HISTORY
Importance of Ludhiana District in
Punjab History. – Few districts in the Punjab
possess greater historical interest than Ludhiana. The historic town on the high road from Central Asia must have
been crossed by successive waves of conquest or immigration. More recently, some of the decisive
conflicts for empire took place in its neighbourhood. As a result of its geographical position, the Punjab was always
an outlying province of Hindustan. Once
across the Satluj, an invader had nothing to stop him from reaching Delhi. Perhaps the greatest interest attaches to
region as the cockpit of the struggles between the rising Sikh power and the
Muslim government of the day. With the
dawn of the 19th century, the English power extended
northwards. Under the Treaty with
Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1809 the Satluj was fixed as the limit of its
territories. According to the new
arrangement, Ludhiana remained for nearly half a century of British outpost and
the seat of the political agency at the strategic point from which the British
were in contact with the only remaining independent Indian power, the kingdom
of Lahore.
Little
is known about Ludhiana in the ancient period on account of acute dearth of
materials on which to base any historical account of Ludhiana District. The same is affirmed by Tolbort1,
who writes:-
“I
presume that it formed a portion of the kingdom of Magadha ;
Sunet,
Tihara, Machhiwara and Bahlolpur date from the Hindu
Period. It is said that Machhiwara is mentioned in Mahabharata,
And
that Bahlolpur formerly bore the name of Muhabatpura2”.
1. T.W.Tolbort,
C.S., was the author of a series of descriptive articles on Punjab districts on
the basis of information collected from local sources, published in the
Proceedings, Asiatic Society, Bengal, in and about year 1869. The studies covered headings other than
those of purely official and administrative interest, viz., Natural Features,
History and kindred topics.
2. Ludhiana
District Gazetteer, 1904, pp. 13-15.
Machhiwara. – It is true that, an Tolbort points out elsewhere, there are many places
named Machhiwaras, but there is some reason to believe that a large city
existed in the neighbourhood of the present town. The surrounding area is covered with mounds, whose antiquity is
shown by the large bricks found in them.
There are five wells, also built of large bricks, to the west of the
town, which seem to show that the city in ancient times lay in that
direction. The people say that one well
formerly bore an inscription that the digger had suck no less that 360 wells in
Machhiwara.
Sunet.
- It is possible that antiquarian
research may give us detailed information about the district, but at present it
has been applied only to the mound at Sunet, some six kms. west of Ludhiana (on
Ludhiana-Jagraon road), which is not only of considerable extent, but also
clearly marks the site of an important city.
It was visited by General Cunningham during the course of his survey in
1878-793. General Cunningham
examined bricks, one or two sculptures and a number of coins. Concerning the last he wrote : “From these
coins the following facts may be deduced with almost absolute certainty :-
(1)
“The town Sunit was in
existence before the Christian era, as evidenced by the coins of Uttamadatta
and Amoghabhuti. It continued to
flourish during the whole period of the dominion of the Indo-Scythians, and of
their successors who used Sassanian types down to the time of Samanta Deva, the
Brahman Shahi King of Kabul and the Punjab”.
(2)
“From the total
absence of coins of the Tomara Rajas of Delhi, as well as of all the different
Muhammadan dynasties, it would appear that Sunit must have been destroyed
during one of the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni, and afterwards remained
unoccupied for many centuries.”
There are various legends about the destruction of Sunet mentioned by Cunningham, all of which represent the last Raja as living on human flesh and as owing his downfall to not having spared the only child of a Brahman widow. Tolbort appears to think that the town was overthrown by an earthquake. However this may be, it is likely that Sunet was the headquarters of some Hindu kingdom, small or great.
3. The
results of his exploration are given in the Archaeological Survey of India
Report , Vol. XIV, pp. 65-67.
Tihara.
– Current tradition identifies Tihara, situated in the north-west corner of
Jagraon tehsil, with the city of Varat mentioned in the Mahabharat, and
this is said to have been its name up to the Muhammadan times. It was a place of some importance under the
Mughals ; but the old town has long since been swallowed by the river which ran
under it. The present site of the town
is at some distance form the older one.
Tihara may have been the capital of a small Hindu kingdom. There was also a city called Mohabbatpur,
close to Bahlolpur ; but of this, too, all traces have disappeared. It is quite
possible that in early times the country was to some extent inhabited by a
nomad people and there were a good many towns and villages along the banks of
the river but they and the races that dwelt in them have long since
disappeared, perhaps in the early Muhammadan invasions when the country was
overrun by plundering Biluchis and other tribes.
General
Cunningham does not mention the small square copper coins containing on one
side the Buddhist wheel and on the other names of Rajas in old Sanskrit
letters, which are still found. On the
mound, besides coins, impressions of seals in burnt clay, seals in stone and
copper, beads, carved bricks, large bricks, dice, glazed pottery and many other
antiquities are still found. Several
impressions of the Yaudheyas in clay have also been discovered at the site.
The
Yaudheyas. – The area comprising the present district of Ludhiana was under the
Yudheyas who were ruling in south-eastern Punjab during the first century. A.D. Evidently they had successfully
withstood the Saka onslayght and had emerged victorious from the struggle. In the middle of the second, century A.D. we
find them still strong and prosperous, firmly up-dated Saka year 72 (A.D. 150),
they are described as a proud people who had proclaimed their title of heroes
amongst all Kshatriyas. Rudradaman’s
claim to have annihilated them appears to be a vain boast ; for the continued
exitence of the Yaudheya republic in the late second century A.D. is proved by
the coinage. Rudradaman may have
defeated them, but evidently he could not destroy their power. According to
Allan, the struggle with the Sakas and the war with Rudradaman put a great
strain on the financial resources of the Yaudheyas, and this accounts for the
poor state of their currency of the late second century4. after a brief period of strain they
recovered their strength and played a still more glorious role. The legends yaudheyaganasya jaya on
their coins and yaudheyanam Jayamantra-dharanam on the clay seals
discovered from Sunet near Ludhiana5 show that they had won a great
victory to commemorate which a special series of coins and memorial medals were
struck. Altekar rightly conclyded that
this evidence points to a victory over the Kushanas6. It was the Yaudheyas who dealt the first
great blow at the Kushanas and turned them out of the eastern Punjab.
It
is further revealed that “The Yaudheyas rules independently throughout the
third and early fourth centuries. Their coinage of this period bears the proud
legend jaya yaudheya and the figure of Karttikeya, god of war, and his
consort Shashthi. The Yaudheyas were
finally subdued by Samudragupta, in the middle of the fourth century. Thereafter their coinage ceases.”7
4.
J.Allan, Catalogue of the Coins of Ancient India (in
the British Museum) (Oxford, 1967), pp. clii-cliii.
5.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1884, pp.
134 ff.
6.
Proceedings of the All India Oriental Conference,
Vol. XII, Benares 1934, pp.513 ff.
7.
K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A Comprehensive History of
India, Vol. II, The Mauryas and Satavahanas, 325 B.C. – A.D. 300, pp. 255-56.
Founding of the town of Ludhiana and
first settled Government of the country under the Lodis. – There is no information about the district during the earlier
Muhammadan invasions ; and it is not till the time of the Lodis (A.D.
1451-1526) that its name is mentioned.
The Tarikh-Panjab by Ghulam Mohayuddin alias Bute Shah gives the
following account of the first attempt to establish a settled Government :
“In the reign of Sikandar (A.D. 1489-1517), son of
Bahlol Lodi, the people about Ludhiana were oppressed by the plundering of
Biluchis, and applied to the Emperor for assistance. Sikandar, in answer to their prayer, sent two of his Lodi chiefs,
by name Yusaf Khan and Nihang Khan, with an army. These chiefs fixed on the present site of the Ludhiana city,
which was then a village called Mir Hota, as their headquarters and restored
order in the country. Yusaf crossed the
Sutlej to check the Khokhars, who were then plundering the Jullundur Doab, and
settled at Sultanpur. Nihang Khan
remained at Mir Hota as the Emperor’s lieutenant ; and called the place
Ludhiana. He was succeeded by his son
and grandson. The latter, Jalal Khan,
built the fort of Ludhiana out of the bricks found at Sunet. His two sons partitioned the country round
Ludhiana, which was then lying waste, amongst the people of the town, and
distributed them in villages. In the time of Jalal Khan’s grandsons, Alu Khan
and Khizr Khan, the Lodi dynasty was overthrown by Babar ; and the Lodis of
Ludhiana sunk to the position of ordinary subjects of the Mughal empire. They are said to have lived close to the
fort for many generations, but all traces of them have now disappeared, and
even the tombs of Nihang and his immediate descendants have been lost sight of,
although they are said to have been standing some years ago.”
Without
vouching for the accuracy of this account it may be said that the founding of
the town of Ludhiana and the first systematic attempt to people the country
about it, date from the time of the Lodi family which subsequently held the
throne of delhi from 1451 to 1525. The
earliest mention of the town appears to occur in the year1420 when Tughan Rais,
who rose in rebellion against Khizr Khan and had overrun the country as far
Mansurpur and Payal, retreated across the Sutlej near the town of Ludhiana and
confronted royal army sent against him from the other side of the river. In the reign of Mubarak Shab Jasrath, the
Khokhars plundered the country from Ludhiana to Ropar and the former town
appears to have been held by the Khokhar chief, for he kept town Zirak prisoner
there and made it the base of his attack on Sirhind, retreating to it when
compelled to abandon the siege of the said fortress. The imperial forces then advanced to Ludhiana, which Jasrath
abandoned, but they were unable to pursue him across the Satluj as it was the
rainy season. Under Bahlol Lodi’s (A.
D. 1451-1489) beneficient administration the prosperity of the country reached
its summit, and the reign of his successor, Sikandar, (A. D. 1489-1517), was a
most prosperous one. In 1500, Khawas
Khan, the governor of Machhiwara, was commissioned by Sikandar Lodi to
apprehend Asghar, the recalcitrant governor of Delhi.8
8. A.B.Pandey, The First Afghan Empire in
India (1451-1526 A.D.)
On
the eclipse of the Lodies at Panipat in 1526 A.D., the progress of the country
does not appear to have been impeded by the change of rulers. The Mughals, the new rulers of Delhi,
established a strong government at Sirhind to which Ludhiana and the country
around it were attached as a mahal. Sirhand, with the rest of the empire,
passed into the hands of the Sur dynasty ; and it was at the town of
Machhiwara, 25 miles east of Ludhiana, that Humayun fought the battle with
Sikandar Sur, which restored him to the throne of Delhi in 15559.
9. Bairam Khan commanded the Mughal army
during the battle of Machhiwara in1555.
It
is to the reign of Akbar (1556-1605) that most of the people in the eastern
part of the district ascribe the advent of their ancestors and the founding of
their villages, and it is most probable that before commencement of the century
there were only a few villages scattered over the district (mostly Rajput), and
that the great immigration of Jats, who occupy the whole of the uplands, began
under the settled rule of the Lodis and continued during the whole of 16th
century. The Ain-I-Akbari
enumerates the following mahals (or parganas as we should call them):
Tihara, Hatur, Bhundri, Ludhiana, Machhiwara and also Payal and Doraha. The first three are still fairly large
villages in Jagraon tahsil. The town of
Payal and the village of Doraha are in Payal sub-tahsil ; and it is clear that
these seven mahals, which were in Sirhind division or Sarkar of the
Delhi Province or Subah, covered most of the present Ludhiana district and the
adjoining parts of Patiala district.
Guru Gobind Singh (1675-1708), the last of the Gurus, succeeded Tegh Bahadur ; and under him commenced the long struggle between the Cis-Satluj Sikhs and the Muhammadan Governors of Sirhind, which was only a part of Aurangzeb’s persecution of the rising sect. Ludhiana district, with the adjoining country to the south, was the scene of may of the great Guru’s exploits and encounters with his enemies ; and in Sirhind his wife and children were murdered about the year 1700-a deed that has made the place for ever accursed to all Sikhs. It is probably due to the bigotry and persecution of Aurangeb (whose memory the Sikhs to this day hold in great detestation, invariably referring to him as “Ranga”) that we should ascribe the complete transformation of the followers of the Gurus into a militant power.
After his
escape (in 1704) with his three followers from the forests of Chamkaur, which
the mugal army had besieged, Guru Gobind Singh reached the small town of
Machhiwara and hid himself in a big garden to the east of the town. The garden
belonged to two Rohilla Pathans, named Ghai Khan and Nabi Khan. They suddenly
turned up there and were struck with amazement and terror on finding Guru
Gobind Singh on their land. Their avarice
was aroused and for a moment they thought of winning wealth and honour by bet
raying him to the government. But the Guru had several times purchased horses
from them and had always treated them with the greatest kindness. Humanity and
gratitude soo prevailed and they took the Guru under their protection . The
guru Changed his dress and assumed the disguise of a Muhammadam saint, while Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan declared that
he was their Pir and was on a visit to them from the celebrated shrine of Uchch10. The Guru next took shelter with Quazi Pir
Muhammad of Solah. There the three
Sikhs, who had escaped with Quazi Pir Muhammad of Solah. There the three Sikhs, who had escaped with
the Guru from Chamkaur and had been wandering in search of him, met him, and
the Guru left for Malwa11 in the disguise of a Pir of Uchuh.
10. The Pirs of Uchch in the district of Multan keep long
beards and do not cut their hair, so that the Guru with his hair down must have
made a typical pir.
Aurangzeb
died in 1707 and Guru Gobind Singh in 1708.
The latter was succeeded by Banda, under whom the imperial troops were
defeated and Sirhind was sacked in 1710. But although the Sikhs twice overran
the country between the Satluj and the Yamuna, they were finally dispersed, and
Banda taken prisoner and executed in 1716.
For
a generation after, the Sikhs were much suppressed and persecuted ; and it was
only when all energy had departed from the empire that they were able to raise
their heads again. From this time, the
struggle was continued by the Phulkian and other chiefs, who saw their way to
establishing kingdoms for themselves on the ruins of the empire, now tottering
to fall. Maharaja Ala Singh, the distinguished scion of the Patiala house,
succeeded his father, Rama, in 1714. He
was contemporary to Rai Kalha (II) of Raikot, under whom the Rais of Raikot,
who had hitherto held the lease of a considerable tract from the emperors,12
first asserted their independence. The district as then constituted cannot be
said to have a separate history during these times and it would be impossible
to detail here the conflicts between the various claimants for its
territory. The principal were the Raj,
Maharaja Ala Singh of Patiala, and the representative of the Delhi Empire at
Sirhind. In 1741, we find a combination
of the two last against Rai Kalha who had been endeavouring to throw off the
imperial authority. Rai Kalha was
defeated and chased out of the country, but he son recovered the territory
which he had hitherto held as a fief of Delhi.
The alliance between the Sikhs and the imperial troops lasted for a very
short time, and the Rai was then able to extent his territories unopposed,
there being plenty of room for him to do so at the expense of the empire
without danger to the designs of the Sikhs chiefs13.
11. In the Punjab the name Malwa is applied to the district of
Ferozepore and a part of the erstwhile
Patiala State.
12. Detailed history of the Rai family of Raikot is given in a
subsequent section.
13. In a foot-note to page 60 of the “Punjab Rajas” by L. h. Griffin
is given a short sketch of the history of the Rais, and it is said that they
got possession of the town of Ludhiana in 1620 A.D. ; but this is evidently a
mistake. The town and fort of Ludhiana
did not fall into the hands of the Rais till about 1760.
1. From the Durrani Invasion to the taking of Sirhind by the Sikhs
(1747-1763)
First Durrani Invasion of India,
1747-4814. – On his first
expedition to India, Ahmad Shah Durrani left Peshawar about the middle of
December, 1747, and occupied Lahore on January 12, 1748. To oppose his advance, the royal armyarrived
in the neighbourhood of Sirhind on February 25, 1948, and stayed there on the
following day (February 26). Ali
Muhammad Khan Ruhela, the Faujdar of sirhind, had deserted the place and fled
to his own country at the foot of Kumaun hills (U.P.). The extra laggage, carts and camels,
belonging mostly to the Wazir, were dropped in the fort of Sirhind without
making any suitable arrangements for its defence beyond leaving a garrison of
only one thousand horse and foot under an eunuch. On the 27th February, 1748, the march by Faujdar of
Sirhind was resumed in the direction of Machhiwara, where the Satluj was
considered to be more easily fordable than at Ludhiana. But in leaving the main road to Delhi, via
Ludhiana and Sirhind, clear for the Shah to march direct upon the imperial
capital, if he so desired, they committed an inexcusable blunder and betrayed
utter ignorance of strategy of war.
14. Ganda Singh, Ahmad Shah Durrani, pp.
44, 51, 54-69.
Ahmad
Shah left Lahore on February 19, 1748 to meet the advancing Mudhal army. Crossing the Sutlej at Ludhiana on March 1,
he made straight for Sirhind. The
garrison at the station offered little resistance, and opened the gates to the
Shah as soon as the ammunition ran out.
A large number of men were put to the sword and women captured as
slaves. Many houses in and outside the
fort were set on fire and plundered.
This
news was carried to Abul Mansur Khan the same day by his harkaras at the
village of Bharoli, at the next stage from Macchiwara, where Prince Ahmad was
at that tiem encamped. The Wazir was
not prepared to believe this, as none of his own harkaras, who had, perhaps,
all been killed, had sent him news even of the arrival of the Durrani. He, therefore, sent a few men to Sirhind,
which was only at a distance of about twelve kohI (about 24 miles or 40
kms.) from the camp, to verify the news and was soon distressed to learn that
all was up with the place. The loss of Sirhind
and the intelligence that the Durrani was preparing himself to march upon Delhi
staggered the Mughal army and it was feared that they might scatter away
without offering a battle. Abul Mansur
Khan had to exert a food deal to keep the officers together and be suggested to
the Wazir to march towards Delhi in pursuit of the Afghas.
The
March 3, 1748, Prince Ahmad moved out towards Sirhind and fixed his camp at the
village of Manpur (tahsil Samrala) at a distance of about 10miles (16
kms.). Ahmad Shah, on the other hand,
established his base depot in the gardens of sirhind and dug his entrenchments
about five miles ahead. The
entrenchments were about the same distance from Manpur15. The fighting began with the firing of guns from
both sides.
15. The
two armies met on the sandy plain between the villages of manpur, Barwali,
etc., a new miles to the north-east of Khanna, in Samrala tahsil. (Ludhiana District Gazetteer, 1904, p. 18)
The
position taken up by Mughal army was hazardous. The Shah, on the other side, was in a more advantageous position,
with the city of Sirhind having plenty of food and water behind him. But the Durrani was greatly handicapped for
want of artillery. He had only one
heavy gun and seven pieces of light top-i-jilan, as against several
hundred Mughal guns of various descriptions, including many heavy pieves. He could not, therefore, launch an offensive
against the enemy on any large scale.
He had to content himself with sending out roving parties and
skirmishers to harass the Mughals on all sides, confines them to the limited
area of their camp and thus throw them on the defensive. Their commissariat not
properly organised and supplies from the neighbourhood cut off and appropriated
by the Afghans, the want of food and fodder, coupled with the scarcity of
water, greatly perplexed the Mughal Commander-in-Chief, Raja Ishri Singh and
some other Sardars counseled the Wazir to take the offensive and rush upon the
Durrians and drive them away.
But the Wazir purposely avoided a general action and wished to prolong the war in the hope of starving the Afghans into surrender by setting the local chiefs, such as Maharaja Ala Singh of Patiala and Rai Kalha of Raikot, upon the Afghan foraging parties and food convoys and ultimately annihilating them with the fire of his artillery. In this way, a week passed without any serious fighting. But Ahmad Shah, on the other hand, was not idle. His skirmishing parties had been more successful and he had practically turned the tables upon the Wazir himself. It is true that Maharaja Ala Singh and Rai Kalha occasionally succeeded in carrying off a number of Afghan camels and mules to the Wazir’s camp, but the large number of troops in the Mughal camp could not maintain themselves for long without a regular train of convoys. The situation had become difficult with the Durrani rovers hovering round the Mughal camp for miles together. Finding the Wazir thus hedged in, Ahmad Shah though of taking the offensive. On March 9, 1749, he mounted the only heavy gun he possessed on an eminence near the Mughal camp and started pouring fire into their ranks. It was so well-directed that its shots passed over the enemy entrenchments and hit the tents of the prince and his nobles. A large number of men and animals were killed. The number of casualities appears to have been so large and dismay in the Mughal camp so great that the Wazir, pressed by Abul Mansur Khan and others, felt compelled to risk an open action.
The day fixed for the general action was Friday, March 11, 1748. The whole Mughal army of about sixty thousand combatants was divided into five divisions with the chief command in the hands of the Wazir.
Ahmad Shah placed three thousand Qizzilbash
Iranis under the command of Muhammad Taqi Khan Shirazi and ordered him to move
against Mir Mannu, while he himself, at the head of his Afghan veterans,
advanced against Abul Mansur Khan. The
camel-swivels were also ordered to remain in readiness for action.
The
battle began with broadside from the Durrani light guns at about eight o’clock
in the morning. The Mughal
coimmander-in-chief had just finished his Namaz-i-Chasht, between nine
and ten in the morning, and was still on his prayer carpet reciting the Wazifa,
when, all of a sudden, a ball from an Afghan gun fell upon his tent and,
tearing it, it first struct the ground and then rebounded and fatally wounded
him in the back near the waist. At that time Farash Khan, Sangin Beg Khan and
three or four other companions were also present there, but nobody else was
hurt.
Mir Mannu takes the command.- Seeing the Wazir fatally wounded, all those
present there began to cry and lament.
His son, Muin-ud-Din-Khan, was then with the batteries. On receipt of a message, he hurried to his
father’s presence. The Wazir could see that he way dying. “It is all up with me, my child”, he said to
Mir Mannu, as Muin-ud-Din was lovingly called.
“But as the Emperor’s work is still unfinished, you must mount immediately and deliver the assault before this news spreads. The claim of (the Master’s) salt is above everything else. My business may be looked to later on.” With these last words to his son and the Kalimah-I-Shahadat on his lips, Wazir-ul-Mumalik Itmad-ud-Daula Nawab Qamar-ud-Din Khan Nusrat Jang, the Commander-in-Chief of the Mughal army, breathed his last16.
16. Anad Ram Mukhils, Tazkirah-i-Anandram
(MS.), f. 273 ; Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire, (Calcutta, 1932),
Vol. I, pp. 223-24.
The
death of his father was very shocking for Mir Mannu ; but he showed great
strength of mind and courage. Having
hurriedly buried him in his blood-stained clothes in the same tent and leveling
the ground to leave np marks, Manu rode his father’s elephant and ordered the
drums to be beaten. The tragic news
wwas only kjnown to the Prince, Abul Mansur Khan Safdar Jang, Saadat Khan
Zulfiqar Jang and Nasir Khan. It was
given out that the Wazir had caught a could and had ordered his son, Mir Mannu,
to lead the charge in his place. He
then called the Sardars to his presence and made a stirring appeal to them,
saying, “Whosoever wishes to come with me to the field of battle may do so, and
he, who does not, may go to his tent for to turn back during the fight is
ruinous. As for me, as long as there is
life in my body, I shall, with God’s grace, fight on.” With these words he rushed into the field of
action to oppose the advancing Durranis17.
17. Anand Ram Mukhlis, Tazkirah-i-Anandram
(MS.), f. 276.
Somehow the intelligence of the Wazir having been killed had reached the Durrani chiefs. Thereupon, Muhammad Taqi Khan Shirazi from the right turned to the side of Mir Mannu and delivered assault after assault upon his troops. It was at this time that Mir Mannu reappeared on the scene to cheer up his men and stopped the progress of the Afghans. The Shah sent in fresh draughts to reinforce the Shirazi, but in spite of desperate fighting Mannu could not be dislodged from his position.
Mannu now rose to the full height of his latent faculties and furiously rushed upon the advancing Durranis. He was supported by Zulfiqar Jang Saadat Khan and by Nasir Khan from the rear. The Mughals and Afghans came closer and grappled with one another. In addition to the fire of artillery and muskets, there were now flashes of the cold steel which claimed additional toll of human lives. In this hard fought contest Mannu himself had, not unoften, to discharge volleys of arrows to check the Afghan advance, and he is said to have emptied two quivers on his enemies.
The battle raged so furiously that there was hardly an officer who remained unscathed. Mannu himself had his skin scratched by a bullet, his brother Fakhr-ud-Din had been wounded in the foot, Adina Beg Khan of the Jullundur Doab receivedtwo bullet-wounds, Jani Khan, Darogha, Shahab-ud-Din and his son, Bahroz Khan and many other officers were killed. It was at this moment of crisis when the fate of the Mughal empire was hanging in the balance that the fresh reinforcements of Abul Mansur Khan Safdar Jang turned the tables upon the Durranis.
Though
signally defeated, Ahmad Shah saved the Afghans from utter rout and whoesale
massacre. He decided to retire towards Sirhind.
But he kept his head cool and clear and withdrew his men step by step. Under the pressure of the Mughals, he would
withdraw to some distance and then arrange his men in a battle array and begin
firing. He would fall back again and
repeat the same tactics. Towards the
evening he came to a garhi, a small mudfortress, between Manpur and
Sirhind, and occupied it. From under
its shelter he started firing into the advancing Mughals and checked their
advance. By the time the guns arrived,
it was all dark and the Mughals returned to their camp. Under cover of darkness, ahmad Shah retired
to Sirhind and began proparations for his return to Afghanistan. The Mughals had expected him back in the
field on the morning of March 12, 1748..
But as he had made no appearance, they sent out harkaras to find
out his whereabouts. But they returned
only with rumours that he had been slain in the batlle or least seriously
wounded. On March, 13, 1748, Ahmad Shah
sent out some pieces of light artillery to engage the enemy, while he himself
was making arrangements for the dispatch of his treasure and luggage to Lahore.
The
Mughals held their ground on the 14th March also. On the 15th Ahmad Shah sent
Muhammad Taqi Khan to the Prince with a pretended message for peace, saying
that he would return to his country if the territories given over to Nadir Shah
be left to him. The Prince and Muin
were not in a mood to hear anything of the sort and sent back a curt reply. Ostensibly dejected at the refusal of peace
terms, the Afghans appeared again for a fight on March 16, 1748. But in fact this was all to beguile the
Prince and Safdar Jang and gain time to get their treasure and luggage safely
out of Sirhind and save them from falling into the hands of the Mughals. The main army had left unnoticed with all
the property and some important prisoners of war by an unfrequented jungle path
and it was only the rear-guard that was playing hide and seek with the Mughals
and keeping them occupied. On March 17,
1748, it also disappeared and before the Afghans could be traced and chased,
they reached Ludhiana, crossed the Satluj and marched towards Lahore18.
18. Anand Ram Mukhils, Tazkirah-i-Anandram
(MS.), pp. 234-96 ; Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire (Calcutta,
1932), Vol. I, pp. 212-20.
It is said by the villagers that the loss on both sides was very heavy and that for a long time the stench of the dead bodies made cultivation impossible.
To the subsequent invasions of Ahmad Shah no resistance was attempted by the imperial troops in Sirhind, but his armies were constantly harassed by Phulkian chiefs and the Rais of Raikot. It was about 1760 that the Rais were permitted by him to take possession of the town and fort of Ludhiana and to extend their power over the country.
Marathas in the Punjab19. – Raghunath Rao (the Peshwa’s brother) had expelled Taimur Shah (the son of Ahmad Shah Durrani) and his general, Jahan Khan, from the Punjab and appointed Adina Beg Khan as the Maratha viceroy of the province in April-May, 1758. On Adina Beg Khan’s death on September 15, 1758, Jankoji Shinde, at the instance of Wazir Imad-ud-Mulk Ghazi-ud-Din, marched on February 1, 1759, towards Lahore to maintain peace and order in March, 1759. He seems to have sent Sabaji Patil in advance to Lahore, but, as he found that the Sikhs were then virtually in possession of Lahore and its neighbourhood, with huge forces at their disposal, and as its capture and occupation would not be an easy job, he decided not to cross the river. At Machhiwara, Jankoji received the members of Adina Beg’s family (perhaps his widow and son) and other residents of Doaba Bist Jullundur who paid him some money as tribute.
19. Ganda Singh, Ahmad Shah Durrani, pp.
216-20.
Wadda Ghalu-ghara or the Great
Holocaust of 1762.- In 1761, Zain Khan was
appointed Governor of sirhind by Ahmad Shah Durrani. In the following year
(1762), there was a formidable combination against Zain Khan of all the
Phulkian and other Cis-Satluj Kikh chiefs, assisted by numerous bands of Sikhs
from the Manjha or ‘Centeral Punjab’.
Ahmad Shah heard of this at Lahore ; and marching to the Satluj in two
days, he crossed at Ludhiana and on February 5, 1762, fell upon the allies at a
short distance to the south of it just as they were attacking Zain Khan. The Sikhs numbered about thirty thousand,
including a large number of women, children and non-combatant followers. Out of these about ten thousand, mostly
women, children and old men were killed.
This loss for a small community of the Sikhs was so great that this
battle, which was more of a carnage, has been called Wadda Ghalu-ghara,
the Great Holocaust the first smaller one having taken place on June 2,1746, at
the hands of Governor Zakariya Khan’s Diwan, Lakhpat Rai of Lahore20.
20. Ibid.,
pp. 276-80
This disaster does not appear to have had much effect on the Sikhs, for, in the following year, 1763, they were able to bring together a large army composed ofcis-Satluj Sikhs aided by bodies of their co-religionists from across the Satluj. Zain Khan was defeated and slain on January 14, 1764, and the Sikhs, following their victory, took possession of Sirhind, which they leveled to the ground.
2. Partition of the after the fall of Sirhind
With
the fall of Sirhind on January14, 1764, vanished the last vestiges of imperial
control over that portion of the empire of which it was the headquarters. The next year Ahmad Shah passed through the
country. He recognised this by
appointing Maharaja Ala Singh of Patiala as the Governor of the place. In 1767, Ahmad Shah reached Ludhiana his
last expedition into India but got no further.
He confirmed Amar Singh, the grandson of Ala Singh, in the government of
Sirhind, and gave him the title of Maharaja ; and from this time the Sikhs and
other chiefs who had taken possession of the country were left alone to settle
their own affairs. The imperial
authority had to the last been maintained over most of the country lying
between Ludhiana and Ambala, and round the headquarters of the Sarkar. On the fall of Sirhind, the whole of this
rich tract fell into the hands of the Phulkian chiefs and their Manjha
allies. The present Samrala tehsil and
a small portion to the east of Ludhiana fell to the share of the latter, each
chief and confederacy seizing as many villages as they could. The eastern
boundary of the territory of the Rais had in the few yeas before the capture of
Sirhind been quietly pushed east-wards from Baddowal, Dhandara, etc. so as to
include the town of Ludhiana and all the villages towards the south and east up
to within a few miles of Machhiwara.
Their northern boundary was the river Satluj. The lowlands opposite them were held by the Kakar Sirdars and
Diwans Mohkam Chand to the south to Ludhiana and to the north by Tara Singh
Ghaiba (also a Kakar). There was then
no Bet on this side. The Malaudh
Sirdars had already established themselves in the south Ludhiana tahsil (the
Jangal villages and the country about Malaudh) ; and Sudha Singh Gil, an adventurerfrom
Loharu in the Ferozepur district, secured a few villages around Sahnewal. With these two exceptions, the whole of the
present uplands of Jagraon and Ludhiana tahsils with a considerable part of the
Moga and Zira tahsils of Ferozepore, in all 1,360 villages, it is said,
belonged to the Rais21.
Samrala tahsil was divided : Sudha Singh Bajwa seized
21.
Mixed up among the Cis-Satluj Sikh estates lay some Muslim and Rajput
territories, the owners of which saved themselves by coalescing with the powerful
Sikh leaders of their neighbourhood and paying them tribute. Rai Ilyas of Raikot retained most of the
Ludhiana and Jagraon Tahsils and also a large portion of the Ferozepore
District. His territory included
several forts such as Tihara, Ludhiana, Sarih, Jagraon and Raikot. He was an ally of Raja Amar Singh of Patiala
and commanded a force of 500 horse, 1,000 foot and a few pieces of cannon. (Hari Ram Gupta, History of the Sikhs, Vol.
II, Cis-Sutlej Sikhs, 1769-1799, pp. 34-55).
Machhiwara and the eastern portion of the Utalan pargana
; and the western half fell into the hands of the Ladhran Sirdars. In pargana Khanna some villages were held by
a servant of Tara Singh Ghaiba who subsequently set up for himself at Khanna;
and the rest was divided between Kheri, Bhari, Ajner, and Jabu Mazra Sardars
and members of the Sontiwala and Nishanwala confederacies. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia of Kapurthala got 30
or 40 villages near Isru. Under the
Rais the Grewals of Raipur and Gujarwal exercised some sort of local authority
in the surrounding villages ; but they were only “malguzars” or
contractors for the revenue.
3. Change in
the course of river Satluj.
About A. D. 1785, occurred a great change in the course of the Satluj, the whole of the area now known as the Bet, a tract over 80 kms. in length and 8 or 9 in width, coming to the district. It was at the time in the possession of the Kakars, Tara Singh Ghaiba, whose headquarters were at Rahon, having the upper and his brethren the lower portion ; and these chiefs retained their possession except where Sudha Singh of Sahnewal seized some inhabited portions in front of his upland villages near Mattewara. There was then very little cultivation in the tract, the villages being few and far between. Most of the present ones owe their foundation to these chiefs and date from the period following the striking change in the course of the river.
4. State of
the country during the period
The Rais had a number of forts at different places and each Sikh chief erected one or two according to the size of his possessions. This partition of the country appears to have been recognised by the various parties to it ; and during the last forty years of the 18th century they do not seen to have attempted any encroachment on each other’s territories but appear to have co-existed amicably.
The condition of the country during the period was one of considerable prosperity. The rule of the Rais is still spoken of as very mild, and it is said that they fixed only one-fourth of the produce as their due. The condition of the people was very much better at this time than it was subsequently under the followers of Ranjit Singh.
5.
Incursions from across the Satluj and extinction of the
power of Rais
Bedi Sahib Singh of Una. – The peace which prevailed in the country after the fall of Sirhind was interrupted by Bedi Sahib Singh of Una. He crossed the Satluj in A.D. 1794, with an army of Sikhs from the Jullundur Doab, proclaiming a religious war against the Pathans of Malerkotla. From this he was dissuaded by the ruler of Patiala, but in 1798 he again mounted a similar attack on the Rais of Raikot. Rai Ilyas was a minor ; but his agent, Raoshan Gujar, took a strong stand against the Sikhs at Jodhan. 16 kms. south-west of Ludhiana. He was, however, killed and Rai’s army dispersed, but the Phulkian chiefs, who had always been on good terms with their Muhammadan neighbours of Kotla and Raikot and who had no intention of allowing the Bedi to establish himself in their midst, now came to the assistance of the Rai and drove the invaders out of most of the villages seized by them. The Bedi thereon invested the fort of Ludhiana ; and the Rai called in the adventurer George Thomas from Hansi. On Thomas’ approach, the Bedi retired across the river, and ceased to interfere in the country.
Maharaja Ranijit Singh’s Cis-Satluj invasions and annexations. – The capture of Delhi in 1803 after the defeat of Marithas brought the English into direct contact with the Cis-Satluj chiefs because the area was believed to fall within their sphere of influence . Prompted by his ambition to bring the Sikh confederacies under his control Maharaja Ranjit Singh extended his dominations to the north bank of the Satluj and began to think of conquest of the territory beyond it. The disputes between the States of Patiala,Nabha and Jind afforded him a good opportunity tto meddle with their affair in july,1806he crossed the Satjul ,The last of the Rais(11yas)had been killed while hunting in 1802. The family was represented by his widow, Bhagbhari, and his mother , Nur-un-Nisa. No opposition was offered to Ranjit Singh, who took possession of the town and fort of Ludhiana, and made them over alongwith the adjacent village to his nephew,Raja Bhag Singh of Jind.He proceeded to Patiala on pretence of setting the dispute between the three Phulkian chief and returned to the Punjab via Ambala and Thanesar. In the following year (1807) he was again in invited by the disputants and, crossing at the Harike ford (Sobaon), he proceeded to Patiala,and thence in to Ambala District where he besieged and took Naraingarh, In these two expeditions Ranjit Singh, besides stripping the Rais of all their territory save two or three villages given them for maintenance,also annexed the possessions across Satluj held by a widow, Rani Lachmi,of Sudha Singh (Sahnewal), as well as those of Tara Singh Ghaiba family was perhaps the most shameless of all these transactions, as Tara Singh Had died that very year while accompanying the Maharaja on his expedition. These conquests were divided by Maharaja between himself and his adherents. Raja Bhag Singh of Jind got about 100 villages round Ludhiana and in the Bassian ilaqa, Sardar Fateh Singh Ahlwalia (ancestor of the Kapurthala chiefs) nearly the whole of the Jagraon tahsil and the Dakha pargana; Sardar Gurdit Singh of Ladwa a number of villages about Baddowal; Bhai Lal Singh of Kaithal ,16 villages about Gujarwal; the Nabha Chief some villages in Pakhowal while men of lesser note, such as the Sodhis of Nandpur got jagirs. Diwan Mohkam Chand was put in charge of the country reserved by Maharaja Ranjit Singh for direct rule.
6. The Rais
of Raikot
The Rais of Raikot played such an important part in the history of the district that it will be of interest to give a more detailed account of the family. The Rais belong to the Mauj got or sub-division of the Rajput tribe ; and the ancestor of the Rais, Rana Mokal, is said to have come from Bhatner (or Jaisalmer) and to have settled in the area covered by the former Faridkot territory. Fourth in line from him was Tulsi Das, who embraced Islam in the reign of Emperor Ghiyas-ud-din Ghauri, as the family chronicle says, that is about the middle of the 12th century, and was called Sheikh Chachu. His sons, Bharu and Lapal, came to Hatur, a large village in theJagraon tahsil, where they appear to have lived by plunder under the protection of an importunatePanwar Rajput called Udho. Popular tradition has it. “Khun Piun Bharu Rai ; Pakara jana Udho Panwar” which means that Bharu made himself master of Hatur, while Lapal settled in the adjoining village of Shahjehanpur. Seventh in descent from Bharu was Kalha I, who took service with one of Delhi Emperors called Ala-ud-din, perhaps the last of the Sayyid Dynasty, at all events in the beginning of the 15th century. Kalha founded Talwandi, to which place the family moved ; and obtained an assignment of the malguzari of villages in the neighbourhood, for which he had to pay Rs. 1,25,000 of revenue and also the title of Rai. The family maintained its position as a feudatory of the empire (zamindar mustajir) under the Lodis and Mughals for several generations and one of the Rais is said by the family chronicle to have been put to death for refusing a daughter in marriage to Emperor Akbar.
On the decline of the Mughal empire
from the beginning of the 18th century, the Rais became involvced in
disputes with the Governor of Sirhind, and Rai Kalha III, who appears to have
been a ruler of very great ability, extended his power to Ludhiana, which
passed into his hands a few years before the capture of Sirhind by the
Sikhs. After the event he established independent
power over the whole of Jagraon (the place of the Rais) and the greater part of
Ludhiana tahsils, and also a large portion of the Ferozepore District. The family was on at least equal terms with
the Pathan rules of Malerkotla and the Phulkian chiefs, with the latter of whom
their relations were friendly on the whole.
It was in the time of Rai Ahmad, successor of Kalha III, that Raikot was
founded (in 1648) ; and many other towns and villages, amongst them Jagroan,
owe their origin to the family, whose rule appears to have been very mild. Rai Kalha III was the ablest of the Rais ;
and under him the family reached the height of its power. He was the followed by his son Ahmad, who
ruled only for a short time. In 1779
Rai Ilyas, a minor, succeeded, and the affairs of the State were managed by two
Gujars, called Roshan and Ahmed, the latter of whom asserted his independence
at Jagraon, but was expelled.
It was at this time that the Sikhs
from across the Satluj started their inroads under the Bedis. The celebrated Bedi Sahib Singh of Una, who
four years earlier had devastated malerkotla with sword and fire, swept down
upon Raikot in 1798 at the head of a large force, announcing his determination
to exterminate the kine-killing race whose presence polluted the land. Jagroan, Raikot and Ludhiana were speedily
overrun, and a fierce battle was fought at Jodhan, where the Raikotias made a
gallant stand under Roshan Khan; but their leader was killed towards the close
of the day, and victory remained with the Sikhs. The Bedi was, however, obliged ultimately to retire upon
Ludhiana, pressure having been put upon him by the Phulkian Chiefs, whose aid
the Railitias had sought. The Sikhs of
Ludhiana opened the gates of the city to the Bedi, but the fort held out,
defended by Hassan Khan. It was
regularly invested, and would no doubt have fallen had not Rai Ilyas in his
last extremity sent for the celebrated George Thomas of Hansi, who was only too
happy to fight when the loot was to be the reward. George Thomas was not, however, destined to draw his sword on
this occasion, for the Bedi hastiuly raised the siege on hearing of his
approach and betook himself to his home beyond the Satluj.22
22.
L.H. Griffin, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab (edition 1940),
Vol. I, pp. 217-18
Raikot had been saved from the ravages of the Bedi only to suffer at the hands of a more formidable foe. In 1806 Maharaja Ranjit Singh made his first expedition into this part of the country. He took the opportunity of breaking up the Raikot chiefship on the plea of avenging Bedi Sahib singh’s defeat, and without a struggle dispossessed the Ranis of all their possessions, except a few villages, which were allowed for their maintenance. “From the plunder of this family” writes L.H.Griffin, “Raja Bhag Singh (of Jind) received the district of Ludhiana, Jhandala, Kot, Jagraon and Basia [Bassian] including fifty-four villages of an annual rent of Rs. 23,260 ; Sardar Furdit Singh of Lkadwa, the district of Badowal with portions of Jagraon, thirty-two villages worth Rs 23,450 ; Raja Jaswant Singh of Nabha, portions of Kot Basia [Bassian], Talwandi and Jagraon thirty-one villages worth Rs. 26,590 ; Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, portions of Shaka Kot, Jagraon and Talwandi, one hundred and six villages, worth Rs. 40,505 Diwan Mohkam Chand, portions of Ghila, Kot, Jagraon and Talwandi, seventy-one villages worth Rs. 33,945 ; Sardar Basawa Singh, ten villages, in Kot and Jagraon, worth Rs. 5,714 ; and Sardar Bhanga Singh, one village in Talwandi, worth Rs. 400”.
Rani Nur-un-Nisa thus found herself left with only Raikot and portions of Mallah, Jhajewal, Hiran and Talwandi out of all the fertile country bequeathed her by Rai Ilyas Khan. Nur-un-Nisa was succeeded by Rai Ilyas Khan’s widow, Rani Bhagbhari, who represented the interests of the family when the British fought the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-46) on the Satluj, and help0ed them to the best of her power with carriage and supplies. On the death of Bhagbhari in 1854, the property passed to her nephew and adopted son, Tai Imam Bakhsh Khan. In lieu of jagir rights, he was awarded a pension of Rs. 2,400 with a muafi grant of one hundred acres in Raikot. He was loyal to the British the “Mutiny” of 1857. His three sons received allowances aggregating Rs. 1,800 per annum. Faiz Talab Khan, the eldest son, retained the muafi grant. He was an Honoraryt Magistrate and a Provincial Darbari, and died in 1900. His son, Inayat Khan, represented the family during the forties of the present century 23. on the partition of the Punjab in 1947, Rai Inyat Khan migrated to Kamalia (District Lyallpur) in West Pakistan.
23.
L.H. Griffin, Chiefs and Families of Note in the
Punjab (edition 1940), Vol. I, pp. 218-19