1 28 DEATH OF AHMED SHAH. A. D. 1773.
2 Buhadur, which title is now borne by the head of the
3 Puteeala family. In the midst of these operations aDusta,
4 or body of 12,000 of the Shah's army, suddenly quitted his
5 camp without orders, and marched back to Kabool. The
6 Shah followed to reclaim or punish them, but his retreat
7 was liarrassed by parties of Sikhs, who plundered much
8 of his baggage, and hung on his flanks and rear until he
9 had passed the Chunab.
10 The Shah having thus quitted the field, the Sikhs
11 remained undisputed masters of the Punjab, and spread-
12 ing over the country occupied it as a permanent inhe-
13 ritance, every Sirdar, according to his strength, seizing
14 what fell in his way, and acknowledging no superior,
15 nor submitting to the control of any body, nor to any
16 constituted authority whatsoever. Their proceedings were
17 unmolested by any further interference from the west,
18 where Ahmed Shah continued to reign until his death in
19 1773, from a cancer in his face. His son and successor
20 Tymoor enjoyed his throne in peace for twenty years,
21 and made no attempt to recover Labor, and the Punjab.
22 These, with the province of Sirhind, and the country east
23 as far as the Jumna, fell into the possession of the chiefs
24 and associations who had hitherto subsisted on plunder,
25 and were for the most part of low origin, and wholly
26 deficient in education and useful knowledge.
27 The Sirdars or chiefs of the Sikh nation had been fol-
28 lowed into the field by relations, friends, and volunteers,
29 and not ordinarily by hired retainers. Most of these
30 looked upon themselves as partners and associates in each
31 enterprize, and regarded the lands now acquired as a
32 common properly iu which each was to have his share,