1 AHLUWALIA MISL, 317
2 man with matchldck and bow. His, liberality to the poor made him
3 extremely popular. It is said that he never wore a suit of clothes a second
4 time, but gave it to his attendants. Once, when Ahmad Shah was return-
5 ing to Kdbul, he took with him a body of two thousand Hindu women
6 from the Panjab to serve as slave girls for his countrymen. Prompted by
7 a sense of duty to his fellow-countrymen, he fell on the Shah’s troops one
8 night and rescued the innocent creatures from the clutches of the hardy
9 Afghans. He then liberally provided them with money and sent them all
10 under proper escort to their respective homes. This act of courage and
11 patriotism won for Jassa Singh the affectionate regard of all his countrymen,
12 and tended to increase his influence and popularity among all classes of the
13 eople. :
14 Jassa Singh, who, like his predecessor, left no male issue, was succeeded
15 in the sardari of the misl by Bhdg Singh, his second cousin, then in his 88th
16 year. He twice made an attack on the Ramgarhias, and quarrelled with
17 the Bhangi chief, Golab Singh. Sardar Jassa Singh, Ramgarhia, allied
18 himself with Réj& Sansar Chand of Kangrd, and in 1801 routed the
19 Ahluwalias under Hamir Singh, who was severely wounded. Bhdag Singh,
20 hearing of this reverse, collected the remainder of his forces, and marched
21 in person to Phagwara against the enemy. He was there, however, taken
22 ill and carried back to Kaparthalla where he soon after died in 1801.
23 Bhag Singh was succeeded by his only son, Sardar Fatteh Singh, who
24 formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Ranjit Singh, the great sardar
25 of the Sukerchakia misl, who had just made himself master of Amritsar.
26 The young chiefs swore perpetual friendship on the sacred Granth, and
27 exchanged turbans in token of brotherhood. The expedition of the allied
28 chiefs against the Pathan colony of Kasdér having failed, Fatteh Siugh
29 recrossed the Bids (1802-1803) and was engaged for the next two years in
30 consolidating his dominions,
31 Jaswant Rao Holkar, the Mahratta chief, after meeting with reverses in
32 his own country, entered the Panjab in 1805, to form an alliance with the
33 chiefs of the Cis-Sutlej States against the English. By a treaty concluded
34 between the English and Sardar Ranjit Singh and Fatteh Singh on the Ist
35 of January 1806, the sardars agreed to expel the Mahratta chief 80 oss
36 beyond Amritsar, pledging never afterwards to have any concern with Hol-
37 kar. Lord Lake pursued Holkar as far as the Bids, and presented Fatteh
38 Singh with a leopard, as a mark of esteem and friendship, while the sardar
39 presented the British General with a hawk.
40 Fatteh Singh proved a valuable friend and ally to Ranjit Singh, and
41 accompanied the latter on his expeditions to the south of the Sutlej in 1806,
42 and to Jhang the year following, when the fort was captured, and Ahmad
43 Khan, the Sial chief, expelled, after a campaign which lasted several months.
44 When Sir Charles Metcalfe came to Léhore in 1808, on a visit to the Maha-
45 r4jé, as the plenipotentiary of the British Government, Ranjit Singh sent
46 the sardar and his confidential dewan, Mohkam Chand, to Kasur, at the
47 head of 2,000 horsemen, to receive the distinguished visitor. Fatteh Singh’s
48 friendship with the Mahardjdé was sincere, and, in the words of Sir Charles
49 Metcalfe, Ranjit Singh was indebted for his extraordinary rise to this
50 alliance. “The quiet character of Fatteh Singh,” he says, “who was the
51 equal, if not the superior, in rank and power, of Ranjit Singh, has yielded
52 to the bold commanding spirit of the other, and he has been the ladder by
53 which Ranjit Singh has mounted to greatness.” He was present at the
54 signing of the treaty between the British Government and the Maharaja,
55 at Amritsar, whereby the former, engaged not to interfere with the Maha-
56 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary
57 His generous dis-
58 position.
59 Bhé&g Singh
60 succeeds.
61 His wars.
62 His death, 1801.
63 Sardar Fatteh Singh
64 succeeds.
65 He forms an alliance
66 with Maharaja Ranjit
67 Singh.
68 The expedition of
69 Holkar to the Panjab.
70 Treaty between the
71 British government
72 and the Sikhs sardars.
73 Fattch Singh
74 co-operates with
75 Ranjit Singh in his
76 warlike operations of
77 1806.
78 The mission of Sir
79 Charles Metcalfe to
80 Lahore, 1808,
81 Sir Charles’s opinion
82 of Sardar Fatteh Singh-
83 NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com