311 RONT,4X DISTRICT
and -'a considerable tract subsequently annexed by- the chiefs of Jind
and I?atiala. Hissar and the' north were during this time perpetually
overrun by the Sikh's, in spite of the combined efforts of the BhatE s
and the imperial forces.; but Rohtak and Gurgaon appear to have
remained.with Kamgar Khan till his death in 1760. His son, Mass,
Khan, was expelled from Farrukhnagar by Suraj Mal, the Jot ruler of
Bharatpur and the JAts held Jhajjar, Badli, and Farrukhnagar till
1771. In that year Musa Khan recovered Farruklmagar, but he never
regained a .footing in Rohtak District. ,In 1772 Najaf I~han carne
into power at Delhi, and till his death in i 782 some order was main-
tained. Bahaduigarh; granted in 1754 to Bahadur .Khan, Baloch,
was held by his son and grandson; Jhajjar was in the hands of
Walter Reinhardt, the husband of Begam Sumrri of Sardhana ; and
Gohana, Maham, Rohtak, and Kharkhauda.were -also held by nominees
of Najaf Khan, The Mara'th'as returned in 1785, but. could do little
to repel the Sikh invasion ; and from 1785 to 1803 the ;north of the
District was occupied by the Raja of Jind, while the south and west
were precariously held by the Marathas, who were defied by the strong
JAt villages and constantly attacked by the Sikhs. Meanwhile the
military adventurer George Thomas had carved out a principality in
Haridna, which included Maham, Beri, and Jhajjar in the present
District; his headquarters were at HAnsi in the District of Hisar,
a4d at Georgegarh near Jhajjar he had built a small outlying fort. In
r8oi, however, the Marathas made common cause with the Sikhs
and Rajputs against him, and under the French commander, Louis
Bourquin, defeated him at Georgegarh, and succeeded in ousting
him from his dominions. , In 1803, by the conquests of Lord Lakes
the whole country up to the Sutlej and the Siwaliks passed to the
British Government.
Under Lord Lake's arrangements, the northern parganas of Rohtak
were held by the- Sikh chiefs of J.ind and Kaithal, while the souk
was granted to the Nawab of . Jhajjar, the west to his -brother; the
Nawab of Dadri and Bahadurgarh, and the central tract to the
Na ab of Dujana. The latter,- however, was unable to maintain
order in his portion of the territories thus assigned, and the frequent
incursions of Sikh and Bhatti marauders compelled the dispatch of
a British officer in i8io to bring the region into better organization.
The 'few parganas thus subjected to British rule formed the nucleus
of the present District. Other fringes of territory escheated on the
deaths of the Kaithal Raja in r8r8 and :the chief of JYnttl in 182o.
In the last-named year, Hissir and Sirsa were separated from Rohtak
and in 1824 the District was brought into nearly its present shape
by the District of I'anipat (now ;KarnAl) being made a separate
charge.
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