A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE

The year was 1798. The scourge of Punjab, the mighrv

Shah Durrani was long dead and his depredations were Star
mighty Ahmad
into distant memories. In the years that followed his ting to
turn
1772, his son and successor Taimur Shah LDurrani presided ov
de ath in
decline of his father's mighty empire, creating a power vaci
Punjab that the Sikh Misls were only too happy to fill. Rambuncr
in
aggregations of Sikhs gravitated to powertul Misl chiefs who of.
unctious
fered
enticing possibilities of sovereignty, prestige and plunder. The chiek
ies,
who owed allegiance to nobody and bowed to none, were collectie
tively
the undisputed masters of Punjab.
Five years earlier, upon the death of 'Taimur Shah, the ffth af
his twenty-four sons, Shah Zaman had prevailed in the inevitable
internecine battle that ensued and had declared himself the sovereien
of the Durrani empire. More ambitious than his father ever was, Shah
Zaman eager to re-establish the glory of his grandfathers reign, turned
his eye eastwards to Punjab, which the Afghans claimed as theirs,
having wrested control of Lahore from the crumbling remains of the
once mighty Mughals of Delhi. In 1795, Shah Zaman crossed the
Indus to recaprure Hasan Abdal, which was by then in the hands of
the Sikhs. A rebellion by his brother Mahmud caused him to returm
to Kabul. His subsequent attempts to recapture Punjab again n ne

fall of 1796 and 1798 were to have consequences he could not have
imagined.
Sohan Lal, in his work Umdut U: Tuarikh talks of the ow-Ike
heau
shadow' of Shah Zaman spreading over Punjab as he stood at the
 A
Woman of
Substance
vell-equipped forece of
thirty thousand. 39
the
Sik In additi
ition to the Ihings did not look
and Sahib Singh, theinvading
for
h i c f o f
ar

Shah Zam
Afghans, Nizamudin,n, the
ruler of Patiala
with man, who was also had thrown in
lot
theNawab of Awadh and even
af cheered on
by the Rohilla their
Tipu
tion of the Sikhs to Sultan from distant
The reaction
tribes,
d in this
the invasion Mysore!
summarised

description Sikh
of can be
succinctly
helming odds, from Rattan military strategy when faced
with overwh

Ahmad Singh Bhangoos Panth Parkash:

Ham ko nathna guru batya.
ting to Dhai phatt main phat ginaya.
eath in Daitan te devte bhaj gae.
er the
um in Apno desh let phir bhae.
The Guru taught us to cut and run
ctious
fered Return to hght, give quarter none
Retreated too the mighty Gods
hiefs. From demons faced with terrible odds
ively
The Sikhs beat a retreat in the face of the threat. Directly in the path
h of of the invading army lay the territories of two Misls, the Bhangis,
able
led by the battle-hardened Sahib Singh Bhangi and the Sukerchakias
eign fled eastwards
by sixteen-year-old Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh
to

hah led
Amritsar at the head of five thousand horsemen, lightly equipped
ed
with muskets and spears, clearly no match for the advancing Afghan
irs, and swivel guns mounted on camels.
hordes who had cannon
he the gathering of all Sikhs,
situation dire. A Sarbat Khalsa,
he Ihe was

of was called at Amritsar. Sikhs had by then

Khalsa or the general assembly ofall
rn Ihe Sarbat decisions

institution for making important

e Dcen established as a n conducted at the
Sarbat Khalsa
was
The
the Sikh Panth (nation).
Granth
e Or the Guru
scripture,
of the Sikh Baisakhi and
Bandi
lakht in the presence

al of routine
on
called in
would be
matter
e ahib. would occur as a
festivals, and it
O Sikh
Chod Diwas, both important
 Philadelphia

Merchant of
Camel
140 The

Fxamples
of issues ated and decided
dcbated and

as
well. an on, resalving
expcditinn, res.
ncs of cmergency
Organising
leader lor
electing a eciding questions
decidlingquIestions off
upon include (chicts),
Sikh
Sardars

the
succession ofthe head
disputes
disputes among
matters
regarding
ons, punishing
acquisitions,
territorial

policy,
settling and
campaigns
new
gurdwaras and restoring
and re.

Misl, planning P'anth,

building
Sikh
enemies of the .
old ones.
Sarbat Khalsa was

and rebuilding from the nown

resolution
that
resulted
Counsel, and
was reA ective of
The Gurus
the bestowed
Gurmata,
literally, Gobind Singh had
.

the Guru
the investine af
as
that
authority with of the
the temporal in concert

he passed,
Panth before spiritual authority
the Sikh the Guru's
Sahib with observers of the Sikhs,
has lc
lef
Guru Granth earliest
of the
John Malcolm, one
Gurmata,
which provides a windo
colourful
account of the
behind a on that day.36
have transpired
into what might
national council
Gurmata or great
Malcolm, a
According to
imminent danger threatened
Amritsar when any
convened in be undertaken. All the
was was to
expedition
the country,
or any large differences for the
aside personal
would assemble, setting
Sikh chiefs The assembly
was manged by
of the community.
Akal Takht, the seat of
common
interest
custodians of the
the
the Akalis, who
were
would gather in the presence
The assembly
Sikh temporal authority. Sahib and hymns
would be
the Guru Granth
of the Sikh scripture, in prayer.
the Akalis would lead the congregation
after which and the
sung,
be opened at random
Sahib would then
The Guru Granth the day and the
the Guru's command for
hymn read would represent
endeavour under discussion.
known as

A sweet concoction of wheat flour, butter and sugar,

caste,
distributed to all, regardless of
Karah Parshad' would then be
a n n o u n c e to
the Sardas
Akalis would then
creed or position. The
to unite To
or Chiefs, This is a Gurmata
and ask them to swear
An
the c o m m o n cause in the presence
of the Sikh scripture. Op
 A
Woman of
Substance
decided would theen follow
esolving
d i s c u s s

on the
ddress it. If aa
way to adc
confrontation danger hand and
foreign
at
to lead the
he chosen
combined was the hew
cad of a reached, the Akalis
would proclaim forces. After Sikh imminent, generals
wold
nishing pcaks this shall
blessed', the be'Jo Bole So
timeless is assemblage
conenss
Nihal Whomenever WA
wa

storing
or
Akal' 'God the or
would
Sri
true respond with ar
made.acknowledging and endorsing
decisions that had just ,

he been
known Bracing for the onslaught of
the
tive of forth the view at the SarbatAfghans in 1798, Sahib
Bhangi put forth
t t

tacticsswould
would serve the Khalsa that Singh
upon hatt
pha a-half Sikhs best (dhai traditional dhai
of the rwo-and-a-half
phatt
lows-hit hard, retreat and hit literally means
Singh hangoo's quote) and advocated again, referred in
Rattan Singh Bha
an
to

Landon the towns and villages in the that the Sikh forces
as left aba
plains of
dow hills where the women and children had Punjab and lee to the
The council was coming around toalready been sent for their
sa

Bhangi's response to Shah Zaman.

embracing Sahib Singh
ancil
ned And then, something happened that would
the history of Punjab.
change the course of
the
the The sixteen-year-old lad got up to speak. He urged the Sikhs to
stand and fight and almost inexplicably found himself at the head of
by
of the combined Sikh force. The Afghans, by then, had taken Lahore, the
capital of Punjab. The young chief and his forces evicted the Afghans
Ice them
be and their allies from the countryside around Lahore, forcing
a relentless dhai phat campaign
to seek refuge in the city and waged
er. them in different quarters of
the ciy
e against the invaders, attacking Zaman
continued until Shah
each night. This game of cat and mouse
his
e fend off a challenge to
to
had to return to Khorasan (Afghanistan) Shahanchi
his general
brother Mahmud, leaving
monarchy from his thousand strong
torce. Ihe

the head ofa twelve

Khan in charge at the Jhelum,
Afghans all the way to
harried the much of their
OIhs, true to form, them of
and relieving Sikhs
their supply lines teach the impudent
attacking determined to
Punder. Shahanchi Khan,
 Merchant of Philadelphia
142 The Camel
a lesson, tried to surround them at a place called Rasul Nagar, Iw
forces of Ranjit Singh.
defeated by the
Was soundly taken on the A
For the first time, the
Sikhs had
Afghans
prevailed. known was that when Ranjit Sinol
What was not widely taake: 5
Sikh chicftains to
experienced
the m o r e
tospeak, urging from his mouth that of his closestadvi.
were

the words issuing called Sada Kaur,

who alsohan
woman
formidable
not preserved her mori
mentor, a
History has
mother-in-law!
to be his
of the depredationsofthe
Afghane
fed up ,but it
Perhaps she was just opportunity for her youna.
is also possible that she saw a unique SOn
clear that Afghan poOwer
himself. It was on
distinguish
in-law to
to see that Punjab was the
for dl
che wane. Perhaps
she had the foresight
could be positioned to fill the DOw
ower
and that her son-in-law
taking the Mughals had created
that the decline of the Afghans and
vacuum
determined to avenge hic
Zaman was back
A year later, Shah
humiliation.
and Ranjit Singh abandoned
Once again, Sahib Singh Bhangi
and Gujranwala to the rampaging Afghans
their territories of Gujrat
Colonel John Collins, in a dispatch
The British Resident in Delhi,
commented on the 'timidity' of the Sikhs.
Khalsa was convened and once again
Once again the Sarbat
and dhai phat were proposed by the
the tactics of strategic retreat
greybeards.
at the Sarbat Khalsa.
But this time, Sada Kaur was centrestage
stand and ight appears
Sada Kaur's role in persuading the Sikhs to
to Sikh history.
Khushwant Singh
at best as a tantalising footnote

makes note of this in Volume One of

his History of The Sks
briefty book Ran"
more substantively in his
and only slightly
addresses it
Sad
The According to KhushwantSingh,
Singh: Maharaja of Punjab.
Sardars chosc
Kaur addressed the gathering and proclaimed that 'if the
to follow
her
to Hee, she would lead the Sikhs who were willing

resist the Afghans.

 A
Woman of
were o n a
Substance
All eyes
w powerful
gar, but who were the acl
re the Sikh Sardars
geybeardsv

g acknowledged or
hem was Sardar Sahib Singh leaders ofthe chiefs, mostly
Sikhs. Foremost
anmong
them
ans and
Guru Nanakak, who was Bedi, a descendant
the universally revered by the first
S i k hm a s t e r ,

of the
Singh hangi,
the cader of
got up ahib etreat in the face of
S a h i b .

the
powerful Bhangi Misl onceSikhs.
threat.
stand, Sahib
d v o c a t e

or and
the Phulkian Misl, based in
leader ofthe
Patiala Singh Phulkian,againthe
pened he Pn
notorious for always seekingagreed. Of all the Misls,
Phulkian was notori
the
of the
common good and benefit for itself,
ation. the
expense

even often
but it
at
ers against their Sikh bretheren. siding with Afghan
Bedi
bout to call
ahib Singh was
Son- conclusion to the Gurmata
a

whenSada Kaur stood up to speak. As the

as on matriarch of the
or the (isl, she represented a powerful torce, but the Kanhaya
over
glory
nd after the death of her husband, it did
and after i days of her Misl
ower ere not seem to
have
ated. l e leader. Her son-in-law Ranjit Singh, who
a viable

Misl was still young and represented the

his Sukercha
relatively untested. Nobody
believed that he could take the Afghans head-on despite some of his
them.
ned early successes against
Sada Kaur unleashed the full power of her rhetoric upon the
ans.
tch gathering. She invoked the words of the Sikh Gurus and reminded

the assembly of their valour. She spoke plainly of the tyranny of the
Afghans, their repeated invasions, their enslaving of so many young
ain
asked the assembly ifit was ever going to end.
he men and women and
she embraced the charge
When some in the assembly called her mad,
same divine madness
that
and swore that she afflicted with the
was
followers
Sikh Gurus, their children and their early
rs had inspired the lives.
even at the
cost of their
h themselves
to hght injustice and sacrifice

Hari Ram Gupta in Volume V of

The History ofThe
Ihe historian at the
continued to baulk
it the Sikh chiefs
S
Suggests that when Sada Kaurshamed
them

a ofa confrontation with

the Afghans, advance and
On to assist Ranjit Singh,
a r e disposed
declaring, If you and take mine; give
me your

if not, throw off

that dress
,
the enemy.
thes and I will marchagainst
144 The Camel Merchant
of Philadelphia
Hersoaring rhetoric had the intendecd effect. The Sikh Sard.
agreed to stay and fight, once again under the command of the dars
youn.
Ranjit Singh. True to form, Sahib Singh, the leader of the oung
Misl, pledged his support to the invader, as did Nawab Phulkiva
of Kasur, who desired to be the Nizamuddin
governor of Lahore and Sanca.
Chand, the Hindu chief of Kangra. With the ar
support of such alies
Shah Zaman was able to take Lahore without much
resistance. Shah
Zaman had taken pains to forbid the of
looting Lahore by his forces
His singular focus was the extermination of the
Sikhs, whom he
correctly recognised as the key impediment towards his overlordshin
of Punjab. He sent a
large detachment towards Amritsar to deal with
the Sikhs but it was routed by
Ranjit Singhis forces. Ranjit Singh laid
siege to Lahore and the Sikhs successfully resisted the Afghans until
Shah Zaman finally tried to buy the loyalty of individual
Sardars,
Another rebellion by his brother Mahmud forced him to return to
Kabul again. Once again, the Sikhs hounded the Afghans all the
way
from Gujranwala to the Jhelum as they withdrew.
Sada Kaurs grand design appeared to have been succesful. Her
young son-in-law was the de-facto master of Punjab and he was
irrevocably in her debt!
Who was this woman who had the foresight to see the
opportunity
rising from the ashes of Mughal and Afghan power and the chutzpah
to stand up and speak in what, despite the Gurus' dictums on the
equality of the sexes, was very much a manis world? Who recognised
the potential of the one-eyed, diminutive, pockmarked scion of one
of the weakest fiefdoms of Punjab? Who stood shoulder-to-shoulder
with him and helped him carve out one of the mightiest empires that
the Indian subcontinent had ever known-the only one that could
withstand the might of the British and the
Afghans?
Historians of different eras present widely varying assessments
of Sada Kaur.
Muhammad Latif in his History of the Panjab calls her'... one
of
the most remarkable women in the history of Punjab... the mainstay
 A Woman of Substance 4

of
Ranjit Singhs powe, the ladder, wherelby that monareh had heen
enabled to reach the stinmit of preatness. Fakir Syed Waheeduddin
in his work, 7he Real Ranjit Singh, refers to her as 'one of rhe most
high spirited and capable women in Sikh history' According ro
Khushwant Singh, she more than anyone else direc ted his (Ranjir

Singh's) unboundcd energy towards unifying the Punjab'. Iepel

Griffin, author of Ranjeet Singh writes: When his farher died, the
prospects of Ranjit Singh would have been very unfavourable had
it not been for his mother-in-law, Sada Kour, who was not only a
woman of the greatest ability, but had succeeded, as the widow and
heiress of Sirdar Gurbuksh Singh, to the hcad of the Kanheya mis.
This lady resolved, so far as she was able, to retain the power in her
own hands, and use the torce of both confederacies, Kanheyas and
Sukarchakias, to break the power of all rivals.' In The History of The
Sikhs, W.L. McGregor calls her one of the most artful and ambitious
women to figure in Sikh history and suggests that her eventual goal
was 'by getting control of the youthful Runjeet, she might easily
subject the Punjab to her dominion'.
While there seems to be startling consensus about the signifhicant
role that Sada Kaur played in Ranjit Singhis rise, she is hardly a
household name. Who exactly was Sada Kaur?
Sada Kaur was born in 1762 in Ferozepur during a time of great
turmoil. The mighty Mughal empire of Delhi had collapsed and a year
before her birth, Ahmad Shah Durrani had crushed the Marathas at
Panipat, eftfectively extending Afghan control over Punjab, all the way
to the Sutlej river. Throughout the repeated incursions of the Afghans
into Punjab, the Sikh Misls offered the only resistance that they
encountered. The Kanhaya Misl, founded and led by the formidable
Warrior Jai Singh was one of the most powerful, controlling a wide
Swathe of territory in the northern part of Punjab with their sway

Jammu and the hill in the Himalayan foothills.

states
extending to
Dasaunda Singh, the father of Sada Kaur arranged a match between
 146
The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia

his daughter and Gurbaksh Singh, son of Jai Singh, launching h

er
the Misls.
into the thick of the intrigue between
After the ycars of terrible repression in the early eighteenth
century, the Sikhs had started to organise around the Sarhar Khalas
as
bands jathas that would
together and
come
forming amorphous or

dissipate depending on the necds of the community. By 1733, the hey

were organised in two main jathas, the Budha (elder) Dal, which w
was

assignedthe task of protecting Amritsar and the laruna (younger

Dal, which was sent on various campaigns. By 1748, the combined
force, known as the Dal Khalsa had grown significantly under the
Nawab Kapur
leadership of sixty-three individual Jathedars (chiefs).
Singh, who was bythen the undisputed leader of the Sikhs felt thar
the proliferation of tiny fiefdoms was a strategic risk and led the
into eleven Misls.
reorganisation of the Dal Khalsa
Shah Durrani
Until around 1767, when the threat of Ahmed
remained united in the
loomed large over Punjab the Misls largely
command of the Sarbat Khalsa.
face of a c o m m o n enemy under the
fierce jockeying for power
However, as the threat started to recede,
started among them. The influence
of the Sarbat Khalsa started to

wane and the focus of the

Misls turned to seizing territory. The eleven

Misls and the nominal twelfth, based in Patiala, became the rulers

of Punjab.
life. As the young wife of
Little is known about Sada Kaurs early
handsome son ofJai Singh Kanhaya,
Gurbaksh Singh, the brave and
most powerful in Punjab,
she
whose Misl was by then one of the
However, despire
would have enjoyeda certain level of prominence. in
Sikh faith, men were unequivocally
the egalitarian ideals of the
live
and Sada Kaur seemed fated to
control of the destiny of Punjab was
wife and mother. In 1782, a daughter
the fairly typical life of a the young
great joy to
born to her and Gurbaksh Singh bringing The
Kaur, in honour of the
moon.
Mehtab
couple. They named her and his family
scion of the Kanhaya Misl
future looked bright for the
 A Woman of Substance 47

felr
lai powertul chief in his own right, had always
Singh, a

eatened by the might of the Bhangi Misl, clearly the most powerhu
t h r e a t e n e d

forces with Charat Singh, the chicf of fledgling the

t
In.
1774, he joined
on the Bhangis on the banks of
the river
S u

skerchakia Misl and took

k e r c h a k i

accident
Singh dicd in the battle in an
Charat
Basantar near Jammu.
Basantar near but the Bhangis were defeated
to set oft an explosive charge,
che tried
in Jammu changed hands. Charat Singh
was

d their territories
who started to look upon his
cceeded by his son Maha Singh,
from strength
S u c c

with suspicion as Jai Singh went

erstwhile Kanhaya ally
e r s t

Misl
Batala and Kalanaur from the Ramgarhia
wresting
ro strength, had also
the city of Sirhind. By the end of 1775, Jai Singh
and sacking the kingdom
to subjugate
Sansar Chand, the proud ruler of
managed fort.
with its legenadary thousand-year-old
of Kangra the Bhangi
Ranjit Deo of Jammu, a tributary of
In 1781, Raja Deo.
and was succeeded by
his son Brij Raj (Brij Lal)
chief died interest to the
and hence of great
lammu was a wealthy kingdom
Haqiqat
Brij Raj Deo reached
out to
alliance.
Kanhaya-Sukerchakia
proposing
one of the Kanhaya
chiefs, through Maha Singh,
Singh, ceded to the Bhangis by
his
him wrest back territory
that they help a reward of thirty
As a reward, he promised Haqiqat Singh
late father. concluded a marital
The Kanhayas, who had just
thousand rupees. the
were
somewhat reluctant and joined
alliance with the Bhangis,
When the territories finally won back, Brij
were

battle half-heartedly.
on his promise
to pay the thirty thousand rupees,
Raj Deo reneged to propose
to
This prompted Haqiqat Singh
enraging the Kanhayas. the legendary
wealth
forces and plunder
Singh that they join and
Maha
stole march on his allies
agreed but
a
of Jammu. Maha Singh ott as much as

Jammu, reportedly carrying

in late 1783 plundered felt that they had
The Kanhayas
worth of booty.
ten million rupees from Maha Singh,
demanded halfof the booty
been defrauded and died of pneumonia
and
share. Haqiqat Singh himself to take
which he refused to it
of the Kanhayas, Jai Singh took upon
the leader
148 The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia

Maha Singh to task and make sure that Haqiqat Singh's son, Ia.

Singh got his fair share.

After the death of Charat Singh. Jai Singh Kanhaya had beceome
the voung Maha Singhs mentor, assisting him in his early cona.
and even aranging his marriage to Raj Kaur, the daughter of ka

Gaipat Singh of Jind. He felt betrayed by his prorégé and w

swote
vengeance. On the festival of Diwali in 1784 several of the Misl
chiefs including Jai Singh and Maha Singh, assembled in Amritar
itsar
as was their custom. Maha Singh visited Jai Singh with an offering
of sweets in an attempt at reconciliation but was rudely rebuffed

It is said that when Maha Singh came to pay his respects, Jai Singh
covered his face with a sheet and pretended to be asleep, as his former
protégé sat for hours in attendance. The next day, an ultimatum was
sent to Maha Singh to cede the ten million plundered from Jammu
and restore the territories he had seized from various Sikh chiefs or
face the consequences.
Maha Singh made common cause with Jassa Singh Ramgarhia,
another powerful Sikh chief, who had been expelled beyond the
Sutlej by the Kanhayas after his territories had been annexed. He also
recruited the Raja of Kangra, Sansar Chand, who had been reduced
to vassalage of the Kanhayas. The forces of Maha Singh, Jassa Singh
Ramgarhia and Sansar Chand started to converge on the Kanhyas. Ji
Singh stayed back in Batala and sent his son Gurbaksh Singh at the
head of the Kanhaiya forces to engage with the invaders. In February
1785, a fherce battle was fought at Ramdevpura in which Gurbaksh
Singh was struck by an arrow in the chest and mortally wounded.
Jai Singh, who had by then joined the battle, was devastated. In The
History ofThePunjab, Mohammad Latif writes
When Jai Singh saw that his gallant son had fallen in the
engagement, after hand-to-hand combat with his adversaries, he
burst into tears, emptied his quiver ofits arrows and dismounting