T ORIGIN If OF THE SIKH POWKF THE TTS^ } POLITICAL LIFE OF MUHA-RAJA RUNJEET SINGH. MITFl AN ACCOUNT OV THE PRESENT CONDITION', KKf.UaoN. [.\\i rSTOMS OF THE SIKHS. COMPILED BV HENRY PRINSEP, T. OFTHE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, rnOM A REPORT BV CAPTAIN WILLIAM MURRAY, LATE POLITiCVI- AGEXT AT UMBALA, AND FKOM OTHER SOURCES. CALCUTTA: HUTTMANS, MILITARY ORPHAN PRESS. G. H. 1834. ftP7 PREFACE. X HERE is an interest attaching to the character and fortunes of Rlnjeet Singh, and to the dominion he has establislied over the Punjab and the Sikh nation, which promises to ensure to the following pages a favorable reception from the British Public. This interest is founded not less upon the geographical position of the territory of the new state, than upon the fact ofits having been silently growing up under our eyes, till our wonder is excited at the accumu- lation of power and of wealth at the command of its present head. The desire to learn the steps and the means, by which the founder of any empire has risen to greatness, is a natural curiosity of the human mind, intense in propor- tion to the exaltation reached but in this : instance there is proximity to our own posses- sions, with the collisions that have occurred in consequence, to add to tlie interest felt about a IV PREFACE. RuNJEET Singh besides that the tract ofcoun- ; try, now forming the Sikh kingdom, is in the high road by which every conqueror from the west has penetrated into Hindoostan and spe- ; culation is always more or less afloat, as to the possibility of a similar conquest being again attempted, by the armies of Europe associated, or by those of the Northern Autocrat alone, whose views of aggrandizement seem insatiable, and have long been directed towards Persia and the East. The time thus appears to be favorable for an attempt to offer to the Public some information as to the present condition of the Punjab and its Ruler : and every one must have felt, that there is a blank in the intelligence possessed on this subject, not consistent Avith the general state of knowledge, or the eagerness with which information, and in particular political and sta- tistical information, is in these days pouredforth upon the Public, by every one who thinks he has any thing to communicate, that will be listened to or received. The early history of the Sikhs is pretty generally known : few are ignorant, that they are a religious sect, esta- blished in the time of Babur by Nanuk Shah, thepropagatorofdoctrinesofuniversal toleration, and llic zealous i>rojector of an union of faith