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Battle of Multan (1749)

VictorMir Mannu’s Punjab government, with Sikh horsemenDiwan Kaura Mal; Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
1749vs
Rebel governor of MultanShah Nawaz Khan

A Hindu diwan of Lahore, Kaura Mal, marched on rebel Multan with Sikh horsemen at his side. Their joint victory made him governor of Multan and won the Sikhs a rare season of goodwill from the Lahore court.

Date: September 1749Where: Outskirts of Multan, Punjab (now in Pakistan)Type: Battle
Photo: Pragya Sharan · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Multan (1749).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-multan-1749/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Multan (1749). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-multan-1749/

Result

Shah Nawaz Khan was killed in the fighting and Multan came back under Mir Mannu, who made Kaura Mal its governor.

01A diwan and the Khalsa

Shah Nawaz Khan, once governor of Lahore, had seized Multan and defied Mir Mannu, the Mughal governor of the Punjab. Mannu sent his diwan Kaura Mal, a Khatri of Lahore known for his kindness to the Sikhs. Short of men, Kaura Mal asked the Dal Khalsa for help and promised them pay. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia rode with him. The Sikhs remembered the diwan as Mitha Mal, the sweet one, for the cool sherbet he gave their camps on the march.

02Death of Shah Nawaz

The armies met outside Multan. Shah Nawaz’s men pressed Kaura Mal hard, and for a while the day looked lost. Then Sikh musketeers shot down Shah Nawaz himself, and his army broke in the confusion. Mir Mannu rewarded Kaura Mal with the title Maharaja Bahadur and the governorship of Multan. Kaura Mal used his standing at Lahore to keep the governor’s hand off the Sikhs, a respite that held until his death in 1752.

Why it matters

The battle shows the brief partnership between a Hindu minister of Lahore and the rising Sikh misls in the years before the Durrani storms broke over the Punjab.

Places near the battlefield 2

Sun Temple of Multan (Mulasthana)Destroyed
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Sun Temple of Multan (Mulasthana)

The great temple of Surya at Mulasthana, which Xuanzang saw with a golden image in 641 CE. The Arab governors kept it as a hostage against Hindu kings; an Ismaili ruler broke the image in the late 10th century, and nothing of it is left.

Multan (Mulasthana)Standing
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Multan (Mulasthana)

Mulasthana, the city of the great Sun temple and, by its own tradition, of Bhakta Prahlad. It fell to Muhammad bin Qasim in 713, was taken by Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th century, was held by the Sikh chiefs of the Bhangi misl from 1772 to 1780, and was taken by Ranjit Singh in 1818.