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

CHAP. V

AHMAD SHAH DURRANI

118

provinces. He crossed the Indus in 1767, but he avoided 1767-8.
Lahore and advanced no farther than the Sutlej. He endeavoured to conciliate when he could no longer overcome,
and he bestowed the title of Maharaja, and the office of
military commander in Sirhind, upon the warlike Amar Amar
Singh, who had succeeded his grandfather as chief of Singh of
Patidla,
Patiala, or of the Malwa Sikhs. He likewise saw a promising and the
ally in the Rajput chief of Katotch, and he made him his RijpUat
chief of
deputy in the Jullundur Doab and adjoining hills. His Katotch,
measureswere interrupted bythe defection of his own troops; appointed
twelve thousand men marched back towards Kabul, and mand
the Shah found it prudent to follow them. He was harassed under the
in his retreat, and he had scarcely crossed the Indus before Abmad
Sher Shah's mountain stronghold of Rohtas was blockaded Shah reby the Sukerchukias, under the grandfather of Ranjit Singh, tires.
Rohtqs
aided by a detachment of the neighbouring Bhangi con- taken by
federacy. The place fell in 1768, and the Bhangis almost the Sikhs,
immediately afterwards occupied the country as far as 1768
Rawalpindi and the vale of Khanpur, the Gakhars showing
but little of that ancient hardihood which distinguished
them in their contests with invading Mughals.1
The Bhangis, under Hari Singh, next marched towards The Sikhs
Multan, but they were met by the Muhammadan Daudpu- Lowge the
tras, who had migrated from Sind on learning Nadir Shah's Punjab;
intention of transplanting them to Ghazni, and had established the principality now known as Bhawalpur.2 The
1 Forster, Travels, i. 323; Elphinstone, Kdbul, ii. 297; Murray,
Ranjzt Singh, p. 27; Moorcroft, Travels, i. 127; and manuscript
accounts consulted by the author.
2 When Nadir Shah proceeded to establish his authority in Sindh,
he found the ancestor of the Bhawalpur family a man of reputation
in his native district of Shikarpur. The Shah made him the deputy
of the upper third of the province; but, becoming suspicious of the
whole clan, he resolved on removing it to Ghazni. The tribe then
migrated up the Sutlej, and seized lands by force. The Daudputras
are so called from Daud (David), the first of the family who acquired
a name. They fabulously trace their origin to Ithe Caliph Abbas;
but they may be regarded as Sindian Baluchis, or as Baluchis
changed by a long residence in Sind. In establishing themselves
on the Sutlej, they reduced the remains of the ancient Langahs and
Johiyas to further insignificance; but they introduced the Sindian
system of canals of irrigation, and both banks of the river below Pakpattan bear witness to their original industry and love of agriculture.
I