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Tara Singh Kang alias
"Ghaiba" was the chief of
Dallevalia clan, named after the village
of Dalleval to which its founder, Gulab
Singh, belonged. Tara Singh was a shephard-turned
outlaw who joined Gulab Singh Dallevala
in his plundering raids. His dexterity
in lifting cattle and flocks of sheep
and his ingenuity in transporting them
across the Ravi won him the nickname
Ghaiba (the Vanisher). On the death
of Gulab Singh, Tara Singh succeeded
to the leadership of the misl, and,
within a short time, his intrepidity
and lust for war and conquest made the
Dallevala confederacy very powerful.
One of Tara Singh's first exploits was
to rob a detachment of Ahmad Shah Durrani's
troops of their horses and arms while
crossing the Bein river near his village,
Kang, in Kapurthala district. In 1760,
he crossed the Sutlej and conquered
the towns of Dharamkot and Fatehgarh.
On his return tot he Doab, he took Sarai
Dakkhni from Sharaf Ud-Din, an Afghan
of Jalandhar and marched eastwards,
seizing the country around Rahon in
which town he took up his residence.
He next captured Nakodar from the Manj
Rajputs, and other groups of villages
on the right of the Sutlej, including
Mahatpur and Kot Badal Khan.
In 1763, Tara Singh joined Bhangi,Kanhaiya
and Ramgarhia misls against the Pathan
Nawab of Kasur, and, in the sack of
the town, collected 4,00,000 rupees
as his share of the booty. He joined
other Sikh sardars in laying siege to
Sirhind (January 1764) and razing it
to the ground after defeating its governor,
Zain Khan. By 1765, Tara Singh had considerably
increased his power and territories
in the Upper Jalandhar Doab, in parts
of Ludhiana, Ambala, and Firozpur districts-the
entire country south of the River Sutlej
yielding an annual revenue of Rs 17,00,000.
Tara Singh was a close friend of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh's and took part in his
early Malva expeditions. He died in
1807 at the ripe age of 90. After his
death, Maharaja Ranjit Singh annexed
the Dallevala territories to his kingdom.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Copyright © Harbans Singh "The
encyclopedia of Sikhism."
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