Page:The Sikhs (Gordon).djvu/86

60 completely changed. To defend themselves against the Mahomedan invaders they formed organised confederacies of fighting men, each under one head chief. The necessity of fighting, how to resist, how to practise plunder, was the one law recognised.

In 1748 Ahmad Shah, the Afghan king, aspired to found an Indian Empire, invaded the Punjab, and crossed the Sutlej after capturing Lahore. He was repulsed by the Moghuls and recrossed the Indus. He made two other unsuccessful attempts, and finally in 1756 occupied Delhi, which then suffered a repetition of the former pillage and massacre by the Persians eighteen years before. The Punjab was ceded to the conqueror as the price of peace. This completed the ruin of the Moghul power, which was now reduced to the condition of a province and left a prey to the Mahrattas, who were then overrunning Hindostan. Ahmad Shah returned to Kabul, leaving his son Tymur at Lahore as Viceroy of the Punjab. The