Lakhi Jungle (jungle) explained

Lakhi Jungle was a historical jungle located in the Punjab region. It should not be confused with the historical Machhiwara jungle.^[1]

History

A jungle formed in this area due to the shifting course of the Sutlej river.^[2] A Bhatti chief, named Rana Lakhi, is said to have settled in the area of the Lakhi Jungle around the turn of the millennium between the 10th and 11th centuries. The ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur and tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh visited this place.^[3] During the time period of Guru Gobind Singh and later, the area of the later Firozpur division was covered by a dense forest which stretched from Bathinda to Kotkapura.^{[4] [5]} The Lakhi Jungle Darbar was based in the Lakhi Jungle tract.^[6] After the evacuation of Anandpur, the Guru held a poetic court (Kavi Darbar) within the Lakhi Jungle.^[7] According to Piara Singh Padam, it was attended by Behari, Lal Das Khiali, Adha, Jado Rai, Fat Mal, Keso, and Bhagtu.In the 18th century, the Sikhs used the surrounding jungle (from which the village takes its name) as a hideout from persecution by the Mughal Empire and the Duranni Empire.^[8] During Ahmad Shah Durrani's seventh invasion of India between 1764 and 1765, the Sikhs used the jungle as a hideout.^[9] The area was known for its horse traders, which may have partly attracted Sikh refugees to the area.^[10] Historian Muzaffar Alam notes that the Sikhs of the 18th century used the jungle as a place of safety from state oppression and as a staging ground to launch attacks on plundering neighbouring villages and extracting tribute from zamindars.^[11] Abdus-samad Khan crushed a rebellion by local Bhatti zamindars of the Lakhi Jungle in the 18th century.^[12] The area was well-renowned for horse-breeding and its oxen all the way up till the 19th century. The jungle itself has mostly since been deforested.

Places named after the Lakhi Jungle

• Lakhi Jungle (locality)
• Lakhlan

References

1. Web site: 20 January 2021 . KNS . Baldev Singh greets people on 'Gurupurab' . 2023-05-01 . Kashmir News Service . en-GB.
2. Book: Gommans, Jos . The Indian Frontier : Horse and Warband in the Making of Empires. . 2017 . Routledge . 978-1-351-36356-3 . Milton . 1051140387 . According to local tradition, one of the Bhatti chiefs, Rana Lakhi, settled in the Lakhi Jungle, the extensive jungle produced by the ever shifting Sutlej, in the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030). He subsequently became a Muslim and founded 300 villages. He also procured a great number of Iranian horses and ordered his subjects to begin horse-breeding. Other evidence also confirms the high quality of the local horse breed, a standard that was kept up by the foreign horses that staged the perennial invasions from the north-west. Sultan Balban (1266-87), being cut off from foreign sources, procured most of his cavalry horses in the Bhatti area. The whole of the eastern Punjab, but the Lakhi Jungle in particular, remained a major horse-breeding area up to the nineteenth century,.
3. Book: Gandhi, Surjit Singh . History of Sikh Gurus Retold: 1606-1708 C.E. . Atlantic Publishers & Dist. . 2007 . 9788126908585 . 2 . 841 . Khalsa Battles Against Mughal Imperialism .
4. Book: Gupta, Hari Ram . History of the Sikhs . 1994 . Munshiram Manoharlal . 81-215-0276-4 . New Delhi . 303 . 41281752.
5. Book: Dhillon, Harish . The Sikh Gurus. . 2015 . Hay House Publishing . 978-93-84544-45-4 . 968092357 . The Guru camped in Lakhi jungle, a forest between the towns of Bhatinda and Kotkapura, for a while, and then moved on to Talwandi Sabo, where he was greeted with great warmth by Bhai Dalla, the landlord..
6. Book: Padam, Piara Singh . Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji De Darbari Rattan . 1976 . pa.
7. Book: Singh . Manjit . Gurdwara Gazette . Vakta . Harbhajan Singh . October 2020 . Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee . 211, 214.
8. Book: Singh, Teja. . A short history of the Sikhs. Volume one, 1469-1765 . 1999 . Publication Bureau, Punjabi University . Singh, Ganda. . 9788173800078 . 3rd . Patiala . 235973547.
9. Book: Kohli, Surindar Singh . The Sikhs and Sikhism . Atlantic Publishers and Distributors . 1993 . 63.
10. Book: Fenech, Louis E. . Historical Dictionary of Sikhism . McLeod . W.H. . Rowman & Littlefield . 2014 . 9781442236011 . 3rd . Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements Series . 189 . LAKHI JUNGLE. A wasteland south of Firozpur where the Khalsa sheltered during periods of persecution in the 18th century. The sheltering likely had to do with the fact that the area was a well-known ground of horse traders..
11. Book: Environment and History . White Horse Press . 1999 . 5 . 365.
12. Book: Irvine, William . Later Mughals . Atlantic Publishers and Distributors . 1991 . 311 . Sikhs Ravage North Punjab Repeatedly.