Lehal Library

Ahmed Shah Abdali 135 a nd decapitated at the horse-market. 11 The fighting and reprisals went on until the death of Mir Mannu in November 1753. 12 With Marum ended yet another attempt to quash the rising power of the Khalsa. A Punjabi doggerel expresses S ikh sentiment at the time: Mir Mannu is our sickle, We the fodder for him to mow, The mure he reaps, the more we g1·ow. ,., With the passing of Mir Mannu the administration of the Ptutjab collapsed. A country over which the Mughals and the Afghans had fought each other was now neglected by both. The Mughal emperor first appointed his three-year-old boy to be governor, with Mir Mannu's infant son as his deputy. 1' Mannu's brother, lntizam-ud-daulah, who had become the Wazir in Delhi, became a sort of guardian-governor. Effective power was, however, vested in the local dignitaries, of whom Adina Beg Khan was one. Ahmed Shah Abdali was too busywith his own problems to defend Lheir habitations from the des1.1lt01y ru.1ac-ks of the enemy, and thro11gho11t the conte.sr bdrn\'ed themselves wiLh an intrepidity of ~-pie-it, highly praisewonhv' (p. 75). 11 'The per.!.ous who brought Sikhs alive. or their heads or their horst:s, received prizes. Every Mnghal who lost his own horse in bartle was provided with another of a better quality at the expense of t.he govcmm<-nL The S ikhs who were capwred alive were sent to heU by bein~ beatrn with wooden mallet.s. At umes Adina 1kg Khan seuL 40 or 50 Sikh captivec; from the Doah disLLi<..'t (Jullundur); they were as a mlt: killed with the Mrokes of wooden hammers.' (M.iskin, 84.) 12 Miskin, who was a personal attendant of Mir Marton, states that his master died of the effects of poisoning and not in an accidental fall from his horse, as is stated by others, including K11ushwaqt Rai and Rat.an Singh Bhangu. 13 Aliuddin, 1/Jrat Niimii., iii a. 14 Jaclu Nath Sarkar (foll of the Mughal Empi,re, I, 185-6) gives an account of the three-year-old prince toddling up to Lhe Diwan-i-l!!Jji.s to make his bow of thanksgiving in fuU conn, and of the baby-clothes made of cloth of gold which 1,e sent 1.0 his deputy in Lahore. At the same time the siibedari of Kashmir w· ,s given to the one-year-old Prince Tala Said Shah, and a boy of fifteen was appointed as his deputy.