Dina Arain: the master ‘double game’ player

[Kabira]

At the turn of the 18th century in the village of Sharakpur, just across the Ravi near Lahore, was born to an Arain farmer Channu a child he named Dina. A strong farming lad, his father suggested that he join the army. Here starts the amazing story of Dina Arain. The career of this man, whose guile remains unparalleled, changed in dramatic ways. Within a few years he started calling himself Dina Beg, further adjusting it to Adina. The Turkish influence over names in those days meant that after a name the word ‘Beg’ had to be inserted if one was to pretend that one belonged to a refined family.
The word ‘Adina’ has a biblical Hebrew origin, for this was the name of the bravest warrior in the army of King David having the strength of 30 men.

Thus we see this Arain farmer from Sharakpur settle finally for the name Adina Beg Khan, the word ‘Khan’ being the last inclusion so as to be seen as a leader.

The next move of Dina Arain was to get appointed the ‘patwari’ of the Kang area village in the Lohian area, near Sultanpur Lodhi, and in this position – within a year - he managed to consolidate his hold over a number of villages and large swathes of land. Within two years the entire Kang area was owned by him. His guile and ruthlessness knew no bounds, and very soon he managed to collect his own small Arain army.
Dina Arain then concentrated his attention on Lahore, where he became the favourite of the Governor of Lahore, Nawab Zakariya Khan. Every weekend he would send fruit baskets and gifts and praise the ruler for his wisdom, and would request that he be allowed to listen in on his ‘wise’ decisions. Adina Beg Khan had arrived, for the Governor appointed him the ‘Hakam’ of Sultanpur Lodhi.

The appointment was not without reason. After the invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739, the Sikhs had started asserting themselves to gain power and he was asked to crush them. Here we see the guile of Adina at its best. He converted adversity into an opportunity. Instead of suppressing the Sikhs, he encouraged them to organize under his influence and keep their strength ‘invisible’.
At Lahore he kept reporting that the Sikhs were no longer a threat. Beneath the peace much more was stirring, and the Lahore Governor got wise to the guile of the man.
Under pressure from Nawab Zakariya Khan, he was forced to drive them out of his territory. That Adina did with amazing ruthlessness, but in return refused to pay the money due to the Lahore government. He was invited to Lahore and arrested and subjected to torture.

On being set free after a year, he again bounced back by winning favour with the son of the Governor, Shah Nawaz Khan, after months of gifts and praise. He was, surprisingly, appointed Deputy Nazim under Shah Nawaz Khan. The time for a change had to be waited out, and Dina Arain of Sharakpur did that very well. Those who wait, never wait in vain.
After Zakariya Khan’s death on July 1, 1745, his two sons, Yahya Khan and Shah Nawaz Khan contested the succession. Dina Arain’s time had arrived. Adina Beg maintained good relations with both, showering both with gifts and praise.
Eventually Shah Nawaz Khan captured Lahore and immediately appointed Adina Beg chief of Jalandhar Doab. Dina Arain’s wait was over, for he again joined the power game.
Meanwhile, Nadir Shah died on June 19, 1747, and Ahmad Shah Durrani became ruler of Kabul and Qandahar. Shah Nawaz Khan heeded Adina Beg’s advice by inviting the Durrani king to attack Punjab. At the same time he warned the government at Delhi about the Durrani’s invasion.

As Ahmad Shah advanced into the country, Shah Nawaz Khan fled towards Delhi. Mu`in ul-Mulk, also known as Mir Mannu, son of Qamarud Din, the chief Wazir of the Delhi king, succeeded in checking the invader at Manupur, near Sirhind.

Adina Beg Khan, in an amazing and skillful ‘double switch’, joined hands with Mu`in ul-Mulk in the middle of the battle and was wounded. Mu`in ul-Mulk became Governor of Lahore, with Kaura Mall as his Diwan and Adina Beg Khan as Faujdar of the Jalandhar Doab as before.
His wealth multiplied very quickly and he became a force to be reckoned with. In what was then seen as a bizarre move he called on his old Sikh connections and formed an alliance. Very soon they became a force to be reckoned with.

As the Sikhs again started plundering the country, Ahmad Shah Durrani launched upon his third incursion into the Punjab in December 1751, this time forcing Mu`in ul-Mulk to surrender. Mu`in remained the Governor, but this time on Durrani’s behalf.

As the Sikh got out of hand, the Governor of Lahore and the forces of Adina Beg directed their energies towards quelling the Sikhs. On the festival of Hola Mohalla in March 1753, Adina Beg fell upon Sikh pilgrims at Anandpur killing a large number of them. The Sikhs retaliated by plundering villages in the Jalandhar and Bari Doabs.

But then the guile of Adina Beg went into overdrive. His new strategy was to come to terms with the Sikhs and he assigned some of the revenue of his territory to the Sikhs and admitted several of them, including Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, into his army. On the quiet Adina Beg Khan was preparing for much bigger ventures.
Mu`in ul-Mulk died on Nov 3, 1753, and during the period his widow, Murad Begum, also known as Mughlani Begum, assumed power, Adina Beg assumed independent authority in the Doab, extending his influence up to Sirhind in March 1755. He turned his attention towards Delhi, and after winning favour in the court, the Emperor of Delhi bestowed on him the title of Zafar Jarig Khan. The ruler of Kangra accepted his over lordship. In May 1756, he was appointed Governor of Lahore and Multan by the Mughal government of Delhi on payment of an annual tribute of 30 lakh of rupees.

The time to act against Adina Beg had come, and Ahmad Shah Durrani came to Mughlani Begum’s help and Adina Beg took refuge in the Sivalik hills. (The role of Mughlani Begum has been best described by my senior Rafiq Dogar in his book ‘Mughlani Begum’).

But again the guile of the man was such that the Afghans reappointed him Faujdar of the Jalandhar Doab. The time for Adina Beg to resort to yet another classic double game had arrived.
During Taimur Shah’s governorship (1757-58), Adina Beg began to look around for allies with a view to expelling the Afghans. The Sikhs and Adina Beg’s troops joined hands yet again and defeated the Afghans at Mahalpur, in Hoshiarpur district.

Adina Beg expressed his gratitude to the Sikhs by presenting a sum of a thousand rupees as homage to the Guru Granth Sahib and rupees 150,000 as protection money for the Jalandhar Doab.
Keeping up appearances with the Sikh sardars, he secretly wished to weaken their power. Here we the Sharakpur Arain play a classic double ‘pinzer’ move with amazing skill and guile. He invited the Marathas, who had taken Delhi, to come to Punjab, offering them Rs100,000 a day as long as the battle continued.
It was an offer that could not be refused. In a parallel secret move, he persuaded the Sikhs to help the Marathas against the Afghans. The Marathas led by Raghunath Rao, accompanied by the forces of the Sikhs as well as those of Adina Beg Khan, entered Lahore in April 1758. Dina Arain had made it to the top.
Adina Beg Khan, alias Dina Arain of Sharakpur, got the Governorship of the Punjab in 1758 at a promised cost of 75 lakh rupees a year to be paid to the Marathas. The Punjab had now three masters: the Mughals, the Afghans and the Marathas, but in reality only two Adina Beg Khan and the Sikhs.
But then the man from Sharakpur wanted complete power. He immediately resumed his campaign against the Sikhs, increasing his armed strength and hiring a thousand woodcutters to clear up the forests in which the Sikhs would seek refuge in times of stress. His plan was a complete massacre.

He laid siege to the Sikh fort of Ram Rauni at Amritsar. Before the Sikhs rallied to confront him, Adina Beg Khan alias Dina Arain died of a colic attack at Batala on Sept 10, 1758. He was buried at Khanpur, just over a mile northwest of Hoshiarpur. Thus came to an end the saga of, probably, the most skillful player in Lahore and Punjab after the fall of the Mughals and the rise of the Sikhs.

Dina Arain: the master ‘double game’ player - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

 

[Kabira]

@Samandri can you shed more light on this individual named Adina Beg?

@Jaggu

 

[Samandri]

When i read the same article last year, i thought " i wonder Razpak knows about chauhdry Adina?"

An interesting character. Reminds me of Peter Baelish from game of thrones, similarly not of noble/royal birth , ascending the ladder with smart game play. Like Peter Baelish, Adina thrived on choas and used it as ladder. If you think about it, this man is responsible for invasion of Punjab by Afghans and later invasion of Punjab by Marathas. Adina Arian triggered the greatest conflict of 18h century India by involving Afghans in Punjab and then causing their war with Marathas for Punjab which led to battle of Panipat. He was pimping every one, Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and Marathas.

His relationship with Sikhs is beyond my understanding, Sikhs should have beheaded this guy after repeated testings. @Jaggu was he eloping with same sikh misl every time?

 

[Jaggu]

When i read the same article last year, i thought " i wonder Razpak knows about chauhdry Adina?"

An interesting character. Reminds me of Peter Baelish from game of thrones, similarly not of noble/royal birth , ascending the ladder with smart game play. Like Peter Baelish, Adina thrived on choas and used it as ladder. If you think about it, this man is responsible for invasion of Punjab by Afghans and later invasion of Punjab by Marathas. Adina Arian triggered the greatest conflict of 18h century India by involving Afghans in Punjab and then causing their war with Marathas for Punjab which led to battle of Panipat. He was pimping every one, Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and Marathas.

His relationship with Sikhs is beyond my understanding, Sikhs should have beheaded this guy after repeated testings. @Jaggu was he eloping with same sikh misl every time?

while he was in charge of Jalandhar Doab he showed favourable signs towards Sikhs and even encouraged Sikhs by giving them information of where to attack his rivals in the Mughal administration. When he was ordered to take action against Sikhs, he did it reluctantly. But again when he needed Sikhs, they would form an alliance. It was like a marriage of convenience.

Even though he is now largely forgotten but Adina Beg was the central figure in the famous Maratha invasion of Punjab. He formed an alliance between the Mughals, Marathas and the Sikhs. It was this tripartite alliance which then drove out the Afghans from across the Punjab. After the Afghans were driven out, the Marathas left a small force in Punjab and let the Mughals run the show. The Sikhs had greatly benefited from this alliance with captured weapons. But Adina Beg was now the most powerful man in Punjab. Although he used the Sikhs in driving out the Afghans, but he was in no mood to see them grow strong. He then turned on the Sikhs and killed a great many of them. Adina Beg only listened to the Marathas, but the Marathas remained quiet spectators in Punjab during this time. This was one of the main reasons why the Sikhs also remained neutral during the 3rd battle of Panipat and did not help the Marathas against the Afghans.

Overall Adina Beg was a highly intelligent man. He rose up from nothing. He did not come from an aristocratic background. He did not inherit anything, he was a self made man. He enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Marathas. With the Sikhs he was friendly at first but then began persecuting them when he no longer needed them. But he absolutely hated the Afghans and used any opportunity to drive them out of Punjab. A whole book can be written on this man.

 

[Zaalim]

When i read the same article last year, i thought " i wonder Razpak knows about chauhdry Adina?"

An interesting character. Reminds me of Peter Baelish from game of thrones, similarly not of noble/royal birth , ascending the ladder with smart game play. Like Peter Baelish, Adina thrived on choas and used it as ladder. If you think about it, this man is responsible for invasion of Punjab by Afghans and later invasion of Punjab by Marathas. Adina Arian triggered the greatest conflict of 18h century India by involving Afghans in Punjab and then causing their war with Marathas for Punjab which led to battle of Panipat. He was pimping every one, Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and Marathas.

His relationship with Sikhs is beyond my understanding, Sikhs should have beheaded this guy after repeated testings. @Jaggu was he eloping with same sikh misl every time?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool everyone in the region over a dozen times, shame on everybody.

He played off everyone's greed against each other. And Jaggu is wrong, he did not hate Afghans, Mughals, Sikhs, or Marathas. He was entirely in it for himself.

 

[Kabira]

I will copy paste from book ''Punjab History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten''. Rajmoh Gandhi when Adina Beg turned against sikhs.

''After years spent in ‘toil, danger and anxiety’,10 the Arain who knew when to be bold and when to submit had realized his dream. ‘The Sikhs he [had] amused, the Delhi Court he despised, the Afghans he bewildered, and the Marathas he effectually influenced in his favour to break the power of both the Sikhs and the Afghans and to obtain his own independence.’11

All of Punjab, from the Indus to the Jamuna, was now his to govern without serious hindrance, for Delhi was hopelessly weak, the Afghans had gone, and his Maratha suzerains lived too far away to give trouble. As for the Punjabis, whether Muslim, Hindu or Sikh, they had known of Adina for about twenty years. His ‘vigour, discipline and good government’ had made him popular with a peasantry milked by invasions, clashes and depredations.12

The viceroy’s ability to collect the seventy-five lakhs for the Marathas depended on the well-being of peasants and merchants who had not felt safe for years. Security would return to Punjab if the Sikhs ceased their attacks. Adina tried to win the cooperation of the Sikhs, among whom he had influential friends.13 In the end, he ‘advised the Sikhs to cease their lawless activities. But they defied him, so he decided to subdue them’.14

Allies turning on one another has been a staple of our story. It happened again in the summer of 1758 as Adina sought to suppress defiant Sikh groups who had fought at his side only a few weeks earlier. Initially possessing an army of 10,000 horse and foot, Adina mobilized fresh support from chiefs and zamindars in every doab and territory. His backers included Gakhar, Janjua and Gheba chiefs from the Sindh Sagar doab; Chaudhry Rahmat Khan Waraich from the Chej doab; Raja Ranjit Dev of Jammu; several zamindars from the Rachna doab; many chiefs from the Bari doab, including a Sikh zamindar, Nihan Singh Randhawa; and chiefs and merchants from Adina’s own Jullundur doab.

This fighting force quickly assembled by Adina was unprecedented in at least two ways. It was, for one thing, a native or Punjabi force, very different from the outsider armies—Afghan, Mughal, Maratha or whatever—whose weight Punjab had borne for decades. Second, it was a force drawn from a variety of castes, tribes, regions and religions. No one before Adina had put together such a composite army.

Adina’s enemy, which too sought control over Punjab, was also native to the region. In fact, as we have marked earlier, the Sikhs inspired by Guru Gobind Singh comprised the first substantial Punjabi force seen in centuries. Half a century after the Guru’s death, new generations of recruits were providing numbers and skills to a dozen or so autonomous Sikh ‘armies’ dominating different parts of Punjab, each with its own chief.

While Adina’s force had behind it the authority of the state, the Sikh rebels felt bolstered by two inner convictions, one religio-political and the other psychological. Believing that the Khalsa was destined to rule, the Sikhs also felt they had deep scores to settle. In the Punjab of the late 1750s, order or authority thus stood on one side and passion on the other. However, the Maratha empire, which had given Adina authority, wholly lacked, among Punjabis, the prestige the Mughals had enjoyed half a century earlier. If anything, the viceroy’s personal prestige was larger than that of the new empire.

Despite the broad support he had mobilized, Adina lost the first round. A ‘strong body of Sikhs’ surprised him by showing up close to Adinanagar. The viceroy sent his diwan, a Hindu named Hira Mal, and another influential Hindu, Guru Aqil Das of Jandiala, to deal with them. However, in a fierce battle fought near the town of Qadian, Hira Mal was slain, his troops fled, and his baggage was seized by the Sikhs. The defeat occurred even though a few prominent Sikhs had fought alongside Hira Mal.15

The records state that Adina was ‘chagrined’ at the defeat and death of his diwan. His subsequent acts show that he became vengeful as well. Ordering village and clan chiefs to join his forces, the viceroy also ‘made them take an oath that they would attack the Sikhs and drive them away’ and that any Sikh found would be captured or killed.16 Going by what a contemporary Batala-based historian named Ahmad Shah wrote, Adina made headway:

''All Punjab zamindars submitted to [Adina] and started devising plans for rooting out the Sikhs. Of all the zamindars of Punjab, the Randhawas showed the greatest readiness in destroying [the rebels]… The Sikhs were very much perturbed and relaxed their activities. Some fled away and hid themselves.17''


Since rebels were hiding in the jungles, one of Adina’s trusted nobles, Mirza Aziz Baksh, was tasked with cutting down trees and given ‘one thousand carpenters with steel hatchets and axes’ for the purpose.18 Ahmad Shah, the Batala historian, adds however that ‘a body of Sikhs, bolder than the rest, showed the greatest gallantry’, proceeded to Amritsar to protect Sikh sites there, and took shelter in the Ram Rauni mud fort, where ten years earlier another Sikh band had displayed bitter resistance.

In the end, Mirza Aziz was able to take the fort, but not before many in his force fell to the matchlocks and arrows of the intrepid Sikhs, a few of whom stormed out on foot or horseback to attack Adina’s multitudes. Some of the Ram Rauni Sikhs escaped but most were captured or killed.

Other Sikh rebels fled towards the Malwa region, as they called it, which overlapped with the sarkar of Sirhind. There Sadiq Beg Khan was ready for them with his guns, and though the Sikhs again surprised government troops with daring counter-attacks, they eventually had to run and hide when they did not fall.

Adina kept Muslim, Hindu and Sikh chiefs contented. Men like Ranjit Dev of Jammu, Ghamand Chand, chief of the Kangra hill state, Barbhag Singh of Kartarpur, and Rai Ibrahim of Kapurthala became his ‘great allies’.19 He cut his army’s costs by rotating his soldiers every six months. Ingenious as well as zealous in collecting revenue, he fined a Jullundur qazi who had been caught with a heap of ground poppy thirty thousand rupees for ‘violating the Qur’anic injunction’ against intoxicants.20

In the middle of the summer of 1758, Adina seemed poised to give Punjab what it had long lacked, a native-led administration which understood the needs of peasants and traders. However, two ‘acts of God’ intervened. First, rains due in July and August failed completely and a severe famine hit Punjab. The price of wheat rose sharply.
Adina’s impulsive response was a blunder. Wishing to starve out the Sikhs of the Manjha (the central Punjab area around Lahore, Amritsar and Batala), he prevented the import of wheat from Malwa, a ban that hurt Manjha’s Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike, apart from hardening Sikh opposition. The poor were ‘hit… extremely hard and they left their homes migrating in all directions’. Recording this history in the early 1860s, Aliuddin, a writer in British employ in Lahore, would add the comment, ‘With the will of God the Sikhs grew stronger daily.’21

Then, secondly, Adina himself suddenly fell ill. ‘Colic’ is how the illness was described. Within days, on 15 September, he died in Batala. It is unlikely that he was more than fifty years old. In accordance with his will, Adina was buried in Khanpur, near Hoshiarpur, in the part of Punjab he was attached to and where he had lived the longest, the Jullundur doab.''

 

[Jaggu]

He played off everyone's greed against each other. And Jaggu is wrong, he did not hate Afghans, Mughals, Sikhs, or Marathas. He was entirely in it for himself.

Actually that is a fair assessment. He wanted to come out on top and become the most powerful man in Punjab. And he did it very skillfully.

In 1755 when the Rohillas under Qutab Khan invaded Sirhind, the Afghan troops under the employ of Sirhind's governor joined the Rohillas. When all the Mughals in Dehli were scared to confront this formidable Afghan army in Sirhind, only Adina Beg gathered the courage to fight them. Adina Beg himself was alarmed at what was happening in Sirhind because he did not want such a powerful foe to be right next to him. So he then approached the Sikhs for an alliance. This alliance was at least 50,000 strong with cannons and they marched straight to Sirhind. When the Afghan Nawab of Malerkotla Jamal Khan found out, he immediately arrived with his brothers and sons at the head of a large Afghan army to further strengthen the Rohilla troops against Adina Beg. The battle between the two sides occurred on April 11th, 1755.

The author of Ahwal e Adina Beg Khan says that the Afghans fought bravely and initially defeated Adina Beg and his Commander in Chief Aziz Beg and other officers had even retreated. Seeing this, Adina Beg was also about to retreat when he was stopped by his friend Diwan Bishambar Das who said to him "it is a matter of regret if you run away at this time, You will lose all respect. If we die fighting in this battle, we will leave a name behind us; otherwise we will be put to shame in both the world." These words had the desired effect and immediately Adina beg rallied his troops to fight the Afghans. A bullet hit Qutab Khan and he died immediately. Seeing their chief dead, the Afghans lost heart and retreated even though they had almost won the battle. This battle greatly enhanced his reputation among the Mughals.

 

[Kabira]

Actually that is a fair assessment. He wanted to come out on top and become the most powerful man in Punjab. And he did it very skillfully.

''In 1855 when the Rohillas under Qutab Khan invaded Sirhind, the Afghan troops under the employ of Sirhind's governor joined the Rohillas. When all the Mughals in Dehli were scared to confront this formidable Afghan army in Sirhind, only Adina Beg gathered the courage to fight them. Adina Beg himself was alarmed at what was happening in Sirhind because he did not want such a powerful foe to be fight next to him. So he then approached the Sikhs for an alliance. This alliance was at least 50,000 strong with cannons and they marched straight to Sirhind. When the Afghan Nawab of Malerkotla Jamal Khan found out, he immediately arrived with his brothers and sons at the head of a large Afghan army to further strengthen the Rohilla troops against the Adina Beg. The battle between the two sides occurred on April 11th, 1755.

The author of Ahwal e Adina Beg Khan says that the Afghans fought bravely and initially defeated Adina Beg and his Commander in Chief Aziz Beg and other officers had even retreated. Seeing this, Adina Beg was also about to retreat when he was stopped by his friend Diwan Bishambar Das who said to him "it is a matter of regret if you run away at this time, You will lose all respect. If we die fighting in this battle, we will leave a name behind us; otherwise we will be put to shame in both the world." These words had the desired effect and immediately Adina beg rallied his troops to fight the Afghans. A bullet hit Qutab Khan and he died immediately. Seeing their chief dead, the Afghans lost heart and retreated even though they had almost won the battle. This battle greatly enhanced his reputation among the Mughals.

I have been reading Rajmoh Gandhi book on history of punjab, it does not go in to fine details but still interesting.

''In his soil-rich Jullundur doab, Adina Beg Khan too profited from the squabbles that preoccupied Delhi and Lahore. Independent of any master, he had augmented his resources and won prestige by maintaining peace and order in his doab, a state of affairs not obtaining in Lahore or Delhi or much of Punjab. Meticulous in administration, he had also shrewdly handled landlords, cultivators and traders.

In April 1755, Adina won fresh laurels after Rohillas from east of the Jamuna, who too felt themselves independent of all masters, including the Delhi emperor, attempted to take over the territory of Sirhind as well as portions of the Jullundur doab. Adina quickly put together a force of ‘about 50,000 horses and the same number of foot’95 to fight them. The force included his own soldiers, others raised by his doab’s Muslim zamindars, and—significantly but not surprisingly—an army of Sikhs. The Adina-led alliance defeated the Rohillas.

A grateful Alamgir II gave the Arain a grand new title but more meaningful was the fact that Adina now controlled both the Jullundur doab and the large sarkar of Sirhind. The hill rajas, too, offered Adina allegiance.''

 

[Samandri]

S.M.Lateef writes about Adina beg

 

[Zaalim]

Adina Beg was the first real life troll.

 

[Sam_Bajwa]

while he was in charge of Jalandhar Doab he showed favourable signs towards Sikhs and even encouraged Sikhs by giving them information of where to attack his rivals in the Mughal administration. When he was ordered to take action against Sikhs, he did it reluctantly. But again when he needed Sikhs, they would form an alliance. It was like a marriage of convenience.

Even though he is now largely forgotten but Adina Beg was the central figure in the famous Maratha invasion of Punjab. He formed an alliance between the Mughals, Marathas and the Sikhs. It was this tripartite alliance which then drove out the Afghans from across the Punjab. After the Afghans were driven out, the Marathas left a small force in Punjab and let the Mughals run the show. The Sikhs had greatly benefited from this alliance with captured weapons. But Adina Beg was now the most powerful man in Punjab. Although he used the Sikhs in driving out the Afghans, but he was in no mood to see them grow strong. He then turned on the Sikhs and killed a great many of them. Adina Beg only listened to the Marathas, but the Marathas remained quiet spectators in Punjab during this time. This was one of the main reasons why the Sikhs also remained neutral during the 3rd battle of Panipat and did not help the Marathas against the Afghans.

Overall Adina Beg was a highly intelligent man. He rose up from nothing. He did not come from an aristocratic background. He did not inherit anything, he was a self made man. He enjoyed a friendly relationship with the Marathas. With the Sikhs he was friendly at first but then began persecuting them when he no longer needed them. But he absolutely hated the Afghans and used any opportunity to drive them out of Punjab. A whole book can be written on this man.

Sir I have two questions
Were the sikhs in a position to help the Marathas ? Please put some light on the military capabilities of the sikhs at that particular time.
what would have been the outcome if the sikhs were on the side of the Marathas ?

 

[Kabira]

I always wondered why Sikhs didn't help Marathas. Now it all make sense...

Adina was killing sikhs, and marathas didn't stop him because they wanted 75 lack at any cost. Or maybe sikhs though waiting out was best option since they at that time were in to guerilla warfare which suited them. Anyway why Randhawas sikhs were against other sikhs? @Jaggu

 

[Jaggu]

Sir I have two questions
Were the sikhs in a position to help the Marathas ? Please put some light on the military capabilities of the sikhs at that particular time.
what would have been the outcome if the sikhs were on the side of the Marathas ?

I always wondered why Sikhs didn't help Marathas. Now it all make sense...

Adina was killing sikhs, and marathas didn't stop him because they wanted 75 lack at any cost. Or maybe sikhs though waiting out was best option since they at that time were in to guerilla warfare which suited them. Anyway why Randhawas sikhs were against other sikhs? @Jaggu

Sikhs were in a position to help them. So were the Jats of Bharatpur and the Rajputs in Rajputana. But they all stayed neutral. For the Sikhs, they had several reasons for remaining neutral. When Adina beg turned against the Sikhs he had gotten all the powerful chiefs and tribes of Punjab on his side, it resulted in thousands of Sikhs being killed and driven out of Punjab. Sikhs had to flee Punjab and take refuge in Malwa region. Since Malwa region overlapped the Sirhind suba, it's governor Sadiq Beg had begun attacking Sikhs there under strict orders of Adina Beg.

At this time Punjab was in ruins due to this constant fighting. Adding to the misery, the rains of July August failed and a famine broke out in Punjab. Wheat was becoming increasingly rare in Punjab, and what made things worse is that Adina Beg had imposed an economic blockade of Malwa region preventing wheat from being imported from Malwa even in such a desperate situation in order to starve out the Sikhs. This is when the peasants of Punjab began to suffer and felt resentment towards Adina Beg. According to contemporary writer Ali Ud Din, this resulted in a huge amount of peasants leaving their homes from all directions and swelling the Sikh ranks and the Sikhs grew stronger.

While all this fighting was happening, the Marathas remained neutral even while thousands of Sikhs had been killed and driven out of Punjab. All they cared about was the 75 lakhs that Adina beg promised to give them annually. So Sikhs also remained neutral during battle of Panipat which happened just three years later.

Your second question, yes Sikhs could have been useful allies of the Marathas during the Battle of Panipat just as they were useful allies to the Marathas when the tripartite alliance drove out the Afghans from Punjab in 1758. During the battle of Panipat in 1761 the Afghans and Marathas were about evenly matched. So if the Marathas had an extra 15 to 20 thousand men joining them, this could have tipped the balance in their favour. If the Sikhs had joined then perhaps the Jats of Bharatpur might have also been convinced to join with the same amount of troops.

As for Randhawas, at the time they were not Khalsa Sikhs. Later on, many of them became Sikhs. There was also a powerful religious chief named Aqil Das of Jandiala who had an army. He was the head of a religious sect but he was an enemy of the Sikhs. Many Jats of Jandiala were his followers. He always joined in any coalition against the Sikhs including the one by Adina Beg. Later on he became a very close ally of Ahmad Shah Abdali.

 

[Kabira]

Sikhs were in a position to help them. So were the Jats of Bharatpur and the Rajputs in Rajputana. But they all stayed neutral. For the Sikhs, they had several reasons for remaining neutral. When Adina beg turned against the Sikhs he had gotten all the powerful chiefs and tribes of Punjab on his side, it resulted in thousands of Sikhs being killed and driven out of Punjab. Sikhs had to flee Punjab and take refuge in Malwa region. Since Malwa region overlapped the Sirhind suba, it's governor Sadiq Beg had begun attacking Sikhs there under strict orders of Adina Beg.

At this time Punjab was in ruins due to this constant fighting. Adding to the misery, the rains of July August failed and a famine broke out in Punjab. Wheat was becoming increasingly rare in Punjab, and what made things worse is that Adina Beg had imposed an economic blockade of Malwa region preventing wheat from being imported from Malwa even in such a desperate situation in order to starve out the Sikhs. This is when the peasants of Punjab began to suffer and felt resentment towards Adina Beg. According to contemporary writer Ali Ud Din, this resulted in a huge amount of peasants leaving their homes from all directions and swelling the Sikh ranks and the Sikhs grew stronger.

While all this fighting was happening, the Marathas remained neutral even while thousands of Sikhs had been killed and driven out of Punjab. All they cared about was the 75 lakhs that Adina beg promised to give them annually. So Sikhs also remained neutral during battle of Panipat which happened just three years later.

Your second question, yes Sikhs could have been useful allies of the Marathas during the Battle of Panipat just as they were useful allies to the Marathas when the tripartite alliance drove out the Afghans from Punjab in 1758. During the battle of Panipat in 1761 the Afghans and Marathas were about evenly matched. So if the Marathas had an extra 15 to 20 thousand men joining them, this could have tipped the balance in their favour. If the Sikhs had joined then perhaps the Jats of Bharatpur might have also been convinced to join with the same amount of troops.

As for Randhawas, at the time they were not Khalsa Sikhs. Later on, many of them became Sikhs. There was also a powerful religious chief named Aqil Das of Jandiala who had an army. He was the head of a religious sect but he was an enemy of the Sikhs. Many Jats of Jandiala were his followers. He always joined in any coalition against the Sikhs including the one by Adina Beg. Later on he became a very close ally of Ahmad Shah Abdali.

Randhawas were sikhs but not khalsa sikhs? Whats the difference? They were from Jandiala?

 

[Jaggu]

Randhawas were sikhs but not khalsa sikhs? Whats the difference? They were from Jandiala?

Further research into this, it seems Randhawas were Sikhs and their chief was a powerful Zamindhar, Nidhan Singh Randhawa. They had aligned themselves with Adina Beg.

On the other hand, Aqil Das was a head of a sect in Jandiala region in Amritsar district. He had an army and a fort in Jandiala.