1 Early Struggles of the Kh^lsa. 53
2 " Coined by the grace of the Khalsa in the country of
3 Ahmud, conquered by Jassa the Kallal." 1
4 But many a fierce struggle intervened ere Lahore
5 became the undisputed capital of the Sikh kingdom.
6 A fresh competitor, in the person of the Mahratta
7 leader Mulhar Rao Holkar, had come forward to
8 contest the supremacy of the Punjab. The Mahrattas
9 were at this time by far the greatest military power
10 in India. They had developed as rapidly as the
11 empire had declined, and all the country from
12 Gujarat to Orissa, and from the Punjab to Mysore,
13 was held in their terrible grip. In Delhi the name of
14 Mulhar Rao inspired more dread than that of Shah
15 Abdali himself. To call in one of his antagonists
16 to aid him in crushing the other was the only
17 expedient that offered the helpless emperor any
18 chance of averting his doom. It was a choice of
19 evils ; and he took the worse. In daily fear of
20 another visit from the Shah, he invited Holkar
21 to his court. The Mahratta eagerly accepted the
22 invitation. He marched into Delhi, swept aside
23 the authority of the emperor and his ministers, and
24 quartered his lawless soldiery on the terrified populace.
25 A rich district torn by internal disorders offered
26 opportunities for plunder which no Mahratta leader
27 was ever known to neglect, and Holkar had not
28 been long in Delhi before he decided that the
29 time was ripe for a predatory expedition into the
30 Punjab. The confusion which prevailed on every
31 1 The inscription commonly found on Ran jit Singh's rupees is Dfyh
32 wuh T4gh wuh Fatteh wuh nasrut M dirang ydft az Ndnuk Guru Govind
33 Singh — that is, "Guru Govind Singh obtained from Nanuk grace,
34 power, and victory — victory without pause."