held her own against her son-in-law, successfully, till 1820. The possessions of the Kanheyas included a large part of the Amritsar and Gurdáspur districts. A second lady of this house, Ráni Chand Kour, who married Prince Kharak Singh, the only son of the great Mahárájá, had as stormy and eventful a life as Sada Kour, and the adventures of these intriguing women show how powerful female influence was among the Sikhs under the liberal creed of Nának and Govind Singh.
The Rámgarhia misl shared with the Kanheyas the sacred city of Amritsar and the neighbouring districts. It could at the height of its power put eight thousand fighting men into the field. Sirdár Jassa Singh, who was the most distinguished of its captains, succeeded to its leadership in 1758. He first fortified Amritsar, a portion of which he surrounded with a high mud wall, calling it Rám Rowni or the fort of God. It was soon attacked and destroyed by Adina Beg, the imperial governor of the Jálandhar Doáb; but, on his death, Jassa Singh rebuilt it, and renamed it Rámgarh, from which the confederacy took its name.
He was a famous fighting baron and made long expeditions, plundering up to the walls of Delhi. On one occasion he penetrated into the heart of the city and carried off four guns from the Mughal quarter. The governor of Meerut paid him tribute.
The Singhpúria confederacy was at one time very powerful, and, before the days of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Ala Singh of Patiála, its founder, Sirdár
