Lehal Library

Ahmed Shah Abdali 157 Eighth Afghan Invasion, 1766 In November 1766 Abdali came to the Punjab for the eighth time with the avowed object of extirpating 'the ill-fated Sikhs' .56 He brushed aside two attempts by them to check him near the river jhelum and proceeded triumphantly through Gujarat to Sialkot. He ordered the zamindars 'to apprehend and despoil with every degree of severity all persons carrying the marks of a Sikh.'s7 From Sial.kot, the Afghans turned to Lahore. The three Sardars who had parcelled the city between themselves left immediately."" Abdali entered the capital on 22 December 1766. The Muslim citizens told the Afghan that they had been well and honourably treated by the Sikhs and persuaded Abdali to offer the sfibedari of Lahore to Lehna Singh. Abdali sent the invitation to the Sardar with trays of the choicest dry fruit of Afghanistan. In return, the Sikh sent a handful of coarse grain with the message that fruit was for royalty; he was a humble peasant who lived on simple food. Lehna Singh politely turned down the offer.59 Abdali did not know what to do with a people who would neither fight him in the open nor make friends with him. When he wem after them in Sirhind, they fell on his rear and plundered his equipment near Lahore. He had to rush back to save the city. In January 1767, Abdali's General, .Jahan Khan, who had suffered many reverses at the hands of the Sikhs, audaciously marched up to Amritsar. The Sikhs had more than once rebuilt the Harimandir from the debris left by the Afghans and felt they 56 Shah Alam II had bemoaned Abdali's failure to 'drive to the mansions of perdition this infidel race, the fomencors of all mischief.' (C.P.C., ii, 257.) 57 C.P.C., H, 16 a; Ganda Singh, Ahmed Shd.h Dumini, p. 310. 58 The event is recalled in doggerel with puns on the names of the three Sardars. Sobba (grace), lost his grace; Gujjar (the herdsman), lost his cattle and Lehna (the ooe who Lakes), had to give away; alJ three were thus reduced to penury. Sobhii di sobha gai, Gu.JJar da gia ma/. uh,µ nu ~a pfyii, tino hot lcangal. 59 Ganda Singh, Ahmed Shah Durrani, p. 312; H. R. Gupta, Hi.story of the Silchs, I, 251.