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

86

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. III

1708-16. Banda, the chosen disciple of Gobind, was a native of the
Banda su- south of India, and an ascetic of the Bairagi order;1 and
ceeds the extent of the deceased Guru's preparations and means
Gbeindasl will be best understood from the narrative of the career of
a temporal
leader. his followers, when his own commanding spirit was no more.
Proceedsto The Sikhs gathered in numbers round Banda when he
the northh reached the north-west, bearing with him the arrows of
and captures Gobind as the pledge of victory. Banda put to flight the
Sirhind, Mughal authorities in the neighbourhood of Sirhind, and
then attacked, defeated, and slew the governor of the province. Sirhind was plundered, and the Hindu betrayer and
Musalman destroyer of Gobind's children were themselves
put to death by the avenging Sikhs.2 Banda next established
a stronghold below the hills of Sirmuir,3 he occupied the
country between the Sutlej and Jumna, and he laid waste
the district of Saharanpur.4
The em- Bahadur Shah, the emperor, had subdued his rebellious
paohe s brother Kambakhsh, he had come to terms with the
marches
towards Marathas, and he was desirous of reducing the princes of
Lahore. Rajputana to their old dependence, when he heard of the
defeat of his troops and the sack of his city by the hitherto
unknown Banda.5 He hastened towards the Punjab, and
1 Some accounts represent Banda to have been a native of Northern
India, and the writer, followed by Major Browne (India Tracts, ii. 9),
says he was born in the Jullundur Doab.
'Banda' signifies the slave, and Saruip Chand, the author of the
Gur-Ratndvalf, states that the Bairagi took the name or title when
he met Gobind in the south, and found that the powers of his tutelary
god Vishnu were ineffectual in the presence of the Guru. Thenceforward, he said, he would be the slave of Gobind.
2 For several particulars, true or fanciful, relating to the capture of
Sirhind, see Browne, India Tracts, ii. 9, 10. See also Elphinstone,
History of India, ii. 565, 566. Wazir Khan was clearly the name of
the governor, and not Faujdar Khan, as mentioned by Malcolm
(Sketch, pp. 77, 78). Wazir Khan was indeed the 'Faujdar ', or military commander in the province, and the word is as often used as a
proper name as to denote an office.
3 This was at Mukhlispur, near Sadowra, which lies north-east from
Ambala, and it appears to be the 'Lohgarh', that is, the iron or
strong fort, of the Siar ul Mutkcharin (i. 115).
4 Forster, Travels, i. 304.
5 Cf. Elphinstone, History of India, ii. 561, and Forster, Travels, i.
304. This was in A. D. 1709-10.