The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir Part 10

No attempt was made to occupy the Central Panjab, and when the Turkish Sultan, Sabaktagin, made his first raid into India in 986-7 A.D., his opponent was a powerful raja named Jaipal, who ruled over a wide territory extending from the Hakra to the frontier hills on the north-west. His capital was at Bhatinda. Just about the time when the rulers of Ghazni were laying the train which ended at Delhi and made it the seat of a great Muhammadan Empire, that town was being founded in 993-4 A.D. by the Tunwar Rajputs, who then held sway in that neighbourhood.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: See Sykes' _History of Persia_, pp. 179-180; also Herodotos III. 94 and 98 and IV. 44.]

[Footnote 5: "The Indians clad with garments made of cotton had bows of cane and arrows of cane tipped with iron."--Herodotos VII. 65.]

CHAPTER XVIII

HISTORY (_continued_). THE MUHAMMADAN PERIOD, 1000-1764 A.D.

~The Ghaznevide Raids.~--In the tenth century the Turks were the janissaries of the Abbaside Caliphs of Baghdad, and ambitious soldiers of that race began to carve out kingdoms. One Alptagin set up for himself at Ghazni, and was succeeded in 976 A.D. by his slave Sabaktagin, who began the long series of Indian raids which stained with blood the annals of the next half-century. His son, Mahmud of Ghazni, a ruthless zealot and robber abroad, a patron of learning and literature at home, added the Panjab to his dominions. In the first 26 years of the eleventh century he made seventeen marauding excursions into India. In the first his father's opponent, Jaipal, was beaten in a vain effort to save Peshawar. Ten years later his successor, Anandpal, at the head of a great army, again met the Turks in the Khaibar. The valour of the Ghakkars had practically won the day, when Anandpal's elephant took fright, and this accident turned victory into rout. In one or other of the raids Multan and Lah.o.r.e were occupied, and the temples of Kangra (Nagarkot) and Thanesar plundered. In 1018 the Turkish army marched as far east as Kanauj. The one permanent result of all these devastations was the occupation of the Panjab. The Turks made Lah.o.r.e the capital.

~Decline of Buddhism.~--The iconoclastic raids of Mahmud probably gave the _coup de grace_ to Buddhism. Its golden age may be put at from 250 B.C.

to 200 A.D. Brahmanism gradually emerged from retirement and reappeared at royal courts. It was quite ready to admit Buddha to its pantheon, and by so doing it sapped the doctrine he had taught. The Chinese pilgrim, Fahien, in the early part of the fifth century could still describe Buddhism in the Panjab as "very flouris.h.i.+ng," and he found numerous monasteries. The religion seems however to have largely degenerated into a childish veneration of relics.

~Conquest of Delhi.~--For a century and a quarter after the death of Mahmud in 1030 A.D. his line maintained its sway over a much diminished empire. In 1155 the Afghan chief of Ghor, Ala ud din, the "World-burner"

(Jahan-soz), levelled Ghazni with the ground. For a little longer the Ghaznevide Turkish kings maintained themselves in Lah.o.r.e. Between 1175 and 1186 Muhammad Ghori, who had set up a new dynasty at Ghazni, conquered Multan, Peshawar, Sialkot, and Lah.o.r.e, and put an end to the line of Mahmud. The occupation of Sirhind brought into the field Prithvi Raja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Delhi. In 1191 he routed Muhammad Ghori at Naraina near Karnal. But next year the Afghan came back with a huge host, and this time on the same battlefield fortune favoured him.

Prithvi Raja was taken and killed, and Muhammad's slave, Kutbuddin Aibak, whom he left to represent him in India, soon occupied Delhi. In 1203 Muhammad Ghori had to flee for his life after a defeat near the Oxus. The Ghakkars seized the chance and occupied Lah.o.r.e. But the old lion, though wounded, was still formidable. The Ghakkars were beaten, and, it is said, converted. A year or two later they murdered their conqueror in his tent near the Indus.

~Turkish and Afghans Sultans of Delhi.~--He had no son, and his strong viceroy, Kutbuddin Aibak, became in 1206 the first of the 33 Muhammadan kings, who in five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi a kingdom of varying dimensions, till the last of them fell at Panipat in 1526, and Babar, the first of the Moghals, became master of their red fort palace.

The blood-stained annals of these 320 years can only be lightly touched on. Under vigorous rulers like the Turki Slave kings, Altamsh (1210-1236) and Balban (1266-1287), a ferocious and masterful boor like Ala ud din Khalji (1296-1316), or a ferocious but able man of culture like Muhammad Tughlak (1325-1351), the local governors at Lah.o.r.e and Multan were content to be servants. In the frequent intervals during which the royal authority was in the hands of sottish wastrels, the chance of independence was no doubt seized.

~Mongol Invasions.~--In 1221 the Mongol cloud rose on the north-west horizon. The cruelty of these camel-riding Tatars and the terror they inspired may perhaps be measured by the appalling picture given of their b.e.s.t.i.a.l appearance. In 1221, Chingiz Khan descended on the Indus at the heels of the King of Khwarizm (Khiva), and drove him into Sindh. Then there was a lull for twenty years, after which the Mongol war hordes ruined and ravaged the Panjab for two generations. Two great Panjab governors, Sher Khan under Balban and Tughlak under Ala ud din Khalji, maintained a gallant struggle against these savages. In 1297 and 1303 the Mongols came to the gates of Delhi, but the city did not fall, and soon after they ceased to harry Northern India. During these years the misery of the common people must often have been extreme. When foreign raids ceased for a time they were plundered by their own rulers. In the Panjab the fate of the peasantry must have depended chiefly on the character of the governor for the time being, and of the local feudatories or _zamindars_, who were given the right to collect the State's share of the produce on condition of keeping up bodies of armed men for service when required.

~The Invasion of Timur.~--The long reign of Muhammad Tughlak's successor, Firoz Shah (1351-1388), son of a Hindu Rajput princess of Dipalpur, brought relief to all cla.s.ses. Besides adopting a moderate fiscal policy, he founded towns like Hissar and Fatehabad, dug ca.n.a.ls from the Jamna and the Sutlej, and carried out many other useful works. On his death the realm fell into confusion. In 1398-99 another appalling calamity fell upon it in the invasion of Timurlang (Tamerlane), Khan of Samarkand. He entered India at the head of 90,000 hors.e.m.e.n, and marched by Multan, Dipalpur, Sirsa, Kaithal, and Panipat to Delhi. What l.u.s.t of blood was to the Mongols, religious hatred was to Timur and his Turks.

Ten thousand Hindus were put to the sword at Bhatner and 100,000 prisoners were ma.s.sacred before the victory at Delhi. For the three days' sack of the royal city Timur was not personally responsible. Sated with the blood of lakhs of infidels sent "to the fires of h.e.l.l" he marched back through Kangra and Jammu to the Indus. Six years later the House of Tughlak received a deadly wound when the Wazir, Ikbal Khan, fell in battle with Khizr Khan, the governor of Multan.

~The later Dynasties.~--The Saiyyids, who were in power from 1414 to 1451, only ruled a small territory round Delhi. The local governors and the Hindu chiefs made themselves independent. Sikandar Lodi (1488-1518) reduced them to some form of submission, but his successor, Ibrahim, drove them into opposition by pus.h.i.+ng authority further than his power justified. An Afghan n.o.ble, Daulat Khan, rebelled in the Panjab. There is always an ear at Kabul listening to the first sounds of discord and weakness between Peshawar and Delhi. Babar, a descendant of Timur, ruled a little kingdom there. In 1519 he advanced as far as Bhera. Five years later his troops burned the Lah.o.r.e _bazar_, and sacked Dipalpur. The next winter saw Babar back again, and this time Delhi was his goal. On the 21st of April, 1526, a great battle at Panipat again decided the fate of India, and Babar entered Delhi in triumph.

~Akbar and his successors.~--He soon bequeathed his Indian kingdom to his son Humayun, who lost it, but recovered it shortly before his death by defeating Sikandar Sur at Sirhind. In 1556 Akbar succeeded at the age of 13, and in the same year Bahram Khan won for his master a great battle at Panipat and seated the Moghals firmly on the throne. For the next century and a half, till their power declined after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, Kabul and Delhi were under one rule, and the Panjab was held in a strong grasp. When it was disturbed the cause was rebellions of undutiful sons of the reigning Emperor, struggles between rival heirs on the Emperor's death, or attempts to check the growing power of the Sikh Gurus. The empire was divided into _subahs_, and the area described in this book embraced _subahs_ Lah.o.r.e and Multan, and parts of _subahs_ Delhi and Kabul. Kashmir and the trans-Indus tract were included in the last.

~The Sultans of Kashmir.~--The Hindu rule in Kashmir had broken down by the middle of the twelfth century. A long line of Musalman Sultans followed. Two notable names emerge in the end of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth century, Sikandar, the "Idol-breaker," who destroyed most of the Hindu temples and converted his people to Islam, and his wise and tolerant successor, Zain-ul-abidin. Akbar conquered Kashmir in 1587.

~Moghal Royal Progresses to Kashmir.~--His successors often moved from Delhi by Lah.o.r.e, Bhimbar, and the Pir Panjal route to the Happy Valley in order to escape the summer heats. Bernier has given us a graphic account of Aurangzeb's move to the hills in 1665. On that occasion his total following was estimated to amount to 300,000 or 400,000 persons, and the journey from Delhi to Lah.o.r.e occupied two months. The burden royal progresses on this scale must have imposed on the country is inconceivable. Jahangir died in his beloved Kashmir. He planted the road from Delhi to Lah.o.r.e with trees, set up as milestones the _kos minars_, some of which are still standing, and built fine _sarais_ at various places.

~Prosperity of Lah.o.r.e under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shahjahan.~--The reigns of Akbar and of his son and grandson were the heyday of Lah.o.r.e. It was the halfway house between Delhi and Kashmir, and between Agra and Kabul.

The Moghal Court was often there. Akbar made the city his headquarters from 1584 to 1598. Jahangir was buried and Shahjahan was born at Lah.o.r.e.

The mausoleum of the former is at Shahdara, a mile or two from the city.

Shahjahan made the Shalimar garden, and Ali Mardan Khan's Ca.n.a.l, the predecessor of our own Upper Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l, was partly designed to water it. Lah.o.r.e retained its importance under Aurangzeb, till he became enmeshed in the endless Deccan wars, and his successor, Bahadur Shah, died there in 1712.

~Baba Nanak, the first Guru.~--According to Sikh legend Babar in one of his invasions had among his prisoners their first Guru, Baba Nanak, and tried to make him a Musalman. Nanak was born in 1469 at Talwandi, now known as Nankana Sahib, 30 miles to the south-west of Lah.o.r.e, and died twelve years after Babar's victory at Panipat. He journeyed all over India, and, if legend speaks true, even visited Mecca. His propaganda was a peaceful one. A man of the people himself, he had a message to deliver to a peasantry naturally impatient of the shackles of orthodox Hinduism. Sikhism is the most important of all the later dissents from Brahmanism, which represent revolts against idolatry, priestly domination, and the bondage of caste and ritual. These things Nanak unhesitatingly condemned, and in the opening lines of his j.a.pji, the morning service which every true Sikh must know by heart, he a.s.serted in sublime language the unity of G.o.d.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59. Baba Nanak and the Musician Mardana.]

~The Gurus between Nanak and Govind.~--The first three successors of Nanak led the quiet lives of great eastern saints. They managed to keep on good terms with the Emperor and generally also with his local representatives. The fifth Guru, Arjan (1581-1606), began the welding of the Sikhs into a body fit to play a part in secular politics. He compiled their sacred book, known as the _Granth Sahib_, and made Amritsar the permanent centre of their faith. The tenets of these early Gurus chimed in with the liberal sentiments of Akbar, and he treated them kindly. Arjan was accused of helping Khusru, Jahangir's rebellious son, and is alleged to have died after suffering cruel tortures.

Hitherto there had been little ill-will between monotheistic Sikhs and Muhammadans. Henceforth there was ever-increasing enmity. The peasant converts to the new creed had many scores against Turk officials to pay off, while the new leader Hargovind (1606-1645), had the motive of revenge. He was a Guru of a new type, a lover of horses and hawks, and a man of war. He kept up a bodyguard, and, when danger threatened, armed followers flocked to his standard. The easy-going Jahangir (1605-1627) on the whole treated him well. Shahjahan (1627-1659) was more strict or less prudent, and during his reign there were several collisions between the imperial troops and the Guru's followers. Hargovind was succeeded by his grandson, Har Rai (1645-1661). The new Guru was a man of peace.

Har Rai died in 1661, having nominated his younger son, Harkrishn, a child of six, as his successor. His brother, Ram Rai, disputed his claim, but Aurangzeb confirmed Harkrishn's appointment. He died of small pox in 1664 and was succeeded by his uncle, Teg Bahadur (1664-1675), whose chief t.i.tles to fame are his execution in 1675, his prophecy of the coming of the English, and the fact that he was the father of the great tenth Guru, Govind. It is said that when in prison at Delhi he gazed southwards one day in the direction of the Emperor's _zanana_.

Charged with this impropriety, he replied: "I was looking in the direction of the Europeans, who are coming to tear down thy _pardas_ and destroy thine empire."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60. Guru Govind Singh.]

~Guru Govind Singh.~--When Govind (1675-1708) succeeded his father, Aurangzeb had already started on the course of persecution which fatally weakened the pillars of Turkish rule. Govind grew up with a rooted hatred of the Turks, and a determination to weld his followers into a league of fighting men or _Khalsa_ (Ar. _khalis_ = pure), admission into which was by the _pahul_, a form of military baptism. Sikhs were henceforth to be _Singhs_ (lions). They were forbidden to smoke, and enjoined to wear the five k's, _kes_, _kangha_, _kripan_, _kachh_, and _kara_ (uncut hair, comb, sword, short drawers, and steel bracelet). He established himself at Anandpur beyond the Hoshyarpur Siwaliks. Much of his life was spent in struggles with his neighbours, the Rajput Hill Rajas, backed from time to time by detachments of imperial troops from Sirhind. In 1705 two of his sons were killed fighting and two young grandsons were executed at Sirhind. He himself took refuge to the south of the Sutlej, but finally decided to obey a summons from Aurangzeb, and was on the way to the Deccan when the old Emperor died. The Guru took up his residence on the banks of the G.o.davari, and died there in 1708.

~Banda.~--Before his death he had converted the Hindu ascetic Banda, and sent him forth on a mission of revenge. Banda defeated and slew the governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan, and sacked the town. Doubtless he dreamed of making himself Guru. But he was really little more than a condottiere, and his orthodoxy was suspect. He was defeated and captured in 1715 at Gurdaspur. Many of his followers were executed and he himself was tortured to death at Delhi, where the members of an English mission saw a ghastly procession of Sikh prisoners with 2000 heads carried on poles. The blow was severe, and for a generation little was heard of the Sikhs.

~Invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah.~--The central power was weak, and a new era of invasions from the west began. Nadir Shah, the Turkman shepherd, who had made himself master of Persia, advanced through the Panjab. Zakaria Khan, the governor of Lah.o.r.e, submitted and the town was saved from sack. A victory at Karnal left the road to Delhi open, and in March, 1738, the Persians occupied the capital. A shot fired at Nadir Shah in the Chandni Chauk led to the nine hours' ma.s.sacre, when the Dariba ran with blood, and 100,000 citizens are said to have perished.

The Persians retired laden with booty, including the peac.o.c.k throne and the Kohinur diamond. The Sikhs hara.s.sed detachments of the army on its homeward march. Nadir Shah was murdered nine years later, and his power pa.s.sed to the Afghan leader, the Durani Ahmad Shah.

Between 1748 and 1767 this remarkable man, who could conquer but could not keep, invaded India eight times. Lah.o.r.e was occupied in 1748, but at Sirhind the skill of Mir Mannu, called Muin ul Mulk, gave the advantage to the Moghals. Ahmad Shah retreated, and Muin ul Mulk was rewarded with the governors.h.i.+p of the Panjab. He was soon forced to cede to the Afghan the revenue of four districts. His failure to fulfil his compact led to a third invasion in 1752, and Muin ul Mulk, after a gallant defence of Lah.o.r.e, had to submit. In 1755-56 Ahmad Shah plundered Delhi and then retired, leaving his son, Timur, to represent him at Lah.o.r.e.

Meanwhile the Sikhs had been gathering strength. Then, as now, they formed only a fraction of the population. But they were united by a strong hatred of Muhammadan rule, and in the disorganized state of the country even the loose organization described below made them formidable. Owing to the weakness of the government the Panjab became dotted over with forts, built by local chiefs, who undoubtedly lived largely by plunder. The spiritual organization under a Guru being gone, there gradually grew up a political and military organization into twelve _misls_, in which "a number of chiefs agreed, after a somewhat democratic and equal fas.h.i.+on, to fight under the general orders of some powerful leader" against the hated Muhammadans. The _misls_ often fought with one another for a change. In the third quarter of the eighteenth century _Sardar_ Ja.s.sa Singh of Kapurthala, head of the Ahluwalia _misl_, was the leading man among the Sikhs. Timur having defiled the tank at Amritsar, Ja.s.sa Singh avenged the insult by occupying Lah.o.r.e in 1756, and the Afghan prince withdrew across the Indus. Adina Beg, the governor of the Jalandhar Doab, called in the Mahrattas, who drove the Sikhs out in 1758. Ahmad Shah's fifth invasion in 1761 was rendered memorable by his great victory over the Mahratta confederacy at Panipat.

When he returned to Kabul, the Sikhs besieged his governor, Zin Khan, in Sirhind. Next year Ahmad Shah returned, and repaid their audacity by a crus.h.i.+ng defeat near Barnala.

They soon rallied, and, in 1763, under Ja.s.sa Singh Ahluwalia and Raja Ala Singh of Patiala razed Sirhind to the ground. After the sack the Sikh hors.e.m.e.n rode over the plains between Sirhind and Karnal, each man claiming for his own any village into which in pa.s.sing he had thrown some portion of his garments. This was the origin of the numerous petty chiefs.h.i.+ps and confederacies of hors.e.m.e.n, which, along with the Phulkian States, the British Government took under its protection in 1808. In 1764 the chiefs of the Bhangi _misl_ occupied Lah.o.r.e.

CHAPTER XIX

HISTORY (_continued_). THE SIKH PERIOD, 1764-1849 A.D.

~Rise of Ranjit Singh.~--The Bhangis held Lah.o.r.e with brief intervals for 25 years. In 1799, Ranjit Singh, basing his claim on a grant from Shah Zaman, the grandson of Ahmad Shah, drove them out, and inaugurated the remarkable career which ended with his death in 1839. When he took Lah.o.r.e the future Maharaja was only nineteen years of age. He was the head of the Sukarchakia _misl_, which had its headquarters at Gujranwala. Mean in appearance, his face marked and one eye closed by the ravages of smallpox, he was the one man of genius the Jat tribe has produced. A splendid horseman, a bold leader, a cool thinker untroubled with scruples, an unerring judge of character, he was bound to rise in such times. He set himself to put down every Sikh rival and to profit by the waning of the Durani power to make himself master of their possessions in the Panjab. Pluck, patience, and guile broke down all opposition among the Manjha Sikhs. The Sikh chiefs to the south of the Sutlej were only saved from the same fate by throwing themselves in 1808 on the protection of the English, who six years earlier had occupied Delhi, and by taking under their protection the blind old Emperor, Shah alam, had virtually proclaimed themselves the paramount power in India.

For 44 years he had been only a piece in the game played by Mahrattas, Rohillas, and the English in alliance with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61. Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

(_From a picture book said to have been prepared for Maharaja Dalip Singh._)]

~British supremacy established in India.~--In the first years of the nineteenth century the Marquess of Wellesley had made up his mind that the time was ripe to grasp supreme power in India. The motive was largely self-preservation. India was included in Napoleon's vast plans for the overthrow of England, and Sindhia, with his army trained in European methods of warfare by French officers, seemed a likely confederate. Colonel Arthur Wellesley's hard-won battle at a.s.saye in September, 1803, and Lord Lake's victories on the Hindan and 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 Panjab 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 1811 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 Sutlej to the Indus, though his hold on Hazara was weak. Peshawar became tributary in 1823, but it was kept in subjection with much difficulty. Across the Indus the position of the Sikhs was always precarious, and revenue was only paid when an armed force could be sent to collect it. As late as 1837 the great Sikh leader, Hari Singh Nalwa, fell fighting with the Afghans at Jamrud. The Barakzai, Dost Muhammad, had been the ruler of Kabul since 1826. In 1838, when the English launched their ill-starred expedition to restore Shah Shuja to his throne, Ranjit Singh did not refuse his help in the pa.s.sage through the Panjab. But he was worn out by toils and excesses, and next year the weary lion of the Panjab died.

He had known how to use men. He employed Jat blades and Brahman and Muhammadan brains. Khatris put both at his service. The best of his local governors was Diwan Sawan Mal, who ruled the South-West Panjab with much profit to himself and to the people. After 1820 the three Jammu brothers, Rajas Dhian Singh, Suchet Singh, and Gulab Singh, had great power.

~Successors of Ranjit Singh.~--From 1839 till 1846 an orgy of bloodshed and intrigue went on in Lah.o.r.e. Kharak Singh, the Maharaja's son, died in 1840, and on the same day occurred the death of his son Nao Nihal Singh, compa.s.sed probably by the Jammu Rajas. Sher Singh, and then the child, Dalip Singh, succeeded. In September, 1843, Maharaja Sher Singh, his son Partab Singh, and Raja Dhian Singh were shot by Ajit Singh and Lehna Singh of the great Sindhanwalia house. The death of Dhian Singh was avenged by his son, Hira Singh, who proclaimed Dalip Singh as Maharaja and made himself chief minister. When he in turn was killed Rani Jindan, the mother of Dalip Singh, her brother Jowahir Singh, and her favourite, Lal Singh, took the reins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 62. Maharaja Kharak Singh.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 63. Nao Nihal Singh.]