Tempo:
CHAP. V
ASCENDANCY OF RAN JIT SINGH
119
In little more than a year after Shah Zaman i80 3-5. quitted the Punjab, he was deposed and blinded by his shah Zabrother Mahmud, who was in his turn supplanted by a man deThese posed by third brother, Shah Shuja, in the year 1803. revolutions hastened the fall of the exotic empire of ^^^^ ^^^j^" Ahmad Shah, and Ranjit Singh was not slow to try his Durrani arms against the weakened T)urrani governors of dist- empire ricts and provinces. In 1804-5 he marched to the west- weakened, ward; he received homage and presents from the
^
Miihammadans
of
Jhang and Sahiwal, and Muzaffar wherefore
Khan of Multan, successfully deprecated an attack by Ranjit rich offerings. Ranjit Singh had felt his way and was f^^^^ pJ°j_
satisfied; he returned to Lahore, celebrated the festival soutn-west of the Holi in his capital, and then went to bathe in the of the Pun-
Ganges at Hardwar, or to observe personally the jab, iscs. aspect of affairs to the eastward of the Punjab. Towards the close of 1805 he made another western inroad, and added weight to the fetters already imposed on the proprietor of Jhang; but the approach of Holkar and Returns to Amir Khan recalled, first Fateh Singh, and afterwards ^'^^ "^"^^^ himself, to the proper city of the whole Sikh people. H^^'llX''^ The danger seemed imminent, for a famed leader of the ^^q^ dominant Marathas was desirous of bringing down an Afghan host, and the English army, exact in discipline, and representing a power of unknown views and resources, had reached the neighbourhood of Amritsar.^
A formal council was held by the Sikhs, but a a sikh portion only of their leaders were present. The single- ^^"J ^^ ness of purpose, the confident belief in the aid of God, national
which had
animated
mechanics and
shepherds to council,
resent persecution, and to triumph over Ahmad Shah, herid; no longer possessed the minds of their descendants,
born to comparative power and affluence, and who, like rude and ignorant men broken loose from all law, gave the rein to their grosser passions. Their ambition was personal and their desire was for worldly enjoyment. The genuine spirit of Sikhism had again sought the but the dwelling of the peasant to reproduce itself in another l^'^l'^^''^^^ form; the rude system of mixed independence and con- fou^^defederacy was unsuited to an extended dominion; it had cayed and served its ends of immediate agglomeration, and the lifeless.
were in effect dissolved. The mass of the peoremained satisfied with their village freedom, to
'Misals'
ple
VI and VII, follow very closely the author's narratives of the British connexion with the Sikhs, drawn up for Government, a [literary] use which he trusts may be made, without any impropriety, of an unprinted paper of his own writing. 1 See Elphinstone, Kabul, ii. '^25; and Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 56, 57.
ASCENDANCY OF RAN JIT SINGH
119
In little more than a year after Shah Zaman i80 3-5. quitted the Punjab, he was deposed and blinded by his shah Zabrother Mahmud, who was in his turn supplanted by a man deThese posed by third brother, Shah Shuja, in the year 1803. revolutions hastened the fall of the exotic empire of ^^^^ ^^^j^" Ahmad Shah, and Ranjit Singh was not slow to try his Durrani arms against the weakened T)urrani governors of dist- empire ricts and provinces. In 1804-5 he marched to the west- weakened, ward; he received homage and presents from the
^
Miihammadans
of
Jhang and Sahiwal, and Muzaffar wherefore
Khan of Multan, successfully deprecated an attack by Ranjit rich offerings. Ranjit Singh had felt his way and was f^^^^ pJ°j_
satisfied; he returned to Lahore, celebrated the festival soutn-west of the Holi in his capital, and then went to bathe in the of the Pun-
Ganges at Hardwar, or to observe personally the jab, iscs. aspect of affairs to the eastward of the Punjab. Towards the close of 1805 he made another western inroad, and added weight to the fetters already imposed on the proprietor of Jhang; but the approach of Holkar and Returns to Amir Khan recalled, first Fateh Singh, and afterwards ^'^^ "^"^^^ himself, to the proper city of the whole Sikh people. H^^'llX''^ The danger seemed imminent, for a famed leader of the ^^q^ dominant Marathas was desirous of bringing down an Afghan host, and the English army, exact in discipline, and representing a power of unknown views and resources, had reached the neighbourhood of Amritsar.^
A formal council was held by the Sikhs, but a a sikh portion only of their leaders were present. The single- ^^"J ^^ ness of purpose, the confident belief in the aid of God, national
which had
animated
mechanics and
shepherds to council,
resent persecution, and to triumph over Ahmad Shah, herid; no longer possessed the minds of their descendants,
born to comparative power and affluence, and who, like rude and ignorant men broken loose from all law, gave the rein to their grosser passions. Their ambition was personal and their desire was for worldly enjoyment. The genuine spirit of Sikhism had again sought the but the dwelling of the peasant to reproduce itself in another l^'^l'^^''^^^ form; the rude system of mixed independence and con- fou^^defederacy was unsuited to an extended dominion; it had cayed and served its ends of immediate agglomeration, and the lifeless.
were in effect dissolved. The mass of the peoremained satisfied with their village freedom, to
'Misals'
ple
VI and VII, follow very closely the author's narratives of the British connexion with the Sikhs, drawn up for Government, a [literary] use which he trusts may be made, without any impropriety, of an unprinted paper of his own writing. 1 See Elphinstone, Kabul, ii. '^25; and Murray, Ranjit Singh, pp. 56, 57.
©
2026
Lehal.net