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PROLOGUE<br />
The decline of the Sikh kingdom within a decade of the<br />
death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh presents a saga of tragic events<br />
that touch the inner-most feelings of the Punjabis even today.<br />
No wonder, an account of the fIrst Punjab War of 1845 presented<br />
by Shah Mohammed in his famous ]angnamah has been looked<br />
upon as the best requiem written on the faU of the Sikh kingdom.<br />
Shah Mohammed's ]angnamah leaves no doubt that Ranjit<br />
Singh's regime as represented by the Khalsa Darbar had<br />
identilled itself with the aspirations of the Punjabis as a whole<br />
and had thereby come to symbolise the Punjabi pride. Because<br />
of this quality Shah Mohammed's account has attracted equal<br />
attention of historians and the litterateur. The doyen of Punjab<br />
history, Professor Sita Ram Kohli cast a critical look on this<br />
langnamah in 1956, when he edited the text by appending a<br />
scholarly introduction to it. He accepts that Shah Mohammed<br />
belonged to the lineage of Sultan Mahmud, an artillery offIcer<br />
of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was well-educated. Professor Kohli<br />
afflfffiS that the narrative given by Shah Mohammed presents a<br />
balanced and unbiased account of the events. Still, the author<br />
of the ]angnamah also does not hesitate to pass his own<br />
judgments on men and events. The correctness of the events<br />
enumerated by Shah Mohammed remains unassailable which<br />
makes it a flfst-rate historical source. Sant Singh Sekhon, a<br />
celebrated Punjabi literary critic, looks at the ]angnamah as a<br />
literary piece. He says: liThe skill and technical virtuosity in<br />
[angnamah Hind-Punjab (the original name of ]angnamah by<br />
Shah Mohammed) is by no means consistently uniform. While<br />
mostly the lines show a felicituous style and skill in expression,<br />
there are places where expression just fills the gaps, which<br />
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