Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/123

Rh PUNJAB 111 accompanied by one of the Portuguese Jesuits, Jerome Xavier (nephew of the celebrated Francis), who was a special friend of the emperor and was with him at the time of his death at Agra in 1605. Arjun's power and prosperity lasted only during Akbar's lifetime. Jahangi'r was equally favourable to the Christian mis- sionaries ; but the Sikh guru incurred his displeasure. Believed to be a partisan of the emperor's rebellious son Khusru, Arjun was imprisoned in 1606 and died soon after. His successor, Har Govind, was only twelve years of age at the time of Arjun's death, and as he grew up his relation to the Sikhs became that of com- mander more than guru. The promulgation of the Granth for instruction of the people had made a way for this change in the character of the leadership. The work of the teacher was now in great measure transferred to the guardians of the sacred volume, who read it in the ears of the people. The guru thenceforth was the organizing head more than the religious guide. As a young man Har Govind accompanied the emperor to Kashmir. Jahangi'r, on his way back from this favourite summer resort, died at Rajaori in 1627, and was buried at Shah-dera on the Ravi, opposite Lahore. His widow, Nur Jahan, erected a beautiful monument over him, and was herself buried at the same place. The reign of Shah Jahan (1627-1658) added much to the pros- perity of the Punjab. The emperor's large views found a fitting agent in Ali Mardan Khan, his minister and director of works. Under his orders the canal from the Ravi near the foot of the hills to Lahore was made, and the Jumna Canal, which had been con- structed in the 14th century by Firoz Shah, was restored and im- proved. Ali Mardan Khan also built the magnificent " sarais " or rest-houses for travellers on the high road to Kashmir, and other works of utility in the Punjab. In the contests between the two sons of Shah Jahan the Punjab favoured the elder, Dara Shiko, whose intelligent interest in the welfare of the country, joined to literary tastes and liberal views, commended him to all classes of the people. His name is preserved in the town of Shiko-pura, 18 miles west of Lahore, Dara-nagar, and other places. The present military station of Lahore bears the name of Dara's religious in- structor, Mian Mir, near whose tomb, erected by his royal pupil, the British cantonment is built. Har Govind, the sixth Sikh guru, died in 1645. Har Rai, who succeeded him, gave his support to Dara Shiko. Dara was not successful in maintaining his rights against his younger brother Alamgir (called Aurangzib), who succeeded his father in 1658. Bernier, who was visiting India at this time, was a companion of the elder brother when in misfortune and of the younger when in power. Like his three predecessors, Aurangzib was fond of visiting Kashmir, and his journey through the Punjab on one of these occasions (1663-64) furnishes one of the most lively pictures of Bernier's Indian experiences. Har Rai died in 1661, and his successor, Har Kishan, a boy, held the nominal leadership of the Sikhs only three years, being followed in 1664 by Tegh Bahadur, a son of Har Govind. When, on his return to the Punjab from a visit to Bengal, he was thought to be exercising authority in- consistent with loyalty to the emperor, he was put to death by Aurangzib in 1675. This roused the Sikhs to greater zeal in the adoption of a military constitution. The next guru, Govind Rai, son of Tegh Bahadur, after passing some years in retirement and study, came forth a vigorous and enthusiastic leader, with high aims. He set himself to the task of organizing the Sikhs of the Punjab, now becoming formidable from their number, their phy- sique, and their warlike propensities. The first adherents of Nanak, the founder of the sect, had been mostly Jats and Khattris. Many were men of great stature and powerful frame. As Sikhs they acquired a distinctive appearance by giving up the Hindu prac- tice of shaving the head and face. They were forbidden the use of tobacco ; and their discipline in other things prepared them for being indeed the soldiers they looked. Govind Rai adopted the designation " Singh " (lion), and this became the distinctive addition to the names of all Sikhs. He called the whole body the " khalsa " or free, and he devised a rite of initiation called the "pahal." He compiled a supplement to the Granth, containing instruction suited to the altered condition of the Sikh people. After the death of Aurangzib in 1707 he accepted the invitation of Bahadur Shah to join him in a campaign against the Mahrattas. At Nader, on the Godavari, he was murdered in 1708. His prin- cipal associate, Banda, led the Sikhs back to the Punjab and turned his arms against the Government. After a long series of fights with the Mogul's troops, during the reigns of Bahadur Shah and Farrukh Siyar, Banda was at length taken in 1716 and put to death. Mohammed Shah was on the throne of Delhi, much occupied in contests with the Mahrattas, when Nadir Shah invaded India. Nadir's march through the Punjab in the beginning of 1739 met with no great opposition ; but the Sikhs kept up a system of desultory plunder both of the invaders and of the people fleeing from them. Lahore submitted and was spared ; and it escaped again, on Nadir's return, after the defeat of Mohammed Shah at Karnal and the massacre at Delhi, by having a large sxim of money ready to meet the expected demand. The Punjab offered no more effective resistance to the invasion in 1747 of Ahmad Shah Abdali, who kept possession of Afghanistan after Nadir's death. He began by claiming the revenues of the parts of the Punjab and Sind which had been ceded to Nadir. On his third invasion (1752) he obtained possession of Lahore and Multau. The king of Delhi was now also an Ahmad Shah, and the invader was, for distinction, called in India Ahmad Khan Afghan. His son Timur, whom he made governor of Lahore, was driven out by the Mahrattas. Ahmad found frequent visits to the Punjab necessary, and only after the total defeat of the Mahrattas at Panipat in 1761 did he retire finally to Cabul. For a time the Sikhs seemed to have the prospect of holding the Period Punjab for themselves. Their number and power had greatly of inde- increased. They had grouped themselves in associations of kindred pendeuce and neighbourhood called " misls," with distinctive names. Power- ful members of certain of these clans, representing the aristocracy of the Sikh families, acquired the chiefship of large tracts of country on both sides of the Sutlej, some of which became nearly independ- ent states. Then there were certain members of the Sikh con- federation, not enrolling themselves in any clan nor owning any master, who assumed the role of religious enthusiasts and warriors, and the name "Akali" or immortal. They were the ghazis of Sikhism. They dressed in blue and wore a high-pointed turban on which they carried several chakras of different sizes, their own special weapon. The chakr or chakra is a thin knife-edged ring of flat steel, a severe missile in skilled hands, but not much used. The Sikhs south of the Sutlej enlarged their possessions and made marauding excursions across the Jumna and the Ganges even as far as to Rohilkand. The capital was held by three leading Sikh chiefs, when, in 1797 and the following year, Zaman Shah, grand- son of Ahmad, brought an army with the view of recovering the Punjab, but was recalled both times by troubles at home. He secured Lahore without opposition, and on leaving in 1798 he made it over to a young Sikh who had attracted his attention and done him good service. This was Ranji't Singh, son of Maha Singh, Ranjit a Jat Sikh who had risen to considerable power, and Avho died Singh, in 1792. The young ruler of Lahore was soon to make himself master of the whole Punjab, while heavy misfortune was awaiting Zaman Shah himself, who was to find shelter in the Punjab. The dethroned and blinded king was met in 1808 at Rawal Pindi by Mountstuart Elphinstone when returning from his mission to Shah Shuja at Peshawar. When Ranjit Singh was beginning his career at Lahore the English adventurer George Thomas was trying, with the army he had raised, to carve out a little principality for himself in the Sikh states south of the Sutlej. Ranjit was a man of strong will and immense energy, of no education but of great acuteness in acquiring the knowledge that would be of use to him. He soon began to bring all the separate bodies of Sikhs under his control, and to acquire authority over others besides the Sikhs. When he endeavoured to include the Sikh states south of the Sutlej within his jurisdiction, the heads of these states chiefs of Sirhind and Malwa, as they were called sought and obtained in 1808 the protection of the British, whose territories had now extended to their neighbourhood. The Engli. h were at this time desirous of alliance with Lahore as well as with Cabul, for protec- tion against supposed French designs on India. A British envoy, Mr Charles Metcalfe, was received by Ranjit at Kasur in 1809 and the alliance was formed. Ranjit steadily strengthened himself and extended his dominions. In 1809 he obtained possession of Kangra, which the Nepalese were besieging. In 1813 he acquired the fort of Attock on the other side of the Punjab ; and the same year he obtained from Shah Shuja, now in his turn a refugee in Lahore, what he coveted as much as territory, the celebrated Koh-i-nur diamond, which had been carried off by Nadir Shah from Delhi. In 1818, after some failures in previous years, he captured Multan. Kashmir, which had successfully opposed him several times, was annexed the following year, and likewise the southern part of the country between the Indus and the hills. The Peshawar valley he succeeded in adding four years later, but he found it best to leave an Afghan governor in charge of that troublesome district. These trans-Indus and other outlying tracts were left very much to themselves, and only received a military visit when revenue was wanted. Peshawar was never really ruled till General Avitabile was sent there in later years. When he was gradually raising his large and powerful army Ranjit received into his service certain French and other officers, who drilled his troops and greatly improved his artillery. He valued these European officers highly, and exerted himself much to retain them. One of them, M. Allard, used to say that, if it was sometimes difficult to get into Ranjit's service, it was more difficult to get out of it. Whilst he relied on these foreigners for military and sometimes also for administrative services, he drew around him a body of native ministers of great ability, of whom the brothers Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh of Jammu were the most influential. (They had another brother, Suchet Singh, less prominent and less at court.) Ranjit maintained friendly relations with the English Government till his death. This was of much importance when, immediately