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NOTICE OF THE GULABNAMA.
FEBRUARY, 1891.]
The Bibi Sahiba then sent a plausible answer, and also issued a proclamation to the Khalsa officers, that as the English authorities had in no way infringed the treaty of peace, it would be unjust to attack them without a cause. The Sikhs, who were ambitious and foolhardy, paid no attention to this late admonition and crossed the Satluj. On being informed that an English force had marched from Ludhiana to defend Firôzpûr, they determined to forestall it. Mr. [Major] Broadfoot, Agent to the Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, informed him of this state of affairs, whereon he ordered an army under Lord Gough to march, which encountered the Sikhs at Mudki, where an action was fought on the 8th of the month Pûh, St. 1902.10 The Sikhs behaved gallantly, but were routed, abandoning all their baggage, and their Commander-in-Chief the Raja Lal Singh fled, no one knew whither. After this defeat the Khalsa officers held a consultation, and some of them went to Jammûn to ask Gulab Singh for advice, and he told them to keep the army stationary on the spot where it was, there being no occasion for restlessness in the present state of affairs. No attention being paid to this advice, a bridge was constructed, which the troops crossed, and encamped on the other bank of the river. The Sardar Rauchhôd Singh, who had been collecting troops in the Dôâb, also arrived and pitched his camp at Phillaur on the banks of the Satluj. The Khalsa troops also marched in a fit of bravery to Ludhiana and burnt the cantonment with everything it contained. The Râjâ of Ladwa, with his forces and seven pieces of artillery also joined the Raja (Sardar) Ranchhod Singh. The English, who were vexed by what had taken place at Ludhiana, were joined by the forces of the Maharaja of Pațiâlâ. On the other hand Lal Singh Muraria, who had on behalf of the Lâhôr government been regulating the administration of the district of Jasrôtâ, joined the Khalsa army by order of the court with the few troops he had, and the Sardar Teja Singh, who commanded the regiment of Avitabile did the same. Also the Raja Lal Singh, who had fled from the battlefield, and being ashamed had remained for some time in the Dôâb, was ordered to rejoin the army, and obeyed.
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Several officers of the army, as already mentioned, had arrived at Jammûn desiring the personal presence of Gulab Singh at the seat of war to direct operations and to give advice. One day these officers, who were fall of bombast and ignorance, quoted a hemistich in the Pañjabi language, in which one of their ancestors had predicted that the Khalsa army would sit on the throne of Dehli, whereon Gulab Singh remarked that he could not understand how the prophecy was to be fulfilled, the throne being very small, and the Khalsa army amounting to nearly 100,000 men ; and all present in the assembly smiled. Gulab Singh entertained the envoys most hospitably on the best of food, but delayed on various pretexts to comply with their invitation, and leaving his Diwân at Jammûn to entertain his guests, went occasionally to Riâsi on a pretence of performing his devotions at the shrine of Bhagavati, or alleging that the auspicious time for departure had not yet arrived, or spending some time at Pûrmaṇḍal. In fact, Gulab Singh was not willing to join the Khalsa army without receiving an invitation from the Bibi Sahiba, which, however, at last arrived, having been brought by Bâbâ Mahân Singh and Diwan Singh. The Maharaja Gulab Singh also had written a letter from Jammûn to Edward Lake Sahib, who sent no reply beyond a verbal message that whoever wishes to ascend a high mountain must begin to climb early in the morning." Accordingly Gulab Singh marched with his forces, commanded by the author's father, Diwân Hari Chand, after sending a parwana to the officers of the Khalsa army, advising them to keep it stationary, and arrived in Lâhôr, where he pitched his camp on the banks of the Râvi. There Bhai Râm Singh, Raja Dinà Nâth, and other Sardars who happened at that time to be in Lâhôr, received him on behalf of the government, and he made his appearance at court on the 19th of the month Migh, to be invested by the peshkár of the Bibi Sahiba with a costly robe of honour and the dignity of wazir. Then Gulab Singh despatched parwanas to the officers of the army to cease hostilities; but fate had decreed otherwise, for the Sardar Ranchhôd Singh Majithiâ crossed the river and a battle had ensued, in which many of the combatants perished on
10 A. D. 1845.
