[63] This is a very common usage amongst eastern conquerors. The history of Jénghíz Khán, Taimúr and Nádir Sháh, afford many examples of this mode of treating their vanquished enemies.
[64] Foster's Travels, Vol. I. p. 279.
[65] All the villages in the Penjáb are walled round; as they are in almost all the countries of India that are exposed to sudden incursions of horse, which this defence can always repel.
[66] When the British and Máhráta armies entered the Penjáb, they were both daily joined by discontented petty chiefs of the Sikhs, who offered their aid to the power that would put them in the possession of a village or a fort, from which, agreeably to their statement, they had been unjustly excluded by a father or brother. Holkár encouraged these applications, and used them to his advantage. The British commander abstained from all interference in such disputes.
SECTION II.
Neither the limits of this sketch, nor the materials from which it is drawn, will admit of my giving a particular or correct account of the countries possessed by the Sikhs, or of their forms of government, manners, and habits: but a cursory view of these subjects may be useful, and may excite and direct that curiosity which it cannot expect to gratify.
The country now possessed by the Sikhs, which reaches from latitude 28° 40' to beyond latitude 32° N., and includes all the Penjáb[67], a small part of Multán, and most of that tract of country which lies between the Jumna and the Satléj, is bounded, to the northward and westward, by the territories of the king of Cábul; to the eastward, by the possessions of the mountaineer Rájás of Jammu, Nadón, and Srínagar; and to the southward, by the territories of the English government, and the sandy deserts of Jasalmér and Hánsyá Hisár.
The Sikhs, who inhabit the country between the Satléj and the Jumna, are called Málawá Singh, and were almost all converted from the Hindú tribes of Játs and Gujars. The title of Málawá Singh was conferred upon them for their extraordinary gallantry, under the Baírágí Banda, who is stated to have declared, that the countries granted to them should be fruitful as Málwá, one of the provinces[68] in India. The principal chiefs among the Málawá Singhs, are, Sáheb Singh, of Patiálá; B'hangá Singh, of T'hánésur; B'hág Singh, of Jhind; and B'hailal Singh, of Keintal. Besides these, there are several inferior chiefs, such as Gúrúdah Singh, Jud'h Singh, and Carm Singh; all of whom have a few villages, and some horse, and consider themselves independent; though they, in general, are content to secure their possessions by attaching themselves to one or other of the more powerful leaders.