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Rh sting out of defeat. The Sirdárs who had been the leaders of the several confederacies which he overthrew, were all in this fashion reduced from equality and rivalship to honourable subjection; and, in addition, there was a large group of Muhammad an Kháns and nobles who would have received short shrift from Govind Singh, but whom Ranjít Singh wisely attached to his fortunes, thereby materially strengthening his position in the western districts. The heads of the Mussulman tribes of Siáls, Ghebas, Tiwánas and Kharrals, and the family of Nawáb Muzaffar Khán of Múltán were included in this group.

The manner in which the Mahárájá became possessed of the Koh-i-Núr, the most famous diamond in the world, and the mare Láili belonging to the Afghán governor of Pesháwar, an animal as famous in her time as the Koh-i-Núr itself, are excellent examples of the character of the Mahárájá for unscrupulousness and pertinacity, and find their place more appropriately in this chapter than in one more purely historical.

The Koh-i-Núr is too well known for description. Supposed to have been worn by the Pandús of Hindu mythology it emerges into the light of history in the sixteenth century with the Emperors Sháh Jahán and Aurangzeb, of whose throne it was the chief ornament. The next owner was that prince of robbers, Nadír Sháh, who obtained it when he plundered Delhi. On his murder it became the prize of Ahmad Sháh Abdáli, and at last, in 1813, when Mahárájá Ranjít