1 22 RUNJEET SINGH'S ANCESTORS. A. D. 1750.
2 power and resources. Amongst others, the ancestors of
3 RuNJEET Singh, the present ruler of the Punjab, ap-
4 peared early in the field as leaders of enterprize, and
5 acquired a reputation that was daily on the increase. The
6 family boasts of no antiquity, the first of whom any tradi-
7 tionary recollection is preserved was a petty Zumeendar,
8 named Desoo, a Jath, of the Sansee tribe, who resided in
9 a village of the district of Manjha, called Sookur-chuk.
10 His patrimony was confined to three ploughs and a well,
11 and little is known of him, except that he was the father
12 of NoDH Singh, whose son Churut Singh, founded
13 the fortunes of the family, by establishing a Surdaree
14 or chieftainship, which his descendants, MuHA Singh
15 and Runjeet, have improved into the sovereignty over
16 a wide and fertile territory.
17 NoDH Singh was the first of the family who embraced
18 the Sikh religion : he sought in marriage the daughter of
19 GooLAB Singh, a Zumeendar of Mejithia, who was
20 already initiated in the rites of that faith, and the Pakul
21 was proposed as the condition of the nuptials. Nodii
22 Singh yielded; and, after his marriage, gave up his
23 father's plough, and purchasing, or otherwise procuring a
24 horse, joined the association headed by Kapoor Singh,
25 of Goojrat, which bore the title of FyzooUapoorea.
26 NoDH Singh is stated to have died in 1750; when
27 Churut Singh, following his father's courses, but dis-
28 daining to serve in a subordinate capacity, associated with
29 himself his brothers-in-law DuL Singh and JoniiSiNGH,
30 and with tlieir help, raised some followers, whom he main-
31 tained and kept together by successful predatory enter-
32 prizes. His wife was of Ciujuraolee, a village lying not