1 Rise to Power of Ranjit Singh. 73
2 designed for him was the very one she was destined
3 to play herself.
4 Having assumed the leadership of the Sukarchakias,
5 Ranjit Singh's first and chief desire was to- gain
6 possession of Lahore, which the Sikhs had long
7 regarded as the political centre of their community.
8 The city, though nominally under the dominion of
9 the ruler of Afghanistan, was held by the Bhangi
10 confederacy, in whose hands it had remained since its
11 capture in 1764 by the two Bhangi sirdars, Lehna
12 Singh and Gujar Singh. It was now being governed,
13 or rather misgoverned, by Lehna Singh's three sons,
14 and Ranjit Singh had been given to understand that
15 the inhabitants would rejoice at their overthrow.
16 He deemed, therefore, that the time had come for
17 action ; and, as we shall see, fortune, as well as Sada
18 Kour, favoured the enterprise.
19 Between the years 1795 and 1797, Shah Zeman,
20 who in 1793 had succeeded Timur on the throne
21 of Afghanistan, had twice invaded India. On each
22 occasion the Sikhs had followed their old tactics,
23 withdrawing with their possessions to the hills on
24 the approach of the Afghan army, seizing every
25 opportunity to impede its movements, and returning
26 to their homes as soon as it had recrossed the Indus.
27 In 1798 Shah Zeman made a third invasion. This
28 time he occupied Lahore, and was taking steps for
29 the recovery of his father's lost provinces, when the
30 hostility of the Shah of Persia recalled him suddenly
31 to Kabul. So hasty was his departure, that he left,
32 behind twelve of his guns which he had been unable
33 to carry across the Jhelam, the river being then in