century _Sardar_ Jassa Singh of Kapurthala, head of the Ahluwalia _misl_, was the leading man among the Sikhs. Timur having defiled the tank at Amritsar, Jassa Singh avenged the insult by occupying Lahore in 1756, and the Afghan prince withdrew across the Indus. Adina Beg, the governor of the Jalandhar Doab, called in the Mahrattas, who drove the Sikhs out in 1758. Ahmad Shah's fifth invasion in 1761 was rendered memorable by his great victory over the Mahratta confederacy at Panipat. When he returned to Kabul, the Sikhs besieged his governor, Zin Khan, in Sirhind. Next year Ahmad Shah returned, and repaid their audacity by a crushing defeat near Barnala. They soon rallied, and, in 1763, under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Raja Ala Singh of Patiala razed Sirhind to the ground. After the sack the Sikh horsemen rode over the plains between Sirhind and Karnal, each man claiming for his own any village into which in passing he had thrown some portion of his garments. This was the origin of the numerous petty chiefships and confederacies of horsemen, which, along with the Phulkian States, the British Government took under its protection in 1808. In 1764 the chiefs of the Bhangi _misl_ occupied Lahore. CHAPTER XIX HISTORY (_continued_). THE SIKH PERIOD, 1764-1849 A.D. ~Rise of Ranjit Singh.~--The Bhangis held Lahore with brief intervals for 25 years. In 1799, Ranjit Singh, basing his claim on a grant from Shah Zaman, the grandson of Ahmad Shah, drove them out, and inaugurated the remarkable career which ended with his death in 1839. When he took Lahore the future Maharaja was only nineteen years of age. He was the head of the Sukarchakia _misl_, which had its headquarters at Gujranwala. Mean in appearance, his face marked and one eye closed by the ravages of smallpox, he was the one man of genius the Jat tribe has produced. A splendid horseman, a bold leader, a cool thinker untroubled with scruples, an unerring judge of character, he was bound to rise in such times. He set himself to put down every Sikh rival and to profit by the waning of the Durani power to make himself master of their possessions in the Panjab. Pluck, patience, and guile broke down all opposition among the Manjha Sikhs. The Sikh chiefs to the south of the Sutlej were only saved from the same fate by throwing themselves in 1808 on the protection of the English, who six years earlier had occupied Delhi, and by taking under their protection the blind old Emperor, Shah Alam, had virtually proclaimed themselves the paramount power in India. For 44 years he had been only a piece in the game played by Mahrattas, Rohillas, and the English in alliance with the Nawab Wazir of Oudh. [Illustration: Fig. 61. Maharaja Ranjit Singh. (_From a picture book said to have been prepared for Maharaja Dalip Singh._)]