1 152 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 of the Khalsa. But their resolutions " were often
3 unstable or unwise, and the representatives of different
4 divisions might take opposite sides from sober convic-
5 tion or self-willed prejudice, or they might be bribed
6 and cajoled by such able and unscrupulous men as
7 Raja Golab Singh." *
8 In those days power was a dangerous possession.
9 Every state official knew that to incur the displeasure
10 of the army was equivalent to signing his own death
11 warrant. Hira Singh was more fortunate than many
12 of his contemporaries. By dint of a continuous
13 series of bribes and concessions he contrived to hold
14 on to his office and his life for fifteen months, during
15 which time he was responsible for the death of
16 twelve leading chiefs and sirdars. Hira Singh pos-
17 sessed both courage and ability ; but he allowed
18 himself to be governed in all his acts by a Brahmin
19 pandit named Jalla, the family priest of the Jammu
20 brothers ; and it was to the pandit's arrogance and
21 contempt for the Sikh sirdars, rather than to his own
22 faults, that Hira Singh owed his destruction.
23 1 A History of the Sikhs, by J. D. Cunningham, p. 254.