1 TO THE DEATH OF RUNJEET SINGH. ll
2 of the House of Timour, invaded the Punjaub,
3 overthrew the government, and advanced into
4 Hindostan across the Sutlege. He was re-
5 pulsed, and compelled to retrace his footsteps
6 across the Attock ; but in the middle of 1748 he
7 returned to Lahore, was again compelled to
8 abandon his project of extensive conquest, re-
9 newed the attempt in 1751-2, and finally in
10 1756 carried his point, reducing Delhi to the
11 condition of a province, and placing his own
12 creatures about the person of the puppet-
13 monarch to watch and control his actions. The
14 distractions arising from these repeated invasions
15 enabled the Sikh associations to revive, and to
16 acquire fresh strength by lending their military
17 services, as occasion arose, to one party or the
18 other; but it was not until the north of India
19 had been overcome by the Mahrattas under the
20 famous Mulhar Rao Holkar, that the Sikhs began
21 to assume an independent attitude of importance.
22 When Ahmed Shah had dispersed the Mahrattas
23 and returned to Caubul (in 1761), leaving a gover-
24 nor with a very weak force to hold Lahore and
25 collect revenues, the Sikhs had become the occu-
26 pants of strongholds and fastnesses in different
27 parts of the country, and added greatly to their
28 power and resources.
29 Amongst the Sikh chieftains who had thus
30 profited by the anarchy of twenty years, were