GHULAM MURTAZA, MIRZA, served the Lahore Darbar under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors for several years. One of his ancestors, Hadi Beg, a Mughal migrant from Samarkand, had emigrated to the Punjab in 1530 during the reign of Babar and got appointment as qdzi or magistrate over seventy

KALA SINGH, a Mazhabi Sikh, was of pilchblack colour as his name (kdid = dark) indicated. He was converted to Sikhism by Jhanda Singh (d. 1774), a Bharigi chieftain. A bold and desperate man, Kala Singh joined the band of Gujjar Singh Bharigi (d. 1788) who appointed him the