53. The discourtesy of the Founder of the Faridkot State

Chaudhri Kapura was an influential Jat and owner of a hundred villages. Pyara Dharm Singh asked him, on behalf of the Guru, to allow the occupation of his fortified village of Kot Kapura. The man refused the request. He failed to understand the reasonable ness of offering further opposition to Moghtil arms, shut up in a tiny village like Kot Kapura, when the fortifications of Anandpur had proved of no avail. Moreover, he had no mind to consent to an undertaking that would be tantamount to rebellion against the authority of the Moghul Emperor. He had a great stake in the country and he was not prepared to lose his vast property and meet death at the hands of a hangman. This coarse reply offended the Sikhs. The man left the assembly in disgrace and, curiously enough, as fate would have it, he was hanged, not long after, by the order of Isa Khan, a .neighbouring Muslim Rajput, with whom he had a dispute of long standing. His son Sukhiya and gandson Hamira lost no time in tendering an apology for the insolence of their father and offered themselves to be baptised. For this penitent act Hamira received the blessing that his descendants would rule over that part of the country. The present Raja of Farid Kot is a lineal descendant of this Hamira.