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Machine transcription
113
phantom" haunting the British rulers of India.
With him vanished the glorious days of the
Durrani Dynasty. The country soon after was
involved in anarchy and chaos which lasted for
a quarter of a century, reducing Afghanistan
from a vast empire to a small kingdom.
The unlucky King survived the loss of his
sight for nearly half a century, and died at
last full of years, but devoid of honours, as
a pensioner of the British Government, at
Ludhiana.
During the latter part of his reign Zaman
Shah was confronted with the uprisings of the
Sikhs several times, and he was forced to take up
arms against them.
The Sikhs, for the most part of Jat origin,
dwell in the East Panjab. They are, properly
speaking, not a race but a religious sect; the
name itself means "disciples." The religion was
founded by Nanak (1469—1539), a native of the
Punjab. Later it developed in the hands of ten
successive leaders, called Gurus. Guru Nanak,
who was largely inspired by the teachings of
Islam, was held in great esteem by the Lodhi
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.