This species of savage retaliation appears to have animated, instead of depressing, the courage of the Sikhs; who, though they could not venture to meet Ahmed Sháh's army in action, harassed it with an incessant predatory warfare; and, when that sovereign was obliged, by the commotions of Afghánistan, to return to Cábul, they attacked and defeated the general he had left in Lahore, and made themselves masters of that city, in which they levelled with the ground those mosques which the Afgháns had, a few months before, purified with the blood of their brethren.
Ahmed Sháh, in 1763, retook Lahore, and plundered the provinces around it; but, being obliged to return to his own country in the ensuing year, the Sikhs again expelled his garrison, and made themselves masters of the Penjáb; and, from that period until his death, a constant war was maintained, in which the enterprise and courage of the Afgháns gradually gave way before the astonishing activity and invincible perseverance of their enemies; who, if unable to stand a general action, retreated to impenetrable mountains, and the moment they saw an advantage, rushed again into the plains with renewed vigour, and recruited numbers. Several Sikh authors, treating of the events of this period, mention a great action having been fought, by their countrymen, near Amritsar, against the whole Afghán army, commanded by Ahmed Sháh in person; but they differ with regard to the date of this battle, some fixing it in 1762, and others later. They pretend that the Sikhs, inspired by the sacredness of the ground on which this action was fought, contended for victory against superior numbers with the most desperate fury, and that the battle terminated in both parties quitting the field, without either being able to claim the least advantage. The historians of Ahmed Sháh are, however, silent regarding this action; which, indeed, from all the events of his long contests with the Sikhs, appears unlikely to have occurred. It is possible the Sikhs fought, at Amritsar, with a division of the Afghán army, and that might have been commanded by the prince; but it is very improbable they had ever force to encounter the concentrated army of the Abdális; before which, while it remained in a body, they appear, from the first to the last of their contests with that prince, to have always retreated, or rather fled.
The internal state of Afghánistan, since the death of Ahmed Sháh, has prevented the progress of the Sikh nation receiving any serious check from that quarter; and the distracted and powerless condition of the empire of India has offered province after province to their usurpation. Their history, during this latter period, affords little but a relation of village warfare, and predatory incursions. Their hostilities were first directed against the numerous Muhammedan chiefs who were settled in the Penjáb, and who defended, as long as they could, their jágírs, or estates, against them: but these have either been conquered, or reduced to such narrow limits, as to owe their security to their insignificance, or the precarious friendship of some powerful Sikh chief, whose support they have gained; and who, by protecting them against the other leaders of his tribe, obtains a slight accession of strength and influence.
The Sikh nation, who have, throughout their early history, always appeared, like a suppressed flame, to rise into higher splendour from every attempt to crush them, had become, while they were oppressed, as formidable for their union, as for their determined courage and unconquerable spirit of resistance: but a state of persecution and distress was the one most favourable for the action of a constitution like theirs; which, formed upon general and abstract principles, required constant and great sacrifices of personal advantage to the public good; and such can alone be expected from men, acting under the influence of that enthusiasm, which the fervor of a new religion, or a struggle for independence, can alone impart, and which are ever most readily made, when it becomes obvious to all, that a complete union in the general cause is the only hope of individual safety.
The Sikhs would appear, from their own historians, to have attributed the conquests they made entirely to their valour, and to have altogether forgot that they owed them chiefly to the decline of the house of Taimúr, and the dissensions of the government of Cábul. Intoxicated with their success, they have given way to all those passions which assail the minds of men in the possession of power. The desire, which every petty chief entertained, of increasing his territories, of building strong forts, and adding to the numbers of his troops, involved them in internal wars; and these, however commenced, soon communicated to numbers, who engaged in the dispute as passion or interest dictated. Though such feuds have, no doubt, helped to maintain their military spirit, yet their extent and virulence have completely broken down that union, which their great legislator, Góvind, laboured to establish. Quarrels have been transmitted from father to son; and, in a country where the infant is devoted to steel, and taught to consider war as his only occupation, these could not but multiply in an extraordinary degree; and, independent of the comparative large conquests in which the greater chiefs occasionally engaged, every village[65] has become an object of dispute; and there are few, if any, in the Penjáb, the rule of which is not contested between brothers or near relations[66]. In such a state, it is obvious, the Sikhs could alone be formidable to the most weak and distracted governments. Such, indeed, was the character, till within a very late period, of all their neighbours; and they continued to plunder, with impunity, the upper provinces of Hindústan, until the establishment of the power of Daulet Ráo Sindíá, when the regular brigades, commanded by French officers in the service of that prince, not only checked their inroads, but made all the Sikh chiefs, to the southward of the Satléj, acknowledge obedience and pay tribute to Sindíá: and it was in the contemplation of General Perron, had the war with the English government not occurred, to have subdued the Penjáb, and made the Indus the limit of his possession: and every person acquainted with his means, and with the condition and resources of the Sikhs, must be satisfied he would have accomplished this project with great ease, and at a very early period.
When Holkár fled into the Penjáb, in 1805, and was pursued by that illustrious British commander, Lord Lake, a complete opportunity was given of observing the actual state of this nation, which was found weak and distracted, in a degree that could hardly have been imagined. It was altogether destitute of union. And though a Gúrú-matá, or national council, was called, with a view to decide on those means by which they could best avert the danger by which their country was threatened, from the presence of the English and Mahráta armies, it was attended by few chiefs: and most of the absentees, who had any power, were bold and forward in their offers to resist any resolution to which this council might come. The intrigues and negotiations of all appeared, indeed, at this moment, to be entirely directed to objects of personal resentment, or personal aggrandizement; and every shadow of that concord, which once formed the strength of the Sikh nation, seemed to be extinguished.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The sacred volume of the Sikhs. The chief, who gave me this copy, sent it at night, and with either a real or affected reluctance, after having obtained a promise that I would treat it with great respect. I understand, however, that the indefatigable research of Mr. Colebrooke has procured not only the Adí-Grant'h, but also the Dasima Pádsháh ká Grant'h; and that, consequently, he is in possession of the two most sacred books of the Sikhs.
[2] Sikh or Sicsha, is a Sanscrit word, which means a disciple, or devoted follower. In the Penjábí it is corrupted into Sikh: it is a general term, and applicable to any person that follows a particular teacher.