1 54 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 side rendered effectual opposition impossible ; and
3 when Holkar crossed the Sutlej he carried all before
4 him. He expelled the Sikhs from Lahore and the
5 Afghans from Multan, and the whole province from
6 the Sutlej to the Indus was overrun and occupied by
7 his troops. What the people had suffered at the
8 hands of the Afghans was as nothing in comparison
9 with the horrors of the Mahratta occupation. Wher-
10 ever the soldiers of Holkar encamped, ruin prevailed,
11 while their lines of march were marked by burning
12 villages and devastated crops. The poor were robbed
13 with merciless barbarity, and the rich could only
14 purchase a doubtful immunity by the payment of
15 exorbitant fines. There is little wonder that when
16 news arrived that Ahmad Shah was marching to
17 recover his lost provinces, it was received throughout
18 Hindustan with feelings akin to joy.
19 The campaign which ensued, ending with the
20 crushing defeat of the Mahrattas at Panipat, and
21 their expulsion from the Punjab, belongs to Mahratta
22 rather than to Sikh history. The troops of the
23 Khalsa took no part in the contest, but contented
24 themselves with harassing the outposts and raiding
25 the camps of either of the combatants as occasion
26 offered. Under cover of the general uproar, the
27 chiefs of the various bands appropriated lands and
28 erected forts for their protection. The city of
29 Amritsar was rebuilt, and once more the cupolas and
30 minarets of the Golden Temple were reflected on the
31 surface of the sacred lake. Immediately after his
32 victory at Panipat, Ahmad Shah returned to
33 Afghanistan, leaving Khwaja Obaid Khan, a Durani