1 CHAND KOUR. 501
2 crushed ; others, that the whole plan was premeditated and the machination
3 of wicked conspirators. Idonot agree with those who maintain that it was
4 the result of a design to remove Nau Nehal Singh from the scene.
5 Doubtless, the Jammit brothers, who are suspected of committing the crime,
6 were quite capable of designing and prosecuting such a plan, but they would
7 have certainly spared the life of Guldb Singh’s own son, who was loved by
8 Dhidn Singh, andit would have been easy to appoint another companion for
9 the prince, who could even have left his side as the young Mahardj4 emerged
10 from the passage. Moreover, the exact moment of the downfall of the huge
11 mass of stones and tiles which formed the structure could hardly have been
12 foreseen.
13 According to Dr. Honighberger, who was an eye-witness of the event, the
14 minister’s own arm was severely contused, an injury for which the learned
15 Doctor himself attended him. Furthermore, it would have been easy to
16 arrange for the prompt arrival of Shér Singh when the Mahardjd4 had
17 breathed his last, in order to place him on the throne without the loss of
18 a moment, and three days would not have been wasted in appeasing the
19 widowed Maharani Chand Kour, who was eventually raised to the supreme
20 power. It may be that the partisans of Kharak Singh and Chet Singh were
21 the authors of this plot, as they had robbed and cheated the imbecile
22 Kharak Singh in a most perfidious way, and the prince had already deter-
23 mined to bring them to account.
24 It appears to me that the whole was a just retribution of Heaven for
25 his manifold sins and wickedness, The prolonged booming of the guns
26 which announced to the world that Kharak Singh was no more: was the
27 instrument in the hands of the Almighty which brought to a close the
28 ephemeral reign of the young Maharaja. That the roaring of the cannon
29 shook the old fort to its foundation, is very well known, and that a part of
30 it should have fallen in at this particular juncture is not, I think, very
31 extraordinary. That this monstrous prince should have met with his death
32 in this singular manner, cannot, I think, be attributed to any other cause
33 but that of the Divine wrath.
34 CHAND KOUR.
35 In vain did the Mahardéni, Chand Kour, now look upon Rdjé Dhidn
36 Singh to fulfil his promise, to give her the sovereign authority; for the
37 shrewd minister knew well that the party of the Maharani and the Sindhian-
38 walds were his deadly foes, and, if raised to power, would be the first to
39 seek. his destruction and that of his family. He therefore urged on
40 the sardars to place Sher Singh, the reputed son of Ranjft Singh, on the
41 throne with all despatch, advancing, as his argument, that a woman neces-
42 sarily lacks those abilities to govern a vast kingdom which are essentially
43 necessary in a country like the Panjéb, and that the Sikh soldiery would not
44 quietly submit to the rule of the Rani.
45 The party of Chand Kour, however, prevailed. She summoned Attar
46 Singh, the Chief of the Sindhianwdlds, who was at that time absent at
47 Hardawar, to her assistance at the capital. She was also supported by other
48 sardars, but mainly by the Sindhianwdlds, who claimed common descent with
49 Ranjit Singh. Thus strengthened, she distributed alms to the Brahmins
50 most liberally, and was, by popular acclamation, installed as the Maharani
51 of the Panjdéb, The factions were distracted by a representation that her
52 daughter-in-law was pregnant, that she was holding power only as regent
53 for the child in the womb, but tbat, in the event of the Rani of Nau Nehal
54 Singh giving birth to a female child, she would be willing to adopt the boy,
55 Dhidn Singh ad-
56 vocates the cause of
57 Shér Singh,
58 Chand Kour pro-
59 claimed sovereign.
60 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com