62 C. J. Rodgers —Some Goins of Ranjit Deo. [No. 1, 
Udhachar, on the banks of the Basantar river. The Raja having timely 
notice of the designs of the heir-apparent, had made corresponding pre¬ 
parations for resistance. The defence of the capital he reserved to 
himself, but collected a force to oppose the invasion, composed of 
auxiliaries from Chamba, Nurpur, Basehar, and Kangra, in the hills, 
to which were added, besides a party of his own troops, the confedera¬ 
ted forces of the Bhangi Misl, under Jhanda Singh, whom he induced 
to lend his services in the extremity. The two armies lay encamped 
on opposite sides of the Basantar, and in a partial skirmish between 
the Sikh auxiliaries Charat Singh was killed by the bursting of his own 
matchlock. 
He was 45 years of age, and had risen from a common Dharwi or 
highway man, to be Sardar of a separate Misl, with a territory compu¬ 
ted to yield -about three lakhs of rupees. He left a widow, Desan by 
name, with two sons and a daughter, called respectively Maha Singh, 
Subuj Singh and Raj Kanwar. The eldest son, Maha Singh, then ten 
years of age, succeeded to the Sardari; but the widow and Jai Singh 
Ghania assumed the immediate direction of affairs. It was determined 
by them to assassinate Jhanda Singh Bhangia, who was the mainstay 
of the Jummu Raja’s party, and the avowed enemy of both the Sukar 
Chakia and Ghania Misls. A sweeper was tempted by a large bribe to 
undertake this hazardous enterprise, and he succeeded in effecting his 
purpose by firing at, and mortally wounding the Bhangi chief, as he was 
walking unattended through the Jummu camp. The Sukar Chakia and 
Ghania Sikhs being satisfied with the revenge thus taken, withdrew 
soon after from the enterprise in which they had been engaged. The 
Bhangi troops had simultaneously left the opposite camp on the death 
of their chief. Thus Brij Raj Deo was left alone to settle with his 
father, his rights of inheritance to the Raj : before the departure of 
Maha Singh, however, he went through the ceremony of an exchange of 
turbans with Brij Raj, which bound him to brotherhood for life. 
These events occurred in 1774 A. D,” 
Rai Kanhiya Lai, Bahadur, in his Urdu History of the Panjab, 
Lahore, 1877, gives some further particulars (p. 119) of this matter. He 
says that in those days the city of Jummu was regarded as the abode 
of peace and safety, that bankers and merchants had fled from the 
Sikli-spoiled plains of the Panjab and had taken refuge in Jummu where 
Ranjit Deo was too strong for the Sikhs to attempt anything against 
him. He gives the name of the battle as Dasu-suhara in the govern¬ 
ment of Zafarwal. The sweeper, he says, was a Muzhabi khidmatgar. 
(The Mazhabis* are sweepers, but they have always been an honoured 
* The word mazhubi means religious. 
