1869.] The District of Ludidna. 89 



and falsely gave himself out as Sarang Khan, the deceased viceroy 

 of Multan, lastly of the Gakkhars under a famous chief named Jasrat. 

 The city of Ludiana owes its origin and name to the Lodis, and 

 its early history is thus given in a local account. The country 

 was overrun by Beloches (?). The cultivators represented the matter 

 to the emperor Sikandar Lodi, who sent two generals, Yusuf Khan 

 and Nihang Khan, also Lodis, to punish the marauders. They encamped 

 near the site of the present fort where, in those days, there was a 

 village called Marhota. Having driven out the Beloches, they heard 

 that the Gakkhars were plundering on the north side of the river. 

 So Yusuf Khan crossed the river, subdued the Gakkhars, and founded 

 the city of Sultanpur (now in Kapurthalla territory), where he 

 settled. Meanwhile Nihang Khan remained at Marhota, to which 

 he gave the name Ludiana. He was followed by his son Mahmiid 

 Khan, and the latter by Jalal Khan, who built the first Ludiana fort 

 with Sunet bricks. Jalal Khan had two sons, Haibat Khan and 

 Tahir Khan. The latter died without offspring, the former left 

 two sons £\xi Khan and Khidr Khan. It was in their time that 

 Babar overthrew the Lodi dynasty of Delhi. Members of the Lodi 

 family continued to reside at Ludiana and Bhilolpiir after the down- 

 fall of their empire ; but there is a tradition that they were massacred 

 in Akbar's time ; at any rate no descendants of the family are now 

 to be found. Their tombs and other buildings, which were once a 

 prominent feature near the fort and perhaps in the direction of the 

 European residences, are now levelled with the ground. 



In the beginning of 1555, a great battle was fought at Machiwara, 

 doubtless the town so called in the Ludiana district. The battle is 

 thus described by Farishta. 



" Sikandar Shah Sur in the meantime had ordered Tatar Khan and 

 Habib Khan with an army of thirty or forty thousand horse, from 

 Dehli against Humayun. Notwithstanding the great superiority in num- 

 ber of this force, Bairam Khan Turkman resolved to hazard an action, 

 and having advanced boldly to meet the Indian army, pitched his camp 

 on the banks of the Satlaj at the town of Machiwara. It being cold 

 weather, the Indian Afghans kindled great fires of wood in their 

 camp at night, of which Bairam Khan took advantage, and crossed the 

 river with a thousand chosen horse. He now advanced to their 



