Free Empire of the Sikhs by Patwant Singh Page A

Singh Kanhayia, the
misl
chief, was also invited. It was on this occasion that he formally asked Mahan Singh for his son Ranjit Singh’s hand in marriage to his granddaughter. The betrothal and marriage were, as was to be expected, celebrated on a spectacular scale.
    The special nature of the boy may be grasped from the fact that within three years of his attack of smallpox he took over the siege of Sodhran, in 1789 at the age of nine, when his father was suddenly stricken by a serious illness. It was an amazingly young age to take on such a task, even in a period when major responsibility could often come considerably sooner than in modern times. The town of Sodhran, lying some twenty-five miles southeast of Gujranwala, belonged to the Bhangi chief’s son Sahib Singh, Mahan Singh’s brother-in-law. In an engagement typical of thetime Mahan Singh laid siege to it after Sahib Singh had refused to pay him tribute in acknowledgement of his suzerainty. The Bhangi
misl
chieftains, seeing in Mahan Singh’s illness an opportune moment to help their besieged kin in Sodhran, headed for the town in force in order to annex it permanently. But they were ambushed and decisively defeated by young Ranjit Singh’s quick thinking and actions which would become characteristic of him throughout his life. His father did not live to see his son’s Sodhran victory over the Bhangis; by the time he arrived back in Gujranwala Mahan Singh was already dead.
    In a brief
pagri-
or turban-tying ceremony, Ranjit Singh became the chief of the Sukerchakia
misl.
‘When he first stood in his father’s place,’ wrote a British author nearer to Ranjit Singh’s time than our own, ‘everything was against him. He was beset by enemies, by doubtful friends, false allies and open foes.’ 6 Yet he overcame them all with an unflinching sense of purpose which again became evident within a year of his father’s death, in April 1790. Resolved to put an end to his new young rival, Hashmat Khan of the Chathas, smarting from the defeats his
misl
had suffered at Mahan Singh’s hands, waylaid young Ranjit Singh when he was out hunting and made a slash at him with his sword, which was deftly evaded. Ranjit Singh’s return blow proved fatal for Hashmat Khan.
    There was no set pattern to Ranjit Singh’s life during the years in which he grew to adulthood. His time was almost entirely taken up not with the customary occupations of boyhood but with military campaigns, which left him with no option but to be on horseback most of the time, often covering over fifty miles a day in the saddle. During these years of unending battles, which ranged from taking some of the Sikh
misl
chiefs head-on to warring with India’s Muslim rulers in addition to the Pathans, Afghans and other invaders who had always considered India fair game, his headquarters were at Gujranwala Fort.
    There is a story of Ranjit Singh’s mother, Raj Kaur, asking him to be wary as their enemies were trying to snatch away their lands. His reassuring reply was: ‘Don’t be impatient, Mother, I shall not only take back my own lands but will also finish off the intruders.’ 7

    The notorious Afghan Ahmed Shah Abdali, founder of the Durrani dynasty, had repeatedly ransacked India before Ranjit Singh’s time, but his grandson Zaman Shah was no less enthusiastic in pillaging and plundering India and even had an ambitious plan to found an Indian empire. The Afghans had long been held in considerable awe on the subcontinent. Ranjit Singh’s first brush with Zaman Shah’s army occurred when he invaded India for the second time in 1795; the first had been in 1793. In December 1795 Zaman Shah headed for Hasan Abdal, a place which, as Panja Sahib, has hallowed memories for the Sikhs since Guru Nanak sojourned there in the late fifteenth century. While Zaman stayed behind in Hasan Abdal, his general Ahmad Khan Shahanchibashi marched from