With the eighteenth century, and the breaking up of the Mughal Empire, the Gurkas rose to power, and 'came upon the hill people,' as it was graphically described to me. Much more tiresome neighbours these, even than the Mughal omrahs, with their raids and plunderings over all the country round. No tricks would stop these hardy little men from taking what they wanted; and this time the Rajas of the district turned to the growing British Government for protection. But the hill Rajas, being poor, had only forest-land to offer in exchange for the necessary guns and soldiers; while the English were then too fully occupied with troubles of their own to wish for more territory, or to look with favour on the undertaking of fresh responsibilities. At length, in 1769, after a desperate siege, the Sikhs of Patiala drove the Gurkas away, and at the final settlement Pinjor fell to their share. At the present time the little town, the great fortified garden, and the forests for many miles up into the hills, remain an outlying portion of Patiala State
