A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

88

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. III

1708-16. possession of a train of artillery he left Lahore, and falling
upon the Sikh army he defeated it, after a fierce resistance
on the part of Banda. The success was followed up, and
Banda retreated from post to post, fighting valiantly and
inflicting heavy losses on his victors; but he was at length
Banda compelled to shelter himself in the fort of Gurdaspur. He
redudlly was closely besieged; nothing could be conveyed to him
and taken from without; and after consuming all his provisions, and
priso7er, eating horses, asses, and even the forbidden ox, he was
reduced to submit.' Some of the Sikhs were put to death,
and their heads were borne on pikes before Banda and others
as they were marched to Delhi with all the signs of ignominy
usual with bigots, and common among barbarous or halfcivilized conquerors.2 A hundred Sikhs were put to death
daily, contending among themselves for priority of martyrdom, and on the eighth day Banda himself was arraigned
before his judges. A Muhammadan noble asked the ascetic
from conviction, how one of his knowledge and understanding could commit crimes which would dash him into
hell; but Banda answered that he had been as a mere
scourge in the hands of God for the chastisement of the
wicked, and that he was now receiving the meed of his own
crimes against the Almighty. His son was placed upon his
knees, a knife was put into his hands, and he was required
to take the life of his child. He did so, silent and unmoved;
and put to his own flesh was then torn with red-hot pincers, and amid
death at
Delhi. these torments he expired, his dark soul, say the Muhammadans, winging its way to the regions of the damned.3
1 Cf. Malcolm, Sketch, pp. 79, 80; Forster, Travels, i. 306 and note;
and the Siar ulMutdkharin, i. 116, 117. The ordinary accounts make
the Sikh army amount to 35,000 men (Forster says 20,000); they also
detain Abdus Samad a year at Lahore before he undertook anything,
and they bring down all the hill chiefs to his aid, both of which circumstances are probable enough. *
2 Siar ulMutdkharin, i. 118,120. Elphinstone (History,ii. 574,575),
quoting the contemporary Khafi Khan, says the prisoners amounted
to 740. The Siar ul Mutdkharin relates how the old mother of
Bayazid Khan killed the assassin of her son, by letting fall a stone
on his head, as he and the other prisoners were being led through the
streets of Lahore.
3 Malcolm (Sketch, p. 82), who quotes the Siar ulMutdkharin. The
defeat and death of Banda are placed by the Siar ul Mutdkharin