1 2 YUHEEA KHAN VICEROY OF LAHOR. A. D. 1742.
2 which he uniformly treated with neglect and humiliation.
3 The court of Dehlee ceased thenceforward to be looked
4 up to as the source of protection, of honors, or of punish-
5 ments. The satraps, and officers, nominally acting under
6 its authority, assumed every where independence: the
7 provinces were dismembered, and a spirit of disaffection
8 was roused in all parts of the empire. The history of
9 Hindoostan ceases from this period to be that of any
10 ruling dynasty, and must be traced in the detail of the
11 events of each province, and in the transactions, by
12 which the several Nuwabs, Rajas, and Princes, — the
13 sects, nations or associations of chiefs, rose each in turn
14 to power, in displacement of the royal authority, and in
15 successful rivalry with one another. It is the object of
16 the following pages to collect and exhibit in continuous
17 narrative, the occurrences of this description in the
18 Punjab, and to trace the rise of the chief who now
19 sways the destinies of that province, and of a large bor-
20 dering territory, with a vigour of authority, unknown to
21 any other part of India, not subject to the dominion of
22 Europeans.
23 YuHEEA Khan, the son of Zukareea Khan.
24 commonly styled Khan Buhadoor, held the viceroyalty
25 of Lah6r, when the Jat Zumeeudars of the Punjab em-
26 poverished by long extortion, and driven at last to
27 desperation, took to rapine and plunder for the support of
28 themselves and families, and as a bond of union and ex-
29 citement against their oppressors revived in their customs
30 and ceremonies, the latent flame of the Sikh ritual. They
31 proclaimed the faith and tenets of Govind Singh, the
32 last acknowledged Gooroo or spiritual guide of the Sikhs,
33 and took the Pakiil of initiation into the mysteries of