Adina Beg Khan

Adina Beg Khan (died 1758) was an Arain administrator who rose from soldier and revenue collector to control the Jalandhar Doab and, for a few months in 1758, to be governor of the Punjab. He was a survivor in the years when the Mughal governors, the Afghans of Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Sikhs fought for the province. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, drawing on an unpublished Persian manuscript, says he was born at Sharakpur near Lahore, the son of Channu, of the Arain farming caste, and was raised in Mughal households in the Jalandhar Doab.

Key moments

• After Nadir Shah's invasion of 1739, Zakariya Khan makes him nazim of the Jalandhar Doab to suppress the Sikhs. The Encyclopaedia says he briefly encouraged them instead, but was forced to expel them. He is jailed and tortured for unpaid dues, released after about a year and made deputy nazim under Shah Nawaz Khan.
• 1747 to 1748: on his advice, Shah Nawaz Khan invites Ahmad Shah Durrani into the Punjab. Mu'in ul-Mulk (Mir Mannu) checks the invader at Manupur near Sirhind, where Adina Beg is wounded. He is again faujdar of the Jalandhar Doab under Mir Mannu.
• March 1753: at Hola Mohalla he attacks Sikh pilgrims at Anandpur and kills many. The Sikhs plunder villages in the Jalandhar and Bari Doabs, and he quickly makes peace, giving the Sikhs a share of revenue, one thousand rupees as an offering to the Guru Granth Sahib and 1.25 lakh rupees as protection money for the Doab. He takes several Sikhs into his army, including Jassa Singh Ramgarhia.
• 1757 to 1758: he seeks allies to drive out the Afghans and defeats them at Mahalpur (Mahilpur) in Hoshiarpur district with Sikh help. He then invites the Marathas, who enter Lahore in April 1758 with Sikh and Adina Beg forces, and he gets the governorship of the Punjab for 75 lakh rupees a year paid to the Marathas.
• 10 September 1758: he dies of colic at Batala, according to the Encyclopaedia, before the Sikhs could confront him. He is buried at Khanpur, near Hoshiarpur, as he wished.

Remembered for: the Encyclopaedia notes that the Punjab then had three nominal masters, the Mughals, the Afghans and the Marathas, but in reality only two, Adina Beg and the Sikhs. Wikipedia gives 15 September 1758 and places his death at Khanpur, so the exact day and place are not settled between sources.