Later Mughals v1.c6.s18: Sec. 18.—Banda, the False Guru : His Early Career.
Later Mughals v1.c6.s18
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Sec. 18.—Banda, the False Guru : His Early Career.
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On the death of Govind, his family and followers brought forward a man, who exactly resembled the deceased.* It is not very clear who this man was ; he is generally spoken of either as Banda (the slave), or as the False Guru. Two contemporaries† call him Fath Shah, and if this be correct, it points perhaps to his passing as Fath Singh, the son of Govind. Some say he was a Bairagi faqir, a native of a village, Pandor, in the Baith Jalandhar Duaba, who for many years had been the intimate friend of Guru Govind.‡ A more recent account calls him Madhu Das, alias Narayan Das, and tells us he was born on Katik, Sudi 13th, 1727 S. (October 1670) being the son of Ram Deo, Rajput, of Rajauri-garh in Punchh.§ The name given to him at birth was Lachmi Deo. He formed a friendship with Janki Parsad, Bairagi, with whom he went to the monastery (math) of Baba Ram Thamman. This math is in a place not far from Qasur, which is itself a little way south of Lahor. Authority was at that time exercised there by the Baba's grandson, of whom Lachmi Deo became a chela, or disciple, receiving the name of Lachman Bala, alias Narayan Das. In the end, he found his way as a pilgrim to the Dakhin, there met Govind Singh, and became his disciple.$
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† Kamwar Khan and Yahya Khan, Tazkirat-ul-muluk (1149 H.)
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‡ Browne, 9.
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§ Punchh, a district in the west of Kashmir (Thornton, 788). Rajauri lies between Naushahra and Punchh.
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$ Shamsher-i-khalsa, 183.
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Whatever may be the truth as to his origin and antecedents, this man was now sent off secretly from the Dakhin to Hindustan. At the same time letters were written to the Panjab, informing the disciples that their Guru had been slain in the Emperor's camp by the dagger of an Afghan. But just before his death, their leader had announced that in a short time, through the power of transmigration, he would appear again clothed with sovereignty, and whenever he should raise the standard of independence, they would by joining him secure prosperity in this world and salvation in the next. Immediate collections of cash and goods must be made. Expectation was thus aroused, and the new manifestation awaited.
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∗ Warid, fol. 117a.
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Suddenly there appeared in the town of Kharkhoda, thirty-five miles west of Dihli, a man who gave himself out to be Guru Govind Singh.* According to some accounts, he asserted that he had recovered from his wounds and returned to the Panjab; others believed that he had been restored to life by God's power.† Personating thus Govind Singh, the new leader became notorious under the deceased's title of the Guru, or Spiritual Director. The zamindars of the village where he appeared had become, several years before this time, followers of Guru Govind, and knew his appearance. As the pretender had copied Govind Singh's exterior, and resembled him in features, these zamindars believed in him, adopted his cause, and wrote in all directions to the Sikhs, telling them that their lost leader had returned to earth. In response to this call many armed men assembled, and as soon as there were five hundred of them, they marched for Sonpat, about twenty-five miles north of Dihli. The faujdar of Sonpat came out utterly unprepared, was routed, and fled to Dihli.
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† No astonishment need arise at the acceptance in those days of such inventions; for we have an almost exact parallel in the modern case of the Panjabi pretender to the Raj of Landhaura, in the Saharanpur district, who appeared at Rurki in 1874.
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Elated by this victory, Banda made his way to the foot of the hills north-east of Sarhind, where Govind Singh early in life had taken shelter. Soon he had forty thousand armed men gathered round him, recruited chiefly from the lower caste Hindus.‡ His chief object was to attack Wazir Khan,§ the murderer of Govind's children and still faujdar of Sarhind, before he had time to make sufficient preparations. The Guru began operations by encamping near the town of Sadhaura, about twenty-six miles east of Ambala, where there was a celebrated Muhammadan shrine, the tomb of Shah Qamis, Qadiri.* Neither officials nor townspeople interfered with him, and by friendly overtures he lulled their suspicions to sleep. Then he attacked the town, killed many of the inhabitants, and plundered their houses.†
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∗ Warid, fol. 117 a, Qasim fol. 24.
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‡ Khafi Khan, ii. 562, says that at first there were 4,000 to 5,000 men on ponies and 7,000 to 8,000 infantry, increasing first to 19,000, and in the end to 40,000 well-armed men.
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§ Muhammad Jan, entitled first Kar Talab Khan, then Wazir Khan, rank 3,000 (Tarikh-i-Mhdi, year 1122). The Shamsher-i-khalsa, 186, states that he was a native of Kunjpura, a town in the Karnal district.
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† Mirza Muhammad, 215. The Shamsher-i-khalsa, 187, places the attack on Sadhaura in Magh 1764 S. (November-December 1707). The month may be right, but the year must be wrong.
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Wazir Khan, as soon as he heard of the pretender's rising, hurried off from Sarhind with the three thousand to four thousand men then present.‡ The Sikhs were then on their way to attack him. Both forces met on a plain between Alwan Sarai and the town of Banur, some ten to twelve miles north-east of Sarhind.§ This was on the 24th Rabi I. 1122 (22nd May 1710). At the first shock the Sikhs, after a feeble resistance, turned and fled. Wazir Khan's force appeared to have already gained the day, when suddenly a crowd of men were led by the Guru to an attack on the Muhammadan rear. This bold movement put heart into the flying Sikhs and, with loud cries of "Sacha Padshah" and "Fath daras", they fell in a compact body on the Muhammadans, who for a time held their ground. The Sikh swordsmen attacked several elephants and wounded them. Sher Muhammad and Khwaja Ali of Kotilah Maler* were killed, and confusion arose in the Muhammadan ranks. Wazir Khan, then fully eighty years of age, made no attempt to escape, but tried to rally his men, and continued to shoot his arrows at the enemy. At length he, too, was killed by a musket shot.† The baggage was plundered, the elephants captured, and the body of Wazir Khan dishonoured and hung to a tree. Not a single Muhammadan escaped with anything but the clothes upon his back.
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∗ Thornton, 891, Lat. 30°23′, Long. 77°16′, a town near the foot of the Sub-Himalaya, close to the left bank of the Markanda torrent; it has a wall pierced for musketry, and tall towers. See also George Forster, Journey, i. 236, and the Ain-i-Akbari (translation) ii. 105, 296. The Shamsher-i-khalsa, 187, calls the Sadhaura saints Baha-ul-haq and Qutb-ud-din, Jaison. Shah Faiz is wrongly given in some books for Shah Qamis. (Khazinat-ul-asfiya, i. 135.)
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‡ Mirza Muhammad, 215; Qasim, 84; Warid, 117b; Khafi Khan, ii.
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⁶⁵³ The last gives the Muhammadan force as 5,000 to 6,000 horse, 7,000 to 8,000 foot, matchlockmen and bowmen, with cannon and elephants. Sarhind is a corruption of the original name, Sahrind.
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§ Browne, 9, places the battle at Alwan Sarai, which is 12 m.s.e. of Sarhind. Warid, 117b, says "near Banur." The Anonymous Fragment of a Farrukh-siyar-nama (in my possession), fol. 15a, states that the fight was near Chapparchari. There are two villages of this name, C. Kalan and C. Khurd, on Sheet No. 48 of the Indian Atlas. They lie about 16 m. n. e. of Sarhind, on the Patiyali Rao, and are 10 m. n. by w. of Banur.
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Alarm spread through the streets of Sarhind, an old and prosperous town, inhabited by wealthy bankers and traders and many well-born Muhammadans of the learned class.‡ Those who could do so fled, one of the first being Wazir Khan's eldest son, who, leaving all his father's hoards behind him, made off to Dihli with all his family. After a feeble defence of two days, the town was taken. Every one who, for want of carts or other conveyance, had been left behind, was made prisoner. Only those Muhammadans who disguised themselves and hid in the houses of the Hindus, escaped injury. The scavengers and leather-dressers and such like persons, who were very numerous among the Sikhs, committed excesses of every description. For the space of four days the town was given up to pillage, the mosques were defiled, the houses burnt, and the Muhammadans slaughtered; even their women and children were not spared.§ Some say that unborn children were taken from the womb and killed before their dying mothers' eyes. Hindus even were not respected. One of the principal objects of the Sikh vengeance was, of course, Saj Anand Brahman, Wazir Khan's chief revenue official and his adviser in taking the life of Govind's sons. Even Muhammadan writers have nothing to say in this man's favour; he had been, no doubt, like most men in his position, exacting and haughty in his days of prosperity. All power was now usurped by the Sikhs, and one Bar Singh, a man of poor origin, belonging to pargana Haibatpur Patti in the Bari Duab, was appointed subahdar, or governor of Sarhind. It is said that two krors of Rupees (about two millions sterling) in money and goods belonging to Wazir Khan and several hundred thousand Rupees belonging to Saj Anand and others, fell into the hands of Banda.*
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∗ Maler is about 36 m. s. w. of Sarhind. † B. M. Or. 3610, Fragments 5a. Wazir Khan met Nar [? Baz] Singh and struck at him with a spear. The Sikh laid hold of it and with it wounded the Khan's horse on the forehead. Wazir Khan then drew his bow and hit Nar Singh on the arm, and drawing his sword tried to make an end of him. Fath Singh who was waiting near by, gave Wazir Khan a cut on his sword belt that cleft him from the shoulder to the waist, and his head fell to the ground. ‡ Mirza Muhammad, 215, 217; Qasim, 24; Khafi Khan, ii.
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⁶⁵⁴ Sarhind, now in the Patiala territory, is about 28 m.n.w., of Ambala. § The infants were tossed into the air and cut in two as they were falling to the ground. (B. M. Or. 1870, Fatuhat-nama-i-Samadi, f. 12a.)
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The atrocities of which Banda and his agents were guilty aroused horror in the breasts of the Muhammadans. They forgot too readily, perhaps, that rulers of their own faith had formerly committed equal excesses. But, though the ways of the Muhammadan Government were never gentle in the suppression of rebellion, many generations must have passed since such wholesale and unjustifiable destruction of life and property had been done by them. Warid can only compare the doings of the Sikhs to the cruelties committed by Pharaoh upon the people of Israel, or to the massacres that followed the fall of Jerusalem. Even in those two instances, though the living were destroyed, the dead were spared. But "those infidels," the Sikhs, did not even spare the dead! The descendants of Shah Qamis Qadiri of Sadhaura were summoned before the Guru and told that their only chance of life lay in destroying with their own hands their mosque and the tomb of their ancestor. The wretched men complied. Thereupon the Guru declared that to sweep from the face of the earth men who could destroy their own holy places would be a righteous act, bringing full reward in a future world. He then directed them to be tortured and executed. When the tomb of the saint was dug up, there was no trace of the body to be found beyond a handful of dust. Instances of Muhammadans abandoning their faith were not unknown.* Dindar Khan, a man belonging to the neighbourhood of Sarhind, joined the false Guru and assumed the name of Dindar Singh ; while Mir Nasir-ud-din, the imperial news-writer of Sarhind, became known as Mir Nasir Singh, a curious and incongruous combination of titles.
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∗ Kamwar Khan, entry of 2nd Rabi II. 1122 H. Bar Singh also appears as Baz, Taj, and Baj Singh.
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From Sarhind as a centre, Banda sent out parties to occupy the country to the south, the east, and the west.† In the first two directions nearly the whole of sarkar Sarhind (of subah Dihli) was occupied. Every mosque was thrown down. Samana, Sunam, Mustafabad, Kaithal, Kuhram, Buriya, Sadhaura, Chath, Ambala, Shahabad, Thanesar, Pael, Supar, Phalvalpur, Machiwara, Ludhiana, all parganas in the north of the Sarhind sarkar, between the Satlaj (popularly called the river of Ludhiana) and the Jamuna, fell into the possession of the Sikhs. The Lakhi jungle,‡ was the only country not taken. Their further progress southwards from Thanesar was opposed by Sardar Khan, a Muhammadan Rajput zamindar. If it had not been for his exertions, there was nothing really to stop their advancing against Dihli. It is true that Asad Khan the Wakil-i-mutlaq, or Vice-gerent, was there, and as governor of the province in which Sarhind was included, it was his duty to have taken active measures to restore order. But he was very old and probably indifferent : in any case, he did nothing.
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In all the parganas occupied by the Sikhs, the reversal of previous customs was striking and complete. A low scavenger or leather-dresser, the lowest of the low in Indian estimation, had only to leave home and join the Guru, when in a short space of time he would return to his birth-place as its ruler, with his order of appointment in his hand. As soon as he set foot within the boundaries, the well-born and wealthy went out to greet him and and escort him home. Arrived there,
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[^ *]: Yar Muhammad, *Dastur-ul-insha*, 8. [^ †]: Khafi Khan, ii. 662; Mirza Muhammad, 215; Warid, 118 *a*. [^ ‡]: On the map between pp. 64 and 65, in J. Rennell's *Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan* (London, 1793), this tract is shown as directly south of Firuzpur, between it and Bhatner. To the south of this, was the desert country of Bhatti.
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they stood before him with joined palms, awaiting his orders. A scavenger, from the nature of his duties, is intimately acquainted with the condition of every household. Thus, the new ruler had no difficulty in exacting from every one their best and most valuable belongings, which were confiscated for the use of the Guru, or for his treasury. Not a soul dared to disobey an order, and men, who had often risked themselves in battle-fields, became so cowed that they were afraid even to remonstrate. Hindus who had not joined the sect were not exempt from these oppressions.
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One party of Sikhs was sent across the Satlaj to take Sultanpur and other places, in the Duaba of Baith Jalandhar. They wrote in the form of a *parwana* (that is, as if he were their subordinate) to Shams Khan, the faujdar, calling on him to submit, to send such supplies as they needed, and to come out to escort them in, bringing with him such money as he might have in his treasury. Shams Khan, by the advice of the chief men of the town, gave the messengers the answer, that he could not send the powder and lead they asked for, as he required the necessary carriage for his friends and followers. The shops in the bazar were full of lead, and he had store-house upon store-house full of powder. If they furnished means of conveyance, a supply would be sent.
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Shams Khan then took the field at the head of four thousand to five thousand horsemen, and thirty thousand matchlockmen and bowmen, partly old troops and partly newly-raised men sent in by the zamindars. The better classes of all kinds, also the poorer classes, and many artisans, chiefly weavers, joined his standard, resolved to defend their homes and sell their lives dearly. Contributions in money were also given. Altogether more than one hundred thousand men had collected, and a start was made from Sultanpur.¹ As soon as the Sikhs heard that Shams Khan was coming, they moved at the head of 70,000 horse and foot, with the cannon taken at Sarhind, much siege materiel in the shape of planks and sand-bags for preparing batteries, with cart-loads of powder and lead. Plundering as they moved, they drew near to the town of Rahun, about fifty miles east of Sultanpur, before which they encamped. They occupied the mounds formed by some brick-kilns, and with the bricks and debris built a sort of fort, placed entrenchments round their camp, and awaited an attack. They sent out foraging parties in all directions with menacing letters to the head revenue payers (chaudhuris), and revenue officers (qanungos) of the parganas, demanding their submission.
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¹ * About 40 m. w. of Ludhiana and over 80 m. w. of Sarhind.
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Shams Khan's supporters well knew that if he were defeated, their lives, families, and property would be sacrificed. Therefore they advanced boldly till they were about the distance of a musket-shot from the Sikh entrenchment. The cannonade began at three hours after sunrise. Thousands of balls and stones from slings fell like hail on the Muhammadans, but without causing much loss. Shams Khan had warned his troops against too hasty an advance and a useless expenditure of powder. They bore onward slowly and steadily. After two volleys from the Sikhs, the Muhammadans, reinforced by a number of their co-religionists from the country around, rushed on their foes with loud cries of Allahu-Akbar (God is Great). Many of the Sikhs were killed and wounded; their efforts at resistance were fruitless, and in a panic, they took refuge within the fort near Rahun, which they had prepared before the battle. There they were invested and could only reply by musketry-fire and the firing of rockets. They had a supply of the munitions of war and of food, which they had brought together from the houses in Rahun, the inhabitants having fled for their lives, leaving everything behind. Thus they were able to hold the position for several days, and at night parties issued forth to harass the outlying posts of the Muhammadans, destroying many a horse and man. Both sides suffered, but especially the Sikhs. After a time they evacuated their entrenchments during the night, and Shams Khan pursued for some miles, capturing one gun and several loaded camels and oxen. He then returned in triumph to Sultanpur. The next day, however, about one thousand men came back, ejected Sham Khan's officer, and re-occupied Rahun; but beyond this no hold was then obtained by the Sikhs upon the Jalandhar Duab.*
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Let us next trace the Sikh fortunes in another direction. As soon as the Sikh expedition eastwards had crossed the Jamuna, Ali Hamid Khan Qanauji, *faujdar* of that part of the country, took fright, and in spite of offers by the Afghan and other leading Muhammadans to repair the walls and stand on the defensive, that very night marched away from Saharanpur, and took the road to Dihli. The Sikhs, learning that the imperial officer had abandoned the town, made all haste to the spot, soon overcame the resistance of the inhabitants, and plundered it as they had done Sarhind. The whole country, far and near, was in a panic. Those people, who were rich enough or lucky enough to obtain means of conveyance, carried off their goods and families. The rest, taking their wives and children by the hand, fled on foot. Women who had rarely been outside the courtyard of their own house, and had never gone one step outside of it on foot, were forced to walk distances of thirty and forty miles. Many women threw themselves into wells to avoid outrage. In this way, half of the *sarkar* of Saharanpur fell into the hands of the Sikhs.†
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† Mirza Muhammad, and Khafi Khan, ii.
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Next, the Sikhs wrote to Jalal Khan,‡ former *faujdar*, calling upon him to submit. He lived at a town founded by him, and called Jalalabad; it lies about thirty miles south of Saharanpur and about twenty miles west of Deoband. The town is surrounded by a wall, and many Afghan soldiers had their homes there. When the Sikh messengers came before Jalal Khan, he ordered them to be paraded derisively through the streets and ejected from the town. Immediate preparations were made for its defence. Soon word was brought that the Sikhs had surrounded two large villages, dependent on and situated four or five miles from Jalalabad. The chief sent out a strong force to relieve these villages, putting at its head Ghulam Muhammad Khan, his grandson, and Hizbar Khan, his cousin. Encouraged by the arrival of reinforcements, the villagers, four or five hundred men, armed with matchlocks or bows, and a number of their tenantry armed in various ways, many with only slings and stones, came out boldly to disperse the Sikhs. In the fight, Hizbar Khan and a number of both Muhammadans and villagers lost their lives. But, in the end, pressed by repeated onslaughts from the Afghans, the Sikhs gave way.*
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∗ The report of Shams Khan (entitled Shams-ud-din Khan) was received by the Emperor on the 18th Shaban, 1122 (11th Oct., 1710) (Kamwar Khan, entry of that date). He was a nephew of Husain Khan of Qasur (*Fatuhat-nama-i-Samadi, f. 24 a.*)
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⁶⁵⁴ The latter calls the *faujdar* Ali Muhammad Khan.
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‡ Jalal Khan, son of Hazar Mir, Warakzai Afghan, Miranzai Khail, died about the 22nd Muharram, 1130, Farrukh-siyar’s sixth year (Kamwar Khan, entry of that date). He is there described as *thanadar* of Thana Bhim, the pargana capital, three miles south of Jalalabad. Dost Muhammad Khan, founder of the Bhopal State, in Central India, was of the same tribe. (*Rustam Ali, Tarikh-i-Hindi, fol. 279 a*).
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Other contests followed between the Sikhs and Jalal Khan, and the former were repulsed two or three times. In spite of these reverses, they persisted in their attempts against the town. Seventy to eighty thousand men had collected from all parts. The assailants prepared two or three hundred movable batteries, formed of planks and mounted on cart-wheels. Jalalabad was closely invested. When these batteries were brought to the foot of the walls and close to the town gate, the Sikhs showered from them bullets and arrows and stones upon the Afghans, then with cries of *Fath daras* four or five hundred men, carrying mattocks and other tools, rushed forward, intending to dig through the earthen wall, to affix ladders, and to set fire to the gates. At such moments, the Afghans threw open the gates and, sword in hand, with their shields raised before their faces, made a rush upon the foe. At each sally they cut down two or three hundred of the Sikhs, at the same time losing many lives on their own side. At night-time other sallies were made, when the besiegers were caught unawares and put to the sword. For twenty days the besieged found no proper leisure to eat their food or to take rest. In the end, after losing some thousands of men, the Sikhs withdrew without having been able to take the town.†
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∗ Khafi Khan, ii. 655. † Khafi Khan, ii.
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⁶⁵⁶ The Emperor received Jalal Khan's report of
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When the outbreak in Sarhind and the defeat of Wazir Khan became known at Lahor, the Sikhs collected at their holy place, Amritsar, or the Nectar Lake, in the village of Chak Guru, about forty miles north of Lahor, already renowned for its gardens and lake, and for the great gathering, or *mela*, held there in Phalgun (February) of every year. In this conclave, the Sikhs resolved to make an attempt on Lahor, hoping to have the same success as at Sarhind. The imperial governor was then Sayyid Aslam Khan, a *maulavi* from Kabul. He was the deputy for Prince Muizz-ud-din, Jahandar Shah, the Emperor's eldest son. This man made no effort to repel an attack from outside, though in one way or another he prevented any outbreak within the city of Lahor itself. But parganas such as Batala and Kalanaur (where Akbar was crowned), both in sarkar Batala, were completely ravaged.* The Sikh depredations extended even to the suburbs and to the Shalimar garden, only three miles from the city. The Muhammadans of Lahor now took the matter into their own hands. Muhammad Taqi, a relation of the late Shah Sadullah (i.e., Shah Jahan's greatest Wazir, Sadullah Khan Allami), and Musa Beg Luhani, son of Khuda Wirdi Beg, Aghar-Khani, specially exerted themselves to collect men and obtain supplies. Many traders made contributions in money. Others joined in person, such as the son of Sayyid Ismail, Haji Yar Beg, Sayyid Inayat, and Mulla Pir Muhammad, the preacher. The rallying point was the plain near the Idgah mosque.†
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† Qasim, *fol.* 27.
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Hearing that among the populace he had earned the reputation of a coward, Sayyid Aslam Khan, the governor, sent out a force of five hundred horse and foot, commanded by Mir Ataullah, a man from down country, and Mahabat Khan Karal, zamindar of Faridabad. This expedition caused the Sikhs to retreat to pargana Tappa Bharli ;‡ where there was a small these events on the 15th Jamadi I. 1122 (11th July, 1710),—Kamwar Khan (entry of that date).
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∗ Batala, about 60 m. n. e., and Kalanaur, about 70 m. n. e., of Lahor. Details of the attack on Batala are given in McGregor, i. 108.
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‡ In sarkar Bari Duab, *Ain-i-Akbari*, ii. 110. For Karal, or Kharral, see Ibbetson, *Census*, 470, 471.
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brick fort, built by Bhagwant Ray, the qanungo of the pargana. The fort was put in a state of defence and supplies to last a siege were collected. After some delay, the imperialists arrived and invested the place. The Sikhs were unable to come out into the open, but they made a good defence from the bastions and walls. After a time they lost heart and decamped under cover of night. The Muhammadans returned to Lahor, signalizing their return by insulting the Hindus of the city and threatening their own rulers.*
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Once again, the Sikhs gathered at Kotila Begam, a place near the town of Jamarhi.† The Lahor Muhammadans a second time took the field. On the march, their undisciplined force plundered the villages near the road. When the Muhammadans reached the small fort, the Sikhs came out boldly and met them in the open. Treachery was at work among the Muhammadans. The Afghans of Sauri village, who were secretly disaffected owing to the governor's exactions, are said to have come to an understanding with the Sikh leaders, who were their neighbours. While the fortune of the day was doubtful, and the result still hung in the balance, these Afghans turned their bridle-reins and made for their homes. The remaining Muhammadans were unable to hold their own, and some of their leaders fell, among others Sayyid Inayat, of Bhatdyan village, the Muhammad Taqi already mentioned, and Muhammad Zaman, a Ranghar Rajput. By a great effort the Sikhs were driven back to the walls of the fort, and thus many Muhammadans were enabled to escape from the battle. High wind and heavy rain were obstacles in the way of both combatants, and night fell before a decisive victory had been gained by either side. As the daylight disappeared the fighting died down, and during the night the Muhammadan force melted away into nothing.‡
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† In sarkar Batala, Ain. ii. 110, 318.
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‡ Qasim, f. 97.