ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>SHER SI&#7748GH N&#256M&#256H</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279<i>SHER SI&#7748GH N&#256M&#256H</i>, also known as <i>H&#257l&#257t-i-Punjab</i>, by Muhammad Naq&#299 Pesh&#257war&#299 Ibn <u>Kh</u>w&#257j&#257 Ba<u>kh</u>sh Mull&#257, is an unpublished manuscript, in Persian, containing an account of events of the Punjab from the death of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh in 1839 to the accession to the throne in 1843 of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Duleep Si&#7749gh. The date of its composition is not mentioned, but internal evidence suggests that the author took up this work at the request of Ba<u>kh</u>shi Bhagat R&#257m, a Lahore Darb&#257r official, and completed it in 1843. According to Mr. Charles Raikes, the Commissioner and Superintendent of Lahore, the manuscript was sent to the Imperial Exhibition held in Paris in 1855. Copies of the manuscript are preserved in the British Library (No. Or 1780), India Office Library (No. 505) and the Punjab State Archives at Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 (No. 327). The last mentioned manuscript comprises sixty eight folios and is divided into four sections. The first section (ff. 7a--12b ) gives a description of the situation within the kingdom of the Punjab after the death of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh, and the second (ff.12b--25b) describes Ka&#7749var Sher Si&#7749gh's march from Ba&#7789&#257l&#257 to stake his claim to the throne of Lahore and his clash with B&#299b&#299 Chand Kaur and her adherents. The third section (ff. 26a--40a) deals with the disturbed political state of the capital of Lahore and the assassination of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Sher Si&#7749gh and the last section covers the assassination of Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh and the retribution which overtook the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257's killers. Muhammad Naq&#299 bemoans the tragic death of Ka&#7749var Nau Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh who was mortally wounded by the fall of parapet of the northern gate of the Haz&#363r&#299 B&#257<u>gh</u> while returning from the funeral of his father, Kha&#7771ak Si&#7749gh: "Glory has departed from the Punjab; gloom engulfs the royal household" (fol.l2b). He comments upon the "usurpation" of the throne by Chand Kaur, Kha&#7771ak Si&#7749gh's widow. The kingdom of the Punjab, he observes, "has fallen a prey to a cancerous malady. Chaos reigns supreme. Spring has departed ushering in bleak autumn" (fol. 13a). Chand Kaur, according to him, was "neither a soldier nor did she possess... the experience of governing the country". Describing the struggle for political power between Chand Kaur and Sher Si&#7749gh, N&#257q&#299 says that the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 troops were attached to Sher Si&#7749gh and obeyed his orders; that while at Ba&#7789&#257l&#257 he had been summoned by the army <i>pañch&#257yats</i> and State counsellors "to bless them with his arrival" and occupy the throne (fol. 15a). Sher Si&#7749gh marched on Lahore in January 1841 and gained the allegiance of the army and the Darb&#257r officials. On 14 January the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 proclaimed him the new sovereign of the Punjab. As the situation calmed down, Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Sher Si&#7749gh became engrossed in his pursuits of pleasure. "He would ride an Arab horse and roam the jungles with his hounds and hawks hunting deer, partridge, quail and woodcock" (fol. 30a), Sher Si&#7749gh is charged with neglect of State business leaving the reins of administration in the hands of Waz&#299r Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh who kept warning him against the machinations of the Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 chiefs. But "he treated the Waz&#299r's advice and entreaties as husk" (fol.36a)."In the third year of his reign, die Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 began to neglect the care of the land and welfare of his subjects. The soldiery became more oppressive. The rich fled the land, the wicked defied the law, and evil-doers took the place of good men. Even the lives of counsellors of State became unbearable. The government ceased to exist" (fol.33a). The Mah&#257r&#257j&#257's continued absence at Ba&#7789&#257l&#257 worsened the situation. Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh left for Jamm&#363, and Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh gained ascendancy at the Darb&#257r. On return to the capital, Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh conspired to replace Sher Si&#7749gh by minor Duleep Si&#7749gh. On 15 September 1843, the Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 chiefs murdered Sher Si&#7749gh, his son Part&#257p Si&#7749gh and Waz&#299r Dhian Si&#7749gh (ff. 38a-40b), and proclaimed Duleep Si&#7749gh as the new king of the Punjab, but "their crafty assurances appeared more or less as hunters' cries or soldiers' shouts" (fol. 60b). Nemesis soon overtook the Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257s. H&#299r&#257 Si&#7749gh, son of R&#257j&#257 Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh, won over the troops and the principal <i>sard&#257rs</i>. The Fort was stormed on 16 September and Aj&#299t Si&#7749gh Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 and Lahi&#7751&#257 Si&#7749gh Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 were slain. H&#299r&#257 Si&#7749gh ordered their kith and kin put to the sword and their houses at R&#257j&#257 S&#257&#7749s&#299 razed "Aj&#299t Si&#7749gh's house was destroyed, and it was declared that thenceforward his lands should no longer be ploughed with oxen, but with asses" (ff. 63-64).</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1">Kirpal Si&#7749gh, <i>A Catalogue of Persian and Sanskrit Manuscripts</i>. Amritsar, 1962<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">B. J. Hasrat<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>