At these Councils business was preceded by the distribution of consecrated bread equally to all present, the "love feast" of the brotherhood, in commemoration of the injunction of Nanak, all bowing the head before the 'Granth,' the Akalis exclaiming, "The Khalsa is of the Lord; victory is of the Lord." When the link of a common enemy was removed the misls were often at war among themselves, mutually plundering and disposing of rivals; but notwithstanding the multiplicity of chiefs and their independence, they well understood that union was strength, and that the paramount duty of one and all was to act unitedly in defence of religion and country, being bound by the law laid down in their holy Scriptures to aid one another in the common cause.
All the confederacies had their centres about Lahore, Amritsar, and Sirhind, in the fertile and most populated districts. From there they extended their conquests in every direction, the outlying possessions being
