1894.] W. Irvine —Guru Gobind Siggh and Bandah, 133 
Shamsu-d-din Khan encountered the Sikhs at a grove known as Ya‘qut 
Khan’s, and drove them in disorder towards Sirhind, where they took 
refuge in the fort, and were there invested. The first success of these 
leaders was gained on the 19th Sha‘ban, 1122 (12th October, 1710), 1 
and it w~as followed by a further victory, of which a report was received 
on the 6th Shawwal (27th November, 1710). Good service was also 
done within the Baith Jalandhar Duab, by ‘Ise Khan, Ma‘in. Muham¬ 
mad Amin Khan, who had been appointed to command a detached force, 
was now directed to march with all speed and take measures for the 
reduction and occupation of Sirhind. 
Leaving Thanesar on the 4th Shawwal, 1122 (25th November, 1710), 
Bahadur Shah, in five marches by way of Shahabad and Aukala, reach¬ 
ed Sadhaura on the 13th of the same month. Sadhaura is about 
thirty-six miles north-east of Thanesar. A few days before this date, 
it had been reported that the Sikhs had moved southwards from 
Sadhaura, with 3,000 horsemen and 10,000 infantry,* and had entrenched 
themselves on the road. Subsequently, they must have thought it 
wiser not to risk an encounter, for the imperial march was not molested. 
The Sikhs fled even from Sadhaura, and took refuge in the hills to the 
north-east of that place. Sadhaura itself is a town on a high hill of 
steep ascent, standing on the edge of the Markhanda torrent, in a 
hilly and, in those days, well-wooded country. 3 
The Guru’s head-quarters were not at Sadhaura, but farther on, 
within the first hills, in a region called by the native writers both 
Mukhlispur and the Dakar. Their use of the first name raises some 
difficul ties of identification. They confound the site of the Guru’s fort 
with Mukhlispur, the name for the hunting lodge, now called Badshahi 
Mahal, built by Shahjahan close to the left bank of the Jamuna, and a 
few miles below the heads of what are now called the Eastern and 
Western Jamuna Canals. Some lands, which had been detached from 
parganah Muzaffarabad, of Sirkar Sakaranpur, were assigned to it and 
called Faizabad. 4 This is, at the very least, twelve miles too far to the 
east for the Mukhlispur that we want, for which we must make search 
somewhere between Sadhaura on the west, Nahan on the north, and the 
Jamuna river on the east. That there was such a place, is shown by our 
finding Moklespore (Mukhlispur) on J. Rennell’s map 5 of 1792, exactly 
1 Report received on the 4th Ramzan. 
2 Khafi Khan, II, 669, says 30,000 to 40,000 men. 
3 Kamwar Khan, 77. 
4 Ma l asiru-l-Umard, printed text, II, 867, III, 157. ‘Alamglr visited this place 
in 1073 II. ( Ma'asir-i- 1 Alamgiri , 42). 
5 Rennell, “ Memoir,” 3rd Edition, “ Map of Countries between Dehll and 
Candahar.” 
