Tees Hazari

 

Northern Indian kings/prices/generals were ranked by their sovereign by the number of me they brought to war. A Tees Hazari was the most powerful of all vassals because he brought 30,000 men with him.

 

Ironically, the famous district of Old Delhi known as Tees Hazari got its name when Karora Singh Dhalliwal of the Karora misl attacked the Mughul Empire in its declining days and defeated Emperor Shah Alam I.

 

The latter was “emperor” of the Delhi area and nothing more, and the sad state of the empire is evident in the ransom Shah Alam paid: just Rupees 200,000. In 1764, the Karora and Ahuluwalia Misls together attacked the Rohilla king of Saharanpur, which compared to Delhi should have been a minor priciplality north of Delhi, and forced from him a ransom of Rupees 1.1 million

 

Be that as it may, Karora Singh Dhalliwal took the ransom money from Shah Alam but required  required that 30,000 Sikh troops be garrisoned in Delhi. The cantonment became known as Tees Hazari.

 

The times of the Sikhs were brutal; no matter who was victories, Sikh or Muslim, he and his men looted, pillaged, raped, burned every habitation in their path, and killed captives and non-combatants alike with berserk joy. Yet, it is said that when the Karora Misl took Delhi, the honor of every woman was respected.

 

The Misl leader put up the two main Sikh Gurdwaras (temples) of Delhi and built many others in the city.