01-21-2004, 11:28 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->sbajwa: Do you links to maps of northern India under the different sikh gurus and/or rulers? I'm especially interested in the various campaigns of Nalwa.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sikh Gurus did not ruled any territory people called them " Sacha Padishah" i.e. "True kings". Guru Hargobind the sixth guru who militarize Sikhs when he ordered them to come to his prescence with horses, swords and guns and not with food, money, etc. He organized a small army (700 foot and 300 horse) that protected Amritsar until a small skirmish broke out between Jehangir and his people in the vicinity of Lahore/Amritsar. After this and series of battles Guru Hargobind was arrested and jailed in the fort of Gwalior from where he was released when Jehangir became sick and someone reminded him that the cause of his sickness could be the arrest of a Sikh saint Guru Hargobind., Guru Hargobind refused to be freed without the 52 other prisoners lodged in the same Gwalior fort that is now used by Indian Army.
Then Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred at Delhi, Guru Gobind Singh's four sons and his mother (father having been martyrd earlier) were also martyred. He alone while travelling to south was attacked by two Pathans (set loose on him by Governor of Sarhind) attacked and wounded him, he breathed his last at Nanded (1708).
Around the same time Banda Singh Bahadur came to Punjab/Haryana/UP/Rajathan area and started organizing people against Mughals. Their bands looted mughals treasury and ultimately the army of banda bahadur became so large that he defeated Sarhind (the mughal governorship) without any big guns and with spears,swords and muskets and started the first Sikh state. He told all farmers in this area to only pay 10% if they wish to his cause and totally eradicated Zamindari system of Mughals.
Banda sieged Lahore several times but could not broke through the fort since he didn't had any guns. Mughals got their forces togeter at Delhi and organized a huge effort to defeat Banda, he was arrested along with 760 Sikhs and martyred at Delhi in 1716. The people of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP by this time had tasted freedom under Banda and they created small bands of Sikhs, villagers called them "Sardars" i.e. "Leaders"., and gave them rations, etc while they raided Mughals and corrupt Zamindars.
In 1724 Nadir Shah attacked India and defeated Mughals, this created a huge vaccum in the area between Indus and Jamuna. The Sikh Sardars organized themselves under two bands (Buddha i.e. old and Taruna i.e. young). These two bands worked to free slaves from Nadir Shah, snatched back the looted property from Nadir Shah. both of these bands were organized under a Sikh named Kapur Singh Virk, he was a person of extraordinary qualities. Thus
Mughals sort to create a truce with Sikhs and gave Sikhs three villages (amritsar district) under Kapur Singh making him a Nawab. But this truce was soon broken when small holocaust broke out and Sikhs were again arrested and massacred, at this time it is said that price of a dead sikh was more than the price of a live horse. At horses market Lahore over 40,000 Sikhs were martyred., this place was later renamed as Shaheedganj (and that's what it is called now) by Sikh sardars.
From 1750s-1760s Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked India several times, the first was the battle at Panipat against Marathas., then the next eight times he attacked Punjabi to subdue Sikhs., each time he destroyed Golden Temple but Sikhs came back each time. Sikhs after death of Kapur Singh Virk were organized under another Sikh named Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (who was adopted by the widow of Guru Gobind Singh and raised as a Gurusikh), he was
the first literate Sikh after Banda and he created 12 Sikh Misls (misl means equal bands)., these 12 bands were given a distinct area to rule and thus from Indus to Jamuna the area came under Sikhs., here is their jurisdiction
Misl Bhangi = Sialkote, Gujrat, Multan, Amritsar, Tarn tarn and Lahore. (Bhangi since they were addicted to Bhang)
Misl Shukarchakia = Gujranwala area (Shukar means Small, Chak means petty tract of land, Ranjit Singh's forefathers from this misl)
Misl Shaheedan = Malwa part, Ludhiana, Bhatinda, etc.
Misl Phulkian = Patiala (later Patiala state)
Misl Kanhaiya = Batala and Gurdaspur area (under Jai Singh Kanhaiya so called since he was handsome like God Krishna)
Misl Ahluwalia = Jalandhar and Kapurthala (later Kapurthala State)
Misl Dallewalia = Rahon, Mahatpur, Nawanshaher and Phillaur
Misl Singhpura = The territories held were Jalandhar, and the villages of Banur, Ghanauli, Manauli and Bharatgarh, in the Malwa (Ludhiana).
Misl Karorasinghia = Hoshiarpur and then under Baghel Singh Dhaliwal they occupied all the area upto Delhi (all the Sikh Gurdwaras in Delhi were created by Baghel Singh in 1780s)
Misl Nakai = Lahore and South of Lahore.
Misl Nishaanwala = Ambala, Ropar, Anandpur Sahib and current day Chandigarh.
Misl Ramgarhia = Their territory was parts of Amritsar, Qadian, Batala and Sri Hargobindpur, in the Bari doab and Miani, Sarih, and Urmur Tanda in the Jalandhar Doab.
So in 1798 when Zaman Shah (son of Abdali) tried to invade India again, Ranjit Singh (then 16 years old) in the Sarbatt Khalsa (congregation of all Sikhs assembled to solve the issue of this attack) told everyone to face Zaman Shah straight head on instead of a Guerilla warfare and he himself led the forces., defeating Jahan-Dad Khan the advance general of Zaman Shah. It is said that one night Ranjit Singh got up on the Mussumam Burj (a high tower next to the fort of Lahore) and publicly challenged Zaman Shah to come fight if he has any guts. Zaman Shah retured to Kabul with Sikhs chasing him all the way and threw his guns in the river indus in a hurry so that Sikhs could not get to them. Ranjit Singh got 3 guns out of the river and one such gun is still installed in a crossing at Lahore.
Ranjit Singh declared himself Maharaja in 1799 and created Sarkar Khalsa. Next he got all the misls together assimiliated into his forces (except for Ahluwalia and Phulkian) he attacked Kasur and defeated its pathan ruler, multan was attacked next in 1810s. In 1820s he turned north beyond Rawalpindi area and across the river indus (Sikhs in North were already ruling upto River Indus). Hari Singh Nalwa who had immpressed Ranjit Singh with his bravery (having killed a tiger with a small sword) was given a charge of a whole regiment called SherDil Rajaman (This regiment was later absorbed into British and in 1947 was given to Pakistan while in India it was disbanded, in Pakistan it is called 5 Punjab). The Sherdils of Hari Singh Nalwa first fought Pathans and Afghanis in the battle of Naushera in 1824. In this battle a Sikh fort right next to river attock (across river attock) was sieged by Afghanis and Sikhs desperetly signalled Maharaja Ranjit singh for help. Ranjit Singh decided to attack the Pathans and sent Hari Singh and his son Sher Singh with advance columns. Battle was fought Sikhs won but after a huge loss, Akali Phula Singh who was chasing Afghanis went so far behind them that he was murdred. Then Hari Singh Nalwa's platoon Sher Dil Rajaman was given charge to subdue the people across the river indus. It is said that he was so ruthless that he and Sherdils tracked to the villages and give them two choice? tribute to Sarkar Khalsa or death., if they refused the tribute the village was sorrounded and burned., any villagers running out were shot to death. He did this to 2-3 villages and soon the whole area upto Peshawar was paying him tribute and came under him. He occupied Peshawar and started preparing for operations across the Khyber pass.
The real story even before the capture of Peshawar and Kashmir is that Dost Mohammad Khan (descendant of Abdali) was caputred by treachory by the Mughal governor of Kashmir and put in Jail. His wife approached Ranjit Singh to get him freed., Ranjit Singh agreed on annual tribute as well as Kohinoor Diamond. Hari Singh Nalwa, Ranjit Singh, Misr Diwanchand and Sher Singh led Khalsa troops to Kashmir, occupying it and freeing dost mohammad khan, who was thankful to Ranjit Singh and giving him annual tribute as well as Kohinoor diamond, Sarkar Khalsa flag was flown at Kabul and Srinagar as long as Dost Mohammad Ruled. Dost mohammad khan was shunned by his fellow pathans for giving tributes to Kafir and thus Ranjit Singh had to fight the battle of Naushera and occupy the territories across Indus. Initially he had some muslim governors for this territory but later he gave it ti Hari Singh Nalwa and told him to do anything to get tribute.
Hari Singh Nalwa created small series of forts from Peshawar all the way to Khyber pass, each such fort had provisions for 100+ soldiers and was well stocked and defended. He and Ranjit Singh assembled the army in the vicinity of Peshawar and got Kabul under their protection, the descendants of Abdali started paying tribute to Ranjit Singh. By this time Ranjit Singh's army had several european generals (mostly french who after Napolean's defeat were fleeing from Europe he had no british general though). Such was the terror of Hari Singh Nalwa in this area that even today people remember him. Nalwa was one day inspecting the fort of Jamrud (close to Khyber pass) when he was hit by a sniper's bullet. He was brought inside the fort of Jamrud before dying he told his comrades to not disclose his death until Ranjit Singh is informed and they are well defended. His body was kept in the courtyard for three days in a sitting position which Pathans could watch from far away. They didn't attacked the fort of Jamrud fearing Hari Singh Nalwa.
So. the whole current NWFP and some parts of Northern Baluchistan were paying tribue to Ranjit Singh., Southern Balochistan and Sindh was already occupied by British.
Sikh Gurus did not ruled any territory people called them " Sacha Padishah" i.e. "True kings". Guru Hargobind the sixth guru who militarize Sikhs when he ordered them to come to his prescence with horses, swords and guns and not with food, money, etc. He organized a small army (700 foot and 300 horse) that protected Amritsar until a small skirmish broke out between Jehangir and his people in the vicinity of Lahore/Amritsar. After this and series of battles Guru Hargobind was arrested and jailed in the fort of Gwalior from where he was released when Jehangir became sick and someone reminded him that the cause of his sickness could be the arrest of a Sikh saint Guru Hargobind., Guru Hargobind refused to be freed without the 52 other prisoners lodged in the same Gwalior fort that is now used by Indian Army.
Then Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred at Delhi, Guru Gobind Singh's four sons and his mother (father having been martyrd earlier) were also martyred. He alone while travelling to south was attacked by two Pathans (set loose on him by Governor of Sarhind) attacked and wounded him, he breathed his last at Nanded (1708).
Around the same time Banda Singh Bahadur came to Punjab/Haryana/UP/Rajathan area and started organizing people against Mughals. Their bands looted mughals treasury and ultimately the army of banda bahadur became so large that he defeated Sarhind (the mughal governorship) without any big guns and with spears,swords and muskets and started the first Sikh state. He told all farmers in this area to only pay 10% if they wish to his cause and totally eradicated Zamindari system of Mughals.
Banda sieged Lahore several times but could not broke through the fort since he didn't had any guns. Mughals got their forces togeter at Delhi and organized a huge effort to defeat Banda, he was arrested along with 760 Sikhs and martyred at Delhi in 1716. The people of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP by this time had tasted freedom under Banda and they created small bands of Sikhs, villagers called them "Sardars" i.e. "Leaders"., and gave them rations, etc while they raided Mughals and corrupt Zamindars.
In 1724 Nadir Shah attacked India and defeated Mughals, this created a huge vaccum in the area between Indus and Jamuna. The Sikh Sardars organized themselves under two bands (Buddha i.e. old and Taruna i.e. young). These two bands worked to free slaves from Nadir Shah, snatched back the looted property from Nadir Shah. both of these bands were organized under a Sikh named Kapur Singh Virk, he was a person of extraordinary qualities. Thus
Mughals sort to create a truce with Sikhs and gave Sikhs three villages (amritsar district) under Kapur Singh making him a Nawab. But this truce was soon broken when small holocaust broke out and Sikhs were again arrested and massacred, at this time it is said that price of a dead sikh was more than the price of a live horse. At horses market Lahore over 40,000 Sikhs were martyred., this place was later renamed as Shaheedganj (and that's what it is called now) by Sikh sardars.
From 1750s-1760s Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked India several times, the first was the battle at Panipat against Marathas., then the next eight times he attacked Punjabi to subdue Sikhs., each time he destroyed Golden Temple but Sikhs came back each time. Sikhs after death of Kapur Singh Virk were organized under another Sikh named Jassa Singh Ahluwalia (who was adopted by the widow of Guru Gobind Singh and raised as a Gurusikh), he was
the first literate Sikh after Banda and he created 12 Sikh Misls (misl means equal bands)., these 12 bands were given a distinct area to rule and thus from Indus to Jamuna the area came under Sikhs., here is their jurisdiction
Misl Bhangi = Sialkote, Gujrat, Multan, Amritsar, Tarn tarn and Lahore. (Bhangi since they were addicted to Bhang)
Misl Shukarchakia = Gujranwala area (Shukar means Small, Chak means petty tract of land, Ranjit Singh's forefathers from this misl)
Misl Shaheedan = Malwa part, Ludhiana, Bhatinda, etc.
Misl Phulkian = Patiala (later Patiala state)
Misl Kanhaiya = Batala and Gurdaspur area (under Jai Singh Kanhaiya so called since he was handsome like God Krishna)
Misl Ahluwalia = Jalandhar and Kapurthala (later Kapurthala State)
Misl Dallewalia = Rahon, Mahatpur, Nawanshaher and Phillaur
Misl Singhpura = The territories held were Jalandhar, and the villages of Banur, Ghanauli, Manauli and Bharatgarh, in the Malwa (Ludhiana).
Misl Karorasinghia = Hoshiarpur and then under Baghel Singh Dhaliwal they occupied all the area upto Delhi (all the Sikh Gurdwaras in Delhi were created by Baghel Singh in 1780s)
Misl Nakai = Lahore and South of Lahore.
Misl Nishaanwala = Ambala, Ropar, Anandpur Sahib and current day Chandigarh.
Misl Ramgarhia = Their territory was parts of Amritsar, Qadian, Batala and Sri Hargobindpur, in the Bari doab and Miani, Sarih, and Urmur Tanda in the Jalandhar Doab.
So in 1798 when Zaman Shah (son of Abdali) tried to invade India again, Ranjit Singh (then 16 years old) in the Sarbatt Khalsa (congregation of all Sikhs assembled to solve the issue of this attack) told everyone to face Zaman Shah straight head on instead of a Guerilla warfare and he himself led the forces., defeating Jahan-Dad Khan the advance general of Zaman Shah. It is said that one night Ranjit Singh got up on the Mussumam Burj (a high tower next to the fort of Lahore) and publicly challenged Zaman Shah to come fight if he has any guts. Zaman Shah retured to Kabul with Sikhs chasing him all the way and threw his guns in the river indus in a hurry so that Sikhs could not get to them. Ranjit Singh got 3 guns out of the river and one such gun is still installed in a crossing at Lahore.
Ranjit Singh declared himself Maharaja in 1799 and created Sarkar Khalsa. Next he got all the misls together assimiliated into his forces (except for Ahluwalia and Phulkian) he attacked Kasur and defeated its pathan ruler, multan was attacked next in 1810s. In 1820s he turned north beyond Rawalpindi area and across the river indus (Sikhs in North were already ruling upto River Indus). Hari Singh Nalwa who had immpressed Ranjit Singh with his bravery (having killed a tiger with a small sword) was given a charge of a whole regiment called SherDil Rajaman (This regiment was later absorbed into British and in 1947 was given to Pakistan while in India it was disbanded, in Pakistan it is called 5 Punjab). The Sherdils of Hari Singh Nalwa first fought Pathans and Afghanis in the battle of Naushera in 1824. In this battle a Sikh fort right next to river attock (across river attock) was sieged by Afghanis and Sikhs desperetly signalled Maharaja Ranjit singh for help. Ranjit Singh decided to attack the Pathans and sent Hari Singh and his son Sher Singh with advance columns. Battle was fought Sikhs won but after a huge loss, Akali Phula Singh who was chasing Afghanis went so far behind them that he was murdred. Then Hari Singh Nalwa's platoon Sher Dil Rajaman was given charge to subdue the people across the river indus. It is said that he was so ruthless that he and Sherdils tracked to the villages and give them two choice? tribute to Sarkar Khalsa or death., if they refused the tribute the village was sorrounded and burned., any villagers running out were shot to death. He did this to 2-3 villages and soon the whole area upto Peshawar was paying him tribute and came under him. He occupied Peshawar and started preparing for operations across the Khyber pass.
The real story even before the capture of Peshawar and Kashmir is that Dost Mohammad Khan (descendant of Abdali) was caputred by treachory by the Mughal governor of Kashmir and put in Jail. His wife approached Ranjit Singh to get him freed., Ranjit Singh agreed on annual tribute as well as Kohinoor Diamond. Hari Singh Nalwa, Ranjit Singh, Misr Diwanchand and Sher Singh led Khalsa troops to Kashmir, occupying it and freeing dost mohammad khan, who was thankful to Ranjit Singh and giving him annual tribute as well as Kohinoor diamond, Sarkar Khalsa flag was flown at Kabul and Srinagar as long as Dost Mohammad Ruled. Dost mohammad khan was shunned by his fellow pathans for giving tributes to Kafir and thus Ranjit Singh had to fight the battle of Naushera and occupy the territories across Indus. Initially he had some muslim governors for this territory but later he gave it ti Hari Singh Nalwa and told him to do anything to get tribute.
Hari Singh Nalwa created small series of forts from Peshawar all the way to Khyber pass, each such fort had provisions for 100+ soldiers and was well stocked and defended. He and Ranjit Singh assembled the army in the vicinity of Peshawar and got Kabul under their protection, the descendants of Abdali started paying tribute to Ranjit Singh. By this time Ranjit Singh's army had several european generals (mostly french who after Napolean's defeat were fleeing from Europe he had no british general though). Such was the terror of Hari Singh Nalwa in this area that even today people remember him. Nalwa was one day inspecting the fort of Jamrud (close to Khyber pass) when he was hit by a sniper's bullet. He was brought inside the fort of Jamrud before dying he told his comrades to not disclose his death until Ranjit Singh is informed and they are well defended. His body was kept in the courtyard for three days in a sitting position which Pathans could watch from far away. They didn't attacked the fort of Jamrud fearing Hari Singh Nalwa.
So. the whole current NWFP and some parts of Northern Baluchistan were paying tribue to Ranjit Singh., Southern Balochistan and Sindh was already occupied by British.