1 DULIP SINGH. : 527
2 The troops were ordered back to their quarters, and Hird Singh now
3 visited the field of action, to behold with his own eyes the bodies of the
4 fallen band. The first body which met his gaze was that of Rai Kesri
5 Singh, whom few in the country equalled in gallantry and skill as a soldier.
6 This brave man, before he fell, cut down some twenty of his adversaries.
7 Several times did he fall down, but as often did he rise again and renew the
8 bloody combat. Covered with wounds he fell at last, like a lion, but not
9 before he had killed with his own hands the authors of his death-wounds.
10 The Rai was in the agonies of death, when Hird Singh stood at his head.
11 The dying hero saluted the wazir by saying “Jey deb,” and made signs for
12 water, but received the brutal reply, that the best place for quenching his
13 thirst was the hills, where there was plenty of clear cold water. He then
14 looked disconsolately around him and expired. Hira Singh was very much
15 affected when he discovered the corpse of his uncle lying on the ground,
16 “mingled with dust and blood, among the heaps of slain. He could not
17 help shedding tears on witnessing the melancholy and gloomy scene. He
18 had the corpse removed in his own palanquin to the fort. The bodies of
19 Rai Kesri Singh and Bhim Sen, the principal mukhtiar of Raj& Suchet
20 Singh, were also honourably treated. The other bodies were disposed of
21 ‘according to rank and circumstances. Rdjd& Hird Singh returned to the city
22 in pomp, with drums beating and guns firing at intervals, as the procession
23 advanced in celebration of the victory. The same day the body of Suchet
24 Singh was burnt close to the mausoleum of Midn Udham Singh, son of Raj
25 Guldb Singh, the Rajé Hird Singh and the Court being present at the funeral
26 obsequies. The deceased Rdja’s Rénis, five in number, ended their lives
27 according to the rite of saééi, having placed their deceased husband and
28 lord’s turban before them as a substitute for the body.*
29 Raj& Hird Singh distributed the gold butkis and kanthas as rewards
30 to the troops according to his promise.
31 It will be remembered that Sardar Attar Singh, Sindhianwald, the
32 brother and nephew of the murderers of Mahardj& Shér Singh, was still at
33 large. He now aspired to the wazirdt, and, having recrossed the Sutlej on 2nd
34 May, 1844, joined Béwd Bir Singh, a holy man who had become famous
35 in those days in the Mdnjhd country, and maintained a force of 1,500
36 infantry and cavalry and two guns as a body-guard. He also afforded
37 protection to such of the sardars and chiefs as had been disgraced at the
38 darbdr, and the combined forces of all these amounted to about 3,000
39 men and,three guns. The holy Bdwd declared that the kingdom of
40 Lahore was virtually the kingdom of Gurii Gobind Singh, that the Maha-
41 raj& Dulip Singh was yet a child, incapable of managing his own
42 affairs, that therefore it behoved the Khdlsé to have one of their own num-
43 sber at the head of the administration ; that Hira Singh had proved himself
44 quite unworthy of his position, and, that, for the sake of their own personal
45 agerandizement, he, and, before him, his father, had been instrumental in
46 shedding the blood of thousands of Singhs, the true disciples of the Guru, and
47 that it was high time that the ascendancy of the Jammu family should be
48 brought to a close, and the claims of the kinsmen of the great Maharaja be
49 taken into consideration by the Khélsé; that not one of his kinsmen was
50 better qualified to hold this important office than Sardar Attar Singh,
51 Sindhianwdld, and that the Khdélsdé would meet the wishes of the country
52 and of the nation at large in acceding to his appointment to the office of
53 * My. McGregor mentions that these Ranis burnt- themselves with the body of their
54 husband. Thisis impossible, as the R4j4 came from Jammu to Lahore without his Ranis and
55 was burnt alone near the sammddh of his nephew.
56 Rai Kesri Singh,
57 The hostile proceed-
58 ings of Sardar Attar
59 Singh, Sindhianwalé,
60 He joins Bawé Bir
61 ingh,
62 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com