Lehal Library

The Sukerchakia Mis! 181 eye and deeply pitted his face. He did not receive any education save what he learned from life; and life in his early teens meant chase and the companionship of the sons of zarnindars. He became an inveterate hunter, and love for horses became an absolute passion. He learned to drink hard and eajoy the good things oflife. A sudden change came over him when he reached the age of fifteen, when be assumed control of the Sukerchakia estates and married. The marriage brought him under the influence of his mother-in-law, Sada Kaur, who was the head of the Kanhayas. She more than anyone else directed his unbounded energy towards unifying the Puajab. The Punjab in 1798 The map of the Punjab in 1798 resembled a jigsaw puzzle consisting of the territories of the misls, the district of Kasur which was ruled by a Pathan family, and Hansi in the south-east where the English adventurer, George Thomas, had set up his kingdom. The misls through years of internecine quarrels had reduced each other to political impotence. The only exceptions to the general decadence of the misls' organization were the Kanbayas, the Nakkais, the Ahluwalias, and the Bhangis. Ranjit Singh had already married the heiress to the Kanhaya estates. He arranged a second marriage with a Nakkai princess and decided to befriend Fateh Singh Ahluwalia. 1 The Bhangis were the most powerful of the misl fraternity and held Labore, Amritsar, Gujarat, and a large portion of western Punjab. Ranjit Singh decided to break the Bhangis and force the other misldars to accept his suzerainty. The chronic factionalism of I.he mists and the extraterritorial loyalties of the Pathans of Kasur and George Thomas made the Punjab extremely vulnerable-particularly from the north, for the Afghan.s.)ooked upon most of northern India as a part of their 1 Jassa Si.11gh Ahluwalia did not have any issue and was succeeded by Bhag Singh. r aLeh Singh was born in 1784 a11d succeeded 10 Lhe chieftainship of the Ahluwalia possessions in 1801. He spenL his life sernng Ranjic Singh and died m 1836.