1 * 812 HISTORY OF TIME PANJAB.
2 Oompromise between
3 the contending parties.
4 Jay Singh attempts
5 to recover Batala.
6 Fails.
7 Marriage of Ranjit
8 Singh with Mahtab
9 Kour, granddaughter
10 of Jay Singh, Kauhia.
11 Jay Singh dies, 1798.
12 .
13 Rise of Ranjit Singh.
14 Extinction of the
15 Kanhia mis?.
16 Hira Singh founds
17 the mis?.
18 eagerly and persistently demanded Kot Kangrd, and, the matter having been
19 referred to arbitration, it was finally decided that Jay Singh should abandon
20 Kot Kangrdé, and Sansar Chand on his part vacate Hajipur and Mukeria.
21 Further, it was agreed, that, in the event of a war between the Ramgarhia
22 and the Kanhia misls, the Katoch chief was to be on the side of the latter.
23 Jay Singh, being now joined by Maha Singh, Sansar Chand, and the
24 rajas of Nurpur and Chamba, marched against Batdla and besieged it.
25 Jassa Singh had, however, made his position so strong in the city, supported
26 by the inhabitants, who had been persecuted by Jay Singh, that all the efforts
27 of the besiegers to carry the place failed. The siege was raised after an
28 engagement of twenty-one days, and Jassa Singh held undisturbed possession
29 of Batala and the surrounding country.
30 Mahé Singh died in 1792 in the village Dharfwal. His death was
31 greatly lamented by his old ally, Jay Singh, who, four years afterwards,
32 gave his granddaughter, Mahtdb Kour, in marriage to Ranjit Singh, the son
33 of the deceased. The nuptials were performed at Batala with a pomp and
34 magnificence worthy of the names of Maha Singh and Jay Singh, the heads
35 of the Sukerchakia and Kanhia misls, respectively ; and, as Ranjit Singh
36 was then quite a youth, he was completely under the influence of his able
37 and diplomatic mother-in-law.
38 Jay Singh died soon after, A.D. 1798, leaving two sons, Nidhan Singh
39 and Bhdg Singh, who were both unfit to govern the msl of which the
40 deceased had been the head. They retired, with their mother, Raj Kour to
41 Hajipur and Saiyan, while Mahtab Kour governed the misi and established
42 herself in Batéla, where she built a large tank outside the city walls.
43 Having then collected her troops, she fought with Jassa Singh the Ramgarhia.
44 On the death of Mahtdéb Kour, in 1800, Ranjit Singh seized on the posses-
45 sions of the Kanhia msl. He first captured Adinanagar, then held by
46 Golab Singh, the son of Chanda Singh, to whom he gave a village in jdgir,
47 and then Sujanpur, which belonged to Budh Singh, son of Amar Singh,
48 one of the original founders of the Kanhia misl,on whom he bestowed
49 Dharamkot as jagir. Hajipur was next wrested from Jay Singh’s widow.
50 Nidhan Singh and Bhag Singh, the surviving sons of Jay Singh, died soon
51 afterwards, and no legitimate heir to the Kanhia msl now remained.
52 In 1811, Ranjit Singh went to Batdla to reduce the remnants of thé mzsl
53 and encamped at the tank of Shamsher Khan. He seized Mukeria, and,
54 returning to Lahore, put her mother-in-law, Sad& Kour, in confinement.
55 Summoning all the zemindars of the Kanhia misl into his presence, he
56 declared the collapse of the msl, which finally merged into his own power.
57 Batéla, the chief stronghold of the Kanhia power, having thus fallen, Shah
58 a son of Aziz-ud-din, was appointed the Mahardjé’s governor of the
59 place.
60 ; 4.—THE NAKAI WISL.
61 The principal sardar of this misl was Hira Singh, son of Choudhri
62 Hemraj, a Jd of the Sindhu Got, or clan, and a resident of mouza Bharwal,
63 pargand Faridabad, now included in the Chiinian tehsil of the Léhore
64 district. The country was called Nikka, and lay south-west of Léhore,
65 bordering on Multdn; hence the name Wéhkai given to the misl. Hira
66 courted the society of the lowest blackguards. Starvation had afflicted
67 him to such a degree that he, and the family who surrounded him,
68 often endured hunger and fasted from necessity. Seeing that tle Sikhs
69 had become the terror of the people, and that the adoption of the religion of
70 Nanak led to worldly eminence and fame, he took the Péhal of the Guru, and
71 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary ; NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com