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] at Laswari in the same year, decided the fate of India. Delhi was occupied, and Daulat Rao Sindhia ceded to the company territory reaching from Fazilka on the Sutlej to Delhi on the Jamna, and extending along that river northwards to Karnal and southwards to Mewat. Fazilka and a large part of Hissar then formed a wild desert tract called Bhattiana, over which no effective control was exercised till 1818. In 1832 "the Delhi territory" became part of the North- West Provinces, from which it was transferred to the Pan jab after the Mutiny.

Relations of Ranjit Singh with English.— In December, 1808, Ranjit Singh was warned that by the issue of the war with Sindhia the Cis-Sutlej chiefs had come under British protection. The Maharaja was within an ace of declaring war, or let the world think so, but his statesmanlike instincts got the better of mortified ambition, and in April, 1809, he signed a treaty pledging himself to make no conquests south and east of the Sutlej. The compact so reluctantly made was faithfully observed. In 1815, as the result of war with the Gurkhas, the Rajput hill states lying to the south of the Sutlej came under British protection.

Extension of Sikh Kingdom in Panjab.— As early as 1806, when he reduced Jhang, Ranjit Singh began his encroachments on the possessions of the Duranis in the Panjab. Next year, and again in 1810 and 1816, Multan was attacked, but the strong fort was not taken till 1818, when the old Nawab, Muzaffar Khan, and five of his sons, fell fighting at the gate. Kashmir was first attacked in 181 1 and finally annexed in 1819. Called in by the great Katoch Raja of Kangra, Sansar Chand, in 1809, to help him against the Gurkhas, Ranjit Singh duped both parties, and became master of the famous fort. Many years later he annexed the whole of the Kangra hill states. By 1820 the Maharaja was supreme from the