Tempo:
CHAP. V
SHAH ZAMAN
107
became the most influential chief in the Punjab, and 1793-7. he gladly assented to the proposition of Sudda Kour, ^ade over the widow of Jai Singh's son, that the alliance of the to sansar two families should be cemented by the union of her chand of infant daughter with Ran jit Singh, the only son of ^j^J^J,^^*^' Mahan Singh, and who was born to him about 1780. singhVeGujrat, the old eminent" Mahan Singh next proceeded to attack Bhangi chief of which, Gujar Singh, his father's con- among the federate, died in 1791; but he was himself taken ill sikhs i785-s2. during the siege, and expired in the beginning of the '^^^'^f'" .^ ''^' following year at the early age of twenty-seven.^ ^^g|
Shah Zaman succeeded to the throne of Kabul in gj^^^ the year 1793, and his mind seems always to have been zaman sucIn the end ceeds to the filled with idle hopes of an Indian empire. throne of of 1795 he moved to Hassan Abdal, and sent forward a party which is said to have recovered the fort of ^gg"^" Rohtas; but the exposed state of his western dominions induced him to return to Kabul. The rumours of another Durrani invasion do not seem to have been unheeded by the princes of Upper India, then pressed by the Marathas and the English. Ghulam Muham- invited to mad, the defeated usurper of Rohilkhand, crossed the enter India Punjab in 1795-6, with the view of inducing Shah ^y ^^^^^^' Zaman to prosecute his designs, and he was followed ^jjg^^^"r by agents on the part of Asaf-ud-dauia of Oudh, partly o/oudh. to counteract, perhaps, the presumed machinations of 1795-6. his enemy, but mainly to urge upon his majesty that all Muhammadans would gladly hail him as a deliverer. The Shah reached Lahore, in the beginning. of 1797, shah with thirty thousand men, and he endeavoured to con- zaman at ciliate the Sikhs and to render his visionary supremacy ^^^g^""^^" an agreeable burden. Several chiefs joined him, but the proceedings of his brother Mahmud recalled him before he had time to make any progress in settling the country, even had the Sikhs been disposed to submit without a struggle; but the Sikhs were perhaps less and the illdismayed than the beaten Marathas informed English. The latter lamented, with the Wazir of Oudh, the danger to which his dominions were exposed; they prudently cantoned a force at Anupshahr in the Doab, and their apprehensions led them to depute a mission to Teheran, with the view of insti1 Manuscript histories and chronicles. Cf. Forster, Travels, 288; Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 42, 48; and Moorcroft, Travels, i. 127. The date of 1785-6, for the reduction of the Kanhayas and the restoration of Jassa Singh, &c., is preferred to 1782, which is given by Murray, partly because the expedition to Rohilkhand took place in 1785, as related by Forster (Travels, i. 326 note), and- Jassa Singh is generally admitted to have been engaged in it, being then in banishment.
i.
SHAH ZAMAN
107
became the most influential chief in the Punjab, and 1793-7. he gladly assented to the proposition of Sudda Kour, ^ade over the widow of Jai Singh's son, that the alliance of the to sansar two families should be cemented by the union of her chand of infant daughter with Ran jit Singh, the only son of ^j^J^J,^^*^' Mahan Singh, and who was born to him about 1780. singhVeGujrat, the old eminent" Mahan Singh next proceeded to attack Bhangi chief of which, Gujar Singh, his father's con- among the federate, died in 1791; but he was himself taken ill sikhs i785-s2. during the siege, and expired in the beginning of the '^^^'^f'" .^ ''^' following year at the early age of twenty-seven.^ ^^g|
Shah Zaman succeeded to the throne of Kabul in gj^^^ the year 1793, and his mind seems always to have been zaman sucIn the end ceeds to the filled with idle hopes of an Indian empire. throne of of 1795 he moved to Hassan Abdal, and sent forward a party which is said to have recovered the fort of ^gg"^" Rohtas; but the exposed state of his western dominions induced him to return to Kabul. The rumours of another Durrani invasion do not seem to have been unheeded by the princes of Upper India, then pressed by the Marathas and the English. Ghulam Muham- invited to mad, the defeated usurper of Rohilkhand, crossed the enter India Punjab in 1795-6, with the view of inducing Shah ^y ^^^^^^' Zaman to prosecute his designs, and he was followed ^jjg^^^"r by agents on the part of Asaf-ud-dauia of Oudh, partly o/oudh. to counteract, perhaps, the presumed machinations of 1795-6. his enemy, but mainly to urge upon his majesty that all Muhammadans would gladly hail him as a deliverer. The Shah reached Lahore, in the beginning. of 1797, shah with thirty thousand men, and he endeavoured to con- zaman at ciliate the Sikhs and to render his visionary supremacy ^^^g^""^^" an agreeable burden. Several chiefs joined him, but the proceedings of his brother Mahmud recalled him before he had time to make any progress in settling the country, even had the Sikhs been disposed to submit without a struggle; but the Sikhs were perhaps less and the illdismayed than the beaten Marathas informed English. The latter lamented, with the Wazir of Oudh, the danger to which his dominions were exposed; they prudently cantoned a force at Anupshahr in the Doab, and their apprehensions led them to depute a mission to Teheran, with the view of insti1 Manuscript histories and chronicles. Cf. Forster, Travels, 288; Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 42, 48; and Moorcroft, Travels, i. 127. The date of 1785-6, for the reduction of the Kanhayas and the restoration of Jassa Singh, &c., is preferred to 1782, which is given by Murray, partly because the expedition to Rohilkhand took place in 1785, as related by Forster (Travels, i. 326 note), and- Jassa Singh is generally admitted to have been engaged in it, being then in banishment.
i.
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