and Jaroli, and its representatives still hold charge of the sacred shrine of Damdama.
Such is a sketch of the fighting confederacies of the Sikhs during the eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth. But their composition was always changing, and their possessions passed from one hand to another very rapidly. They fought against each other more often than against the common enemy the Muhammadans, and their internecine war was only ended by Mahárájá Ranjít Singh crushing all who were not shielded by the British guarantee. Even within the borders of each confederacy itself, the barons were always quarrelling, and first one chief and then another took the lead. This was due to the constitution of Sikhism, under which no such thing as vassalage or feudal superiority was acknowledged. The principle of the creed was fraternity, and the Sikhs boasted of being communities of independent soldiers. While the Khálsa was still young and enthusiastic, and the power of no individual chief was inordinately great, this idea of independence represented a state of things not far removed from the truth; but as the more important chiefships gradually increased in power, their smaller neighbours were compelled, either for protection against others or to avoid absorption altogether, to place themselves under the protection of some leader able to defend them, rendering in return service in the field.
All that a Sikh chief asked in these days from a follower was a horse and a matchlock. All that
