1808. In
1764 the chiefs of the Bhangi _misl_ occupied Lahore.

CHAPTER XIX

HISTORY (_continued_). THE SIKH PERIOD, 1764-1849 A.D.

~Rise of Ranjit Singh.~--The Bhangis held Lahore with brief intervals for
25 years. In 1799, Ranjit Singh, basing his claim on a grant from Shah
Zaman, the grandson of Ahmad Shah, drove them out, and inaugurated the
remarkable career which ended with his death in 1839. When he took
Lahore the future Maharaja was only nineteen years of age. He was the
head of the Sukarchakia _misl_, which had its headquarters at
Gujranwala. Mean in appearance, his face marked and one eye closed by
the ravages of smallpox, he was the one man of genius the Jat tribe has
produced. A splendid horseman, a bold leader, a cool thinker untroubled
with scruples, an unerring judge of character, he was bound to rise in
such times. He set himself to put down every Sikh rival and to profit by
the waning of the Durani power to make himself master of their
possessions in the Panjab. Pluck, patience, and guile broke down all
opposition among the Manjha Sikhs. The Sikh chiefs to the south of the
Sutlej were only saved from the same fate by throwing themselves in 1808
on the protection of the English, who six years earlier had occupied
Delhi, and by taking under their protection the blind old Emperor, Shah
Alam, had virtually proclaimed themselves the paramount power in India.
For 44 years he had been only a piece in the game played by Mahrattas,
Rohillas, and the English in alliance with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh.

[Illustration: Fig. 61. Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

(_From a picture book said to have been prepared for Maharaja Dalip
Singh._)]

~British supremacy established in India.~--In the first years of the
nineteenth century the Marquess of Wellesley had made up his mind that
the time was ripe to grasp supreme power in India. The motive was
largely self-preservation. India was included in Napoleon's vast plans
for the overthrow of England, and Sindhia, with his army trained in
European methods of warfare by French officers, seemed a likely
confederate. Colonel Arthur Wellesley's hard-won battle at Assaye in
September, 1803, and Lord Lake's victories on the Hindan and at Laswari
in the same year, decided the fate of India. Delhi was occupied, and
Daulat Rao Sindhia ceded to the company territory reaching from Fazilka
on the Sutlej to Delhi on the Jamna, and extending along that river
northwards to Karnal and s