1 THE SECOND SIKH WAR, 561
2 Cortlandt’s well trained artillery. Two of the enemy’s guns were quickly
3 silenced and the rest slackened their fire. Lieutenant Edwardes then
4 ordered Subhdn Khan’s regiment to attack: Subhdn Khan, a stout heavy
5 soldier, himself led on his men, leaping over bushes with great dexterity.
6 The men carried two more guns, which lay dismounted on the ground at the
7 point of the bayonet. The whole ofthe British force now advanced towards
8 the enemy, who rallied, andthe artillery on both sides re-opened with full
9 vigour. Athalf-past three o’clock, Lieutenant Edwardes, calling to the front
10 General Cortlandt’s well disciplined Suraj Mukhis and Subhdn Khan’s regi-
11 ment of Musalmdns, took command of them himself and ordered them to charge
12 the rebels. The order was at once obeyed, the troops rushing on the enemy
13 with the most desperate and irresistible valour. A hand-to-hand fight ensued in
14 which Subhdén Khan, leading his men, carried one of the enemy’s guns at
15 the point of the bayonet. Confusion now fell upon the ranks of the enemy
16 and, after a momentary struggle for the mastery, the rebels were put to
17 flight, Rang Ram, their General, had fled long before, and now the rebels
18 were hotly pursued by the victorious British troops. The camp of the
19 enemy at Nimar, four “os from the Chindb, and all their ammunition, tents
20 and stores, fell into the hands of the victors. Of the ten guns brought by
21 the rebels into the field, eight were captured. On the side of the English,
22 247 men were killed or wounded, while the enemy left between 500 and 600
23 dead upon the field, their total loss, including the wounded, being about 1,000.
24 By the battle of Kaneri the whole country between the Indus and Chindb,
25 and nearly all that between the Chinéb and Sutlej was lost to Mul Raj.
26 Early on the morning of the 20th June, the Killadér of Shujaébad ten-
27 dered his submission to Lieutenant Edwardes, and the chowdris and bankers,
28 having presented themselves, begged for kind treatment, which the British
29 officer readily promised. The troops of the Nawdb of Bahawalpur were now
30 sent to take peaceful possession of the fort.
31 In the meantime, Mil Raj was joined at Multén by a Sikh Guru of great
32 venerability, named Bhai Mahardj Singh, the disciple and successor of Bhai
33 Bir Singh, who, it will be remembered, fell fighting at the Sutlej on the side
34 of Attar Singh, Sindhianwélé, the uncle of Shamsher Singh, in the time of
35 Rdj& Hird Singh. The presence of the Sikh pontiff in the midst of the
36 Hindu fanatics at Multan, and his solemn blessings and prayers for victory,
37 inspired them with confidence; and the wild cry of “Dharm!” was loud
38 among all ranks of the rebel army. Mul Raj personally was entirely under
39 the influence of his religious adviser and private secretary, Mishar Kuljas, a
40 high caste Brahmin, who was to him what Jalld Pandit had been to Hird
41 Singh, at Lahore six years before. On the morning of the 28th June, 1848,
42 Lieutenant Edwardes, with the allied armies, advanced from Adiwalé Bagh to
43 Suraj Kund, three kos from Multan, and, on the 30th he was joined by Sheikh
44 Imdm-ud-din’s division of 4,000 troops. The Sikh Guru, having consulted
45 the stars with great ceremony, informed Mul Raj that the Ist of July would
46 be an auspicious day for a fight with the English, when he should command
47 the army in person, and his army would be invincible. Inspired with this
48 solemn assurance, the dewdn resolved to fight, and, suddenly recalling his
49 troops from the Surdj Kund bridge, where the attack had been expected,
50 marched them to the other side of Wali Muhammad’s canal and emerged on
51 a plain, a kos and a half in advance of the British camp. This was at noon on
52 the Ist of July. The object of this manceuvre was to prevent the junction
53 of Lieutenant Edwardes’ force with that of Nawdéb Bahdwal Khan, and to
54 attack the latter while moving to cover the passage of Lieutenant Edwardes’
55 force over the Chindh, ‘
56 Victory of Lieutenant
57 Edwardes.
58 Losses on both sides,
59 Submission of the
60 Killadar of Shnjabad.
61 Bhai Maharaj Singh,
62 the Sikh Guru.
63 Kuljas, the preceptor
64 of Aftil Raj.
65 Mul Raj’s recourse
66 to divination.
67 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com