil their capital, Amritfar, which he deftroyed, 

 filling up their facred tank, and polluting all their places of 

 worlhip ; by which adlion he provoked the whole race to 

 fuch a degree, that they all affembled at Lahore, and not 

 only attempted to cut off the communication between the 

 fort and country, but collefted and divided the revenues of 

 the towns and villages around it. Taimur Khan, enraged at 

 this prelumption, made feveral attacks upon them, but was 

 conltantly defeated ; and, being at laft reduced to the necef- 

 fity of evacuating Lahore, and retreating to Cabul, the 

 Sikhs, under one of their celebrated leaders, called Jafa 

 Sinh Calal, immediately took pofleflion of the vacant foubah 

 of Lahore, and ordered rupees to be coined, with an im- 

 preffion to the following import : " Coined by the grace of 

 Khalfah ji, in the country of Ahmed, conquered by Jafa 

 Sinh Calal." Although they were afterwards expelled, to- 

 gether with the Afghans, from Lahore, yet after the death 

 of Adina Beg Khan, the governor of this province, they 

 eagerly feized the opportunity that was thus afforded them, 

 of making themfelves again mailers of Lahore. Their fuc- 

 cefs was, however, foon checked by Ahmed Shah Abdali, 

 who, irritated by their unfubdued turbulence and oblUnate 

 intrepidity, made every effort (after he had gained the viftory 

 of Panipat'h, which cllabhfticd his fupremacy at Delhi) to 

 deftroy their power ; and, with this view, he entered the 

 Panjab early in 1762, and over-ran the whole of that country 

 with a numerous army, defeating and difperfing the Sikhs 

 in every direftion. That feft, unable to make any Hand 

 againil the army of the Abdali, purfued their old plan of re- 

 treating near the mountains ; and collected a large force in 

 the northern dillritts of Sirhind, a dillance of above one 

 hundred miles from Lahore, where the army of Ahmed 

 Shah was encamped. Here they conceived themfelves to be 

 in perfedl fafety ; but that prince made one of thofe rapid 

 movements for which he was fo celebrated, and reaching the 

 Sikh army on the fecond day, completely furpnled and de- 

 feated it with great flaughter. In this adlion, which was 

 fought in February 1762, the Sikhs are faid to have lofl up- 

 wards of twenty thoufand men ; and tlie remainder fled into 

 the hills, abandonuig all the lower countries to the Afglians, 

 who committed every ravage that a barbarous and lavage 

 enemy could devife. Amritfar was razed to the ground, 

 and the facred refervoir again choaked with its ruins. Py- 

 ramids were eredled, and covered with the heads of flaugh- 

 tcred Sikhs ; and it is mentioned that Ahmed Shah caufcd 



the walls of thofe raofques which the Sikhs had polluted to 

 be waftied with their blood, that the contamination might be 

 removed, and the infult offered to the religion of Mohamet 

 expiated. 



This fpecies of favage retaliation appears to have animated 

 inftead of deprefling the courage of the Sikhs, who, though 

 they could not venture to meet Ahmed Shah's army in aftion, 

 harafled it with an inceffant predatory warfare ; and when 

 that fovereign was obliged, by the commotions of Afghan- 

 iftan, to return to Cabul, they attacked and defeated the 

 general he had left in Lahore, and made themfelves mailers 

 of that city, in vi-hich they levelled with the ground thofe 

 mofques which the Afghans had, a few months before, puri- 

 fied with the blood of their brethren. 



When Ahmed Shah, after retaking Lahore, A. D. 1763, 

 was obhged, in the enfuing year, to return to his own 

 country, the Sikhs again expelled his garrifon, and made 

 themfelves mailers of the Panjab ; and, from that period 

 until his death, a conftant war was maintained, in which the 

 enterprize and courage of the Afglvans gradually g.ive way 

 before the altonifhing adlivity, and invincible perfeverance, 

 of their enemies ; who, if unable to Hand a general aftion, 

 retreated to impenetrable mountains, and the moment they 

 faw an advantage, rufhed again into the plains with renewed 

 vigour and recruited numbers. Several Sikh authors, treating 

 of the events of this period, mention a great adlion having 

 been fought by their countrymen, near Amritfar, againil 

 the whole Afghan army, commanded by Ahmed Shah in 

 perfon ; but they diff"er with regard to the date of this 

 battle, fome fixing it in 1762, and others later. They pre- 

 tend that the Sikh«, infpired by the facrcdnefs of the ground 

 on which this adlion was fought, contended for vidlory 

 againil fuperior numbers with the moll defperate fury, and 

 that the battle terminated in both parties quitting the field, 

 without either being able to claim the lead advantage. The 

 hiftorians of Ahmed Shall are, however, filent regarding this 

 adlion, which indeed, from all the events of hie long con- 

 tefts with the Sikhs, appears unlikely to have occurred. It 

 is poflible the Sikhs fought at Amritfar with a divifion of the 

 Afglian army, and that might have been commanded by the 

 prince ; but it is very improbable they had ever force to en- 

 counter the concentrated army of the Abdalis, before which, 

 while it remained in a body, tliey appear, from the firll to 

 the lail of their contefts with that prince, to have always re- 

 treated, or rather fled. 



The Sikhs, when opprefl'cd, became as formidable for 

 their union, as for their determined courage and unconquer- 

 able fpirit of refinance : but a ilate of perfecution and dif- 

 trefs was moil favourable for a contlitution like theirs, which 

 required conltant and great facrifices of pcrfunal advantage 

 to the public good : and fuch facrifices can only be cxpedled 

 from men who acl under the influence of that entliufialm, 

 which the fervour of a new religion, or a llruggle for inde- 

 pendence, only imparts, and which are always moll readily 

 made when it becomes obvious to all, that a complete union 

 in the general caufe is the only hope of individual fafety. 



The Sikhs may be reckoned the molt wcflorn nation of 

 Hindooltan : for the king of Candahar pollefles but an in- 

 confiderable extent of territory on the call of the Indus. 

 Since the complete downfall of the Mogul empire, they have 

 acquired very extenfive domains. But major Rennell ob- 

 ferves, that their power ought not to beellimated in the ex- 

 adl proportion to the extent of tlieir population, fince they 

 do not form one entire tlate ; but a number of fmall onei, 

 independent of each other in tlieir internal government, and 

 only conutdled by a federal union. They have extended 

 their territories on the fouthe«ll, that ii, into the province 



of 



