Many a scholar, surprisingly, think that the Sikh era started in 1799 with the arrival of Ranjit Singh of the Sukarchakia Misl at the gates of Lahore and ended with the arrival of the East India Company forces in 1849 completing a 50-year period.

Popular history seldom tells us all the facts. Just as Mahmud of Turko-Afghan invader and looter was beaten more times than he conquered others. But that is another story. Let us stick to the Sikhs and their rule of Lahore.

Perceptions about Ranjit Singh are largely incorrect, which lend itself to misunderstanding of the reasons for the rise of the Sikhs. The first Sikh rulers of Lahore were the Sikh Triumvirate of Lehna Singh Majithia, Gujjar Singh of the Bhangi Misl and Sobha Singh of the Kanhiya Misl, who took over Lahore in 1766 after a prolonged guerrilla war with the Afghan forces of Ahmed Shah Abdali. Ranjit Singh was yet to be born. If anything, the rise of Ranjit Singh has a lot, if everything, to do with the success of the Sikh Triumvirate. The Afghan marauder returned in December of the same year only to see the three quickly vacate the city and return to a brutal guerrilla fighting mode. In a way this was their contribution to the ‘science’ of rapid movement guerilla warfare.

Abdali inquired from the elite of Lahore about the three Sikh rulers, only to get a very positive response.The people of Lahore invariably informed him that the Sikhs were wise and kind rulers and had started rebuilding the destroyed city. He was impressed and sent a basket of Afghan dried fruit to the main person in the Sikh Triumvirate, Lehna Singh, with an offer of peace. The wise Sikh returned the gift with a basket of dried gram (channay) signalling that they were prepared to fight it out.

Ahmed Shah left Lahore after the Sikhs attacked his army in virtually hundreds of ‘hit-and-run’ raids all along his return flight leaving them helpless. Thus, we see that by 1769 the Sikh Triumvirate had established their rule firmly. This is the beginning of the Sikh era which ended in three phases.

The first is the Sikh Triumvirate Phase from 1769 to 1799, a 30-year period of consolidation in which Lahore was fortified and emerged as an important trading city. These three rulers divided Lahore into three separate areas with Lehna Singh ruling over the Lahore Fort and the Walled City, with Gujjar Singh Bhangi taking up the eastern part of Lahore up to the Shalamar Gardens. Sobha Singh took control of the western part up to Niaz Beg. With Lehna Singh having his own fort, Gujjar Singh built a new fort which to this day is named Qila Gujjar Singh. If you walk along the road to the east of Nicholson Road, you can still see a portion of the fort gateway as part of a house.

Sobha Singh built his fort in the garden of Zebun Nisa, whose outer gateway is the Chauburji Gateway. This fort gave the area its name Nawan Kot, or the new fort. Hence with three forts near one another these three Sikh rulers ruled for a good 30 years. The people of Lahore considered them to be very fair and able, and they decided cases quickly and very fairly. Besides rapid and fair justice these three rulers also attended to the religious needs of the Hindus and Muslims, attending their festivities and sending sweets to religious leaders. Sadly, these three wise rulers have been depicted as drunkards and opium addicts, which is contrary to their actual lifestyles. Probably their Misl’s name Bhangi got the better of them. Sadly, serious researchers also follow this ‘weird’ logic.

The fact remains that the Bhangi Misl was among the largest Sikh Misl with its headquarters in Amritsar, whose original name was Chak Guru and its territory stretched to Attock. It was the strongest in western Punjab and was founded in the early 17th century after Sardar Chajja Singh was initiated by Baba Banda Singh Bahadar, who can practically be termed as the founder of militant Sikhism. This Misl’s main rival were the Sukarchakia Misl, who continued to fight and weaken them till their leader, the young Ranjit Singh, took over Lahore in 1799. This marks the second phase of Sikh rule over Lahore. Both the Bhangi and the Sukarchakia ‘misls’ managed to enter Lahore assisted by the Arian traders and agriculturists. In a way these Arain families remain a major political force of Lahore. The Bhangi name lives on in Lahore in the shape of the ‘Bhangianwali Tope’, a cannon belonging to the Bhangi Misl. This legendary cannon was cast in Lahore in the Nila Gumbad mausoleum in 1757 by a Lahore gunsmith named Nazir Shah on the orders of Ahmed Shah Durrani’s governor Shah Wali Khan. Afghan soldiers went around Lahore and collected all the brass and copper kitchen pots from people’s houses. This massive cannon was first used in the Battle of Panipat in 1761. It was then ordered to be taken to Kabul, but on the way it sank in the River Chenab. At this stage the Bhangi ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh Bhangi, a Dhillon Jat, attacked and retrieved the cannon from the Afghans in the Battle of Kot Khawaja Saeed, now part of Lahore. It lay in the Shah Burj of the Lahore Fort and was gifted to the Sukarchakia Misl leader Charat Singh as part of war spoils as is Sikh tradition. He took it to Gujranwala fort. There the Punjabi Jatt Chathas of Wazirabad snatched it and took it to their village of Ahmadnagar.

In a fight between two Chatha brothers over property, Gujjar Singh Bhangi sided with one and managed to take this cannon with him as a war prize. Hence the name Bhangianwali Tope stuck. Amazingly two years later Charat Singh Sukarchakia attacked and got his gun back, only to lose it to an attacking Afghan army. A year later, Jhanda Singh Bhangi defeated the Chatha Jatts and moved the cannon to Amritsar, which was their capital. In 1802 after Ranjit Singh defeated the rulers of Amritsar, he took possession of this famous cannon, whose name still is Bhangianwali Tope. It was renamed by the British as Zamzama in line with a Persian inscription on the cannon which says this ‘Zamzama can blow away even the forts of Heaven”. The last battle in which it was used was the Battle of Multan where a wheel collapsed. It lay outside Delhi Gate after being shipped to Lahore up the River Ravi, finally being dumped in the garden where today is the Lahore Museum. Finally, it was restored and put on its present pedestal. The 30-year rule of the three ‘Misls’ and the ‘Tope’ are all linked to the rise of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. The Arains of Lahore helped the Sikh Triumvirate rulers and the ‘Tope’ have a far greater role in our history than most imagine.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2024