IMĀD US-SA'ĀDAT, a chronicle in Persian, composed at the instance of Col. John Baillie, British Resident at Lucknow, by Ghulām 'Alī Naqvī, of Rāe Barelī, in 1808 containing accounts of the Nawābs of Oudh from Sa'ādat Khān to Sa'ādat 'Alī Khān, besides those of the Marāṭhās, the Ruhīlās, the Afghāns, the Jāṭs and the Sikhs. The book was lithographed at the Nawal Kishore Press of Kānpur in 1864. The manuscript in the Oriental Public Library, Paṭnā, comprising 151 largesized folios with 21 lines to a page, and written in, nasta'līq, is broken up into sections with subject headings given in red. As for the Sikhs, the author tells us about their growing power, territorial possessions, and some characteristic features of their faith. After referring to Godknowing, everworshipping, piously Bābā Nānak, a Bedī Khatrī, full of wise sayings, of otherworldly attitude, and a saint of the highest grade of mysticism, he writes about two different kinds of his followers, the Khālsā of unshorn locks and the Khulāsā of shorn hair. There is a reference to the Suthrā Shāhī sect, dating 'from the time of Gurū Hargobind, and their play with coloured wooden sticks which they called Ḍaṇḍe Nānak Shāh. According to the writer, the tendency among the Sikhs to create commotions for annexing territory and devastating cities, towns and villages had become more intensified in later times with the result that the whole of the Punjab up to Multān, and the land within 47 kos (about 112 km) of Delhi, had passed under the control of chiefs drawn mostly from low classes like carpenters, leatherworkers, Jaṭṭs, etc. Though bitterly opposed to tobacco-smoking, they were fond of bhaṅg (hemp). Their salutation consisted of vāh gurū vāh fateh. They made people to pay tributes from a rupee to a lakh for expenses for "Halvā Kaṛāh" as oblation dedicated to Bābā Nānak. Their army called Dal consisted of about 2 lakh sowārs. Their blind fidelity to their Gurūs made them place their properties and even lives at their disposal. They were not confined only to the Punjab but were spread over the whole of Hindustān from Delhi to Hyderābād, Calcutta and Kashmīr. The book is not free from factual errors or from bias. It accepts uncritically much that went round as mere gossip.
Syad Hasan Askarī