Diwan Kaura Mal

Diwan Kaura Mal (Kaura Mall) was a Sahajdhari Sikh and a trusted Mughal officer in eighteenth-century Punjab. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was the son of Vallu Ram, an Arora of the Chuggh clan, from a village near Shorkot in Jhang district, now in Pakistan. Like his father and grandfather he began as a revenue official (qanungo) at Multan. In 1738, under the governor Zakariya Khan, he led an expedition against Painda Khan Bhatti, who was captured and executed, and he was made diwan of Multan. Under Mir Mannu he became diwan of Lahore and later deputy governor of Multan, and then, with the title Maharaja Bahadur, governor of Multan, Thatta and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The Sikhs called him Mittha Mal, "sweet" Mal, in contrast to his given name Kaura, "bitter".

Key moments

• March and May 1746: Lakhpat Rai ordered the arrest and execution of Sikhs in Lahore. Kaura Mal pleaded for their lives without success, and the captured Sikhs were executed on 10 March 1746. After the Chhota Ghallughara he left Lahore in disgust for Multan.
• Later: after Lakhpat Rai was heavily fined, Kaura Mal paid the rest and handed him over to the Sikhs, who imprisoned him. He died after about six months.
• October to December 1748: about 500 Sikhs sheltered in the fort at Ram Rauni, Amritsar, under siege by Mir Mannu and Adina Beg. The siege was ended by Kaura Mal's intervention.
• Under his influence, and with the threat of another invasion by Ahmad Shah Abdali, Mir Mannu paused his campaign against the Sikhs and gave them a jagir of twelve villages in the Patti and Jhabal area, worth about 1.25 lakh rupees a year.
• 1749: he marched on Multan against Shah Nawaz Khan with about 10,000 Sikhs under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. Shah Nawaz Khan was killed. (The Encyclopaedia's entry on Mir Mannu dates the campaign to 1750.)
• He built Gurdwara Bal Lila and a sarovar at Nankana Sahib, and had the Amritsar pool, which Lakhpat Rai had filled in, desilted.

In 1751 Mir Mannu called him to Lahore as a new invasion by Ahmad Shah Abdali approached. Kaura Mal tried to buy peace, then prepared to fight and again asked for Sikh help. Fighting between Mir Mannu's army and Ahmad Shah Abdali's opened on 5 March 1752. Kaura Mal died on the second day, 6 March 1752, at Mahmud Buti, near Lahore, shot by Baz Khan of Kasur at the instigation of his jealous ally Adina Beg, the faujdar of the Jalandhar Doab.

With his death the Sikhs lost their main link to Mir Mannu, who resumed his repression: he offered rewards for Sikh heads, forbade anyone to shelter Sikhs, and had the non-combatants taken to Lahore executed. A treaty ratified on 13 April 1752 ceded Lahore and Multan to Abdali, and Mir Mannu died on 4 November 1753 after a fall from his horse. Kaura Mal is remembered as an official who used his place in the Mughal state to shield the Panth.