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HISTORY— MUHAMMADAN PERIOD
[ch. xviii
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.
