Sirhind Town (Sahrhid)
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sirhind Town (Sahrhid)
Town in the Fatehgarh or Sirhind tahsil, Amargarh nizamat, Patiala State, Punjab, situated in 30° 38' N. and 76° 27' E., on the North-Western Railway. A mono-rail tramway, opened in February, 1907, runs from the railway station to Basi, 5 miles distant. Population (1901), 5,415. The spelling Sirhind is modern and due to a fanciful derivation from sir-Hind, the 'head of India,' due to its strategic position. Sahrind is said to mean the ' lion forest,' but one tradition assigns its foundation to Sahir Rao, a ruler of Lahore, 166th in descent from Krishna; and Firishta implies that it was the eastern limit of the kingdom of Jaipal, the Brahman king of Ohind, but it has been confused by historians with Bhatinda or Tabarhind. It became a fief of Delhi after the Muhammadan con- quest. Refounded in the reign of Firoz Shah III at the behest of Saiyid Jalal-ud-din of Bokhara, the p'lr or spiritual guide of that king, it became in 1361 the capital of a new district, formed by dividing the old fief (shikk) of Samana. Firoz Shah dug a canal from the Sutlej, and this is now said to be the channel which flows past the town. Sirhind continued to be an important stronghold of the Delhi empire. In 1415 Khizr Khan, the first Saiyid ruler of Delhi, nominated his son, the Malik-ush-Shark, Malik Mubarak, governor of Firozpur and Sirhind, with Malik Sadhu Nadira as his deputy. In 1416 the latter was murdered by Tughan Rais and other Turks, but Zirak Khan, the governor of Samana, suppressed the revolt in the following year. In 1420 Khizr Khan defeated the insurgent Sarang Khan at Sirhind, then under the governorship of Malik Sultan Shah Lodi; and it was here that Malik Bahlol Lodi assumed the title of Sultan in 1451. Under the Mughal sovereigns Sirhind was one of the most flourishing towns of the empire, and is said to have contained 360 mosques, tombs, sarais, and wells. Its ruins commence about a mile from the railway station, and extend for several miles. In 1704 Bazid Khan, governor of Sirhind, bricked up alive in the town Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh, sons of Guru Gobind Singh, whence the place is to this day held accursed by the Sikhs. In 1708 Banda Bairagi sacked Sirhind and killed Bazld Khan. Ahmad Shah Durrani appointed Zain Khan Subahddr of Sirhind in 1761; but in December, 1763, the Sikhs attacked the place and killed Zain Khan at Manhera, a village close by, and the adjacent country fell into the hands of Raja Ala Singh. The oldest buildings are two fine double-domed tombs, traditionally known as those of the Master and the Disciple, belonging probably to the fourteenth century. The tomb of Bahlol Lodi's daughter, who died in 1497, also exists. Shah Zaman of Kabul was buried in a graveyard of great sanctity near the town. The town contains an Anglo-vernacular middle school and a police post.
