1 72 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 Before he had reached the age of ten he had already
3 accompanied his father on military expeditions, and
4 on more than one occasion had been in imminent
5 danger of his life.
6 Ranjit Singh soon grew impatient of his mother's
7 control. Her mismanagement of the mist, and the
8 intrigues in which she became involved, afforded him
9 a reasonable pretext for taking the reins of govern-
10 ment into his own hands. At the age of sixteen he
11 proclaimed the regency at an end, and himself the
12 uncontrolled chief of the Sukarchakias. Raj Kour
13 was confined in a neighbouring fortress, where,
14 shortly afterwards, she died.
15 But Ranjit Singh's independence was not complete.
16 His mother was gone ; but his mother-in-law, a
17 woman of a very different stamp, remained to be
18 reckoned with ; and her influence he was not yet
19 in a position to treat with contempt. Sada Kour
20 was the daughter of Jai Singh, and on the latter's
21 death she had succeeded to the command of the great
22 Kanheya confederacy. She was a masterful, un-
23 scrupulous, and ambitious woman ; but she possessed
24 both courage and ability, and on several occasions
25 proved herself a valuable ally to her youthful son-
26 in-law. Her real aim was to render the whole of
27 the Punjab subject to her own dominion ; and she
28 sought, by keeping Ranjit Singh under her control,
29 to make his power subservient to her plans. But
30 she mistook both the nature and the capabilities of
31 her son-in-law. The Lion of the Punjab had no
32 intention of becoming a stepping-stone for others ;
33 and Sada Kour soon found that the rdle she had