L - Gurmat Veechar

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