Vadda Ghallughara

Who: The Dal Khalsa under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, with all eleven misls, representatives of the Malwa chiefs and thousands of women, children and elderly, against Ahmad Shah Abdali, with Zain Khan, faujdar of Sirhind, and Bhikhan Khan of Malerkotla.

What: After Panipat the Sikhs harassed Abdali's army and in 1761 ravaged central Punjab. At Amritsar at Diwali the Sarbat Khalsa resolved to punish Afghan agents, beginning with Jandiala, which the Sikhs besieged. When Abdali approached they lifted the siege and crossed the Sutlej to move their families into the wastes of Malwa. Abdali left Lahore on 3 February 1762 with light cavalry and, by the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's reckoning, covered about 200 km in under 48 hours. At dawn on 5 February he found the Sikhs camped at Kup-Rahira, 12 km north of Malerkotla. Zain Khan and Bhikhan Khan attacked first and were repulsed, and Abdali's main force then came up. Jassa Singh rejected Charat Singh Sukerchakia's proposal to form a square of four misls. He ringed the baggage train with fighters and moved toward Barnala, 40 km to the south-west. Tied to the protection of the families, the Sikhs could not fight as they usually did. They fought while retreating, the cordon broke several times and was re-formed each time, and by early afternoon they reached a large pond. The fighting stopped there, and Abdali, whose men had not rested for two days, did not follow into the semi-desert. Estimates of Sikh dead range from about 10,000 to 50,000. Ganda Singh estimates about 10,000. The Encyclopaedia gives 20,000 to 50,000 and treats 25,000 (the contemporary Muslim chronicler Miskin) and 30,000 (Ratan Singh Bhangu) as the more credible figures.

Where: Kup-Rahira near Malerkotla, and the running fight toward Barnala.

Why it mattered: Vadda means great, to set it against the Chhota Ghallughara of 1746. On about 10 April 1762, according to Ganda Singh, Abdali had Sri Harmandir Sahib blown up with gunpowder and the sacred tank desecrated. The Sikhs recovered fast. Within three months of the battle they attacked Zain Khan, who paid them Rs 50,000 in May 1762. The Sikhs gathered again at Amritsar for Diwali. Abdali reached the city on the evening of 16 October and fought them there on 17 October 1762 in an indecisive battle, according to Ganda Singh. He left Lahore for Afghanistan on 12 December. In January 1764 the Dal Khalsa killed Zain Khan and occupied Sirhind, and on 17 April 1765 the Sikhs occupied Lahore. The holy volume that travelled with the Sikh troops was lost in the battle.