each other as with the common enemy against whom alone they ever united. The Sikhs did not avowedly abandon the Hindu codes of law which they had from time immemorial obeyed, and neither Nának nor Govind laid down new rules by which their followers should be bound in matters of marriage and inheritance, but they felt a contempt for Hinduism with its restrictions and prejudices, and refused to follow its precepts whenever they were opposed to their immediate interests. Society was in a state of demoralisation. Each man did what was right in his own eyes, and whatever he could do with impunity appeared to him right. Widows and orphans had no helper against the powerful neighbours who divided their lands amongst them at their pleasure; and the only means by which the smaller chiefs could escape absorption was by attaching themselves as feudal retainers or vassals to the great houses, who were able and willing to protect them in return for service in the field. Thus arose the great Cis-Sutlej chiefs, whose obscure origin and unprincipled acquisitions were ennobled by titles extorted from the Emperor of Delhi, who was still the nominal ruler of the Málwá, and was too weak and timid to refuse to honour the men whom he knew to be the most formidable enemies of his power.
At the beginning of the present century the fate which the Cis-Sutlej chiefs had so often brought upon others seemed likely to become their own. Ranjít Singh, Mahárájá of Lahore, having reduced to sub-
