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Sikh Misls (Confederacies)

In Sikh history, misl is the name given to an army unit. The term was first used by Guru Gobind Singh in the battle of Bhangani in 1688 AD when he organised his forces into eleven misls. Banda Bahadur adopted the same organisation of eleven divisions in the battle of Sirhind in 1710 AD. In 1734 AD, Nawab Kapur Singh divided the Khalsa into Buddha Dal and Taruna Dal, both together comprising eleven groups. This division was permanently adopted at the time of the formation of Dal Khalsa under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia in 1748 AD. Thus traditionally the Khalsa had been organised into eleven misls. Some historians tend to count Phulkian as the twelfth misl, a view that is not generally accepted. The eleven misls were

1. Ahluwalia

2. Fyzullapuria or Singhpuria

3. Sukarchakia

4. Nishanwalia

5. Bhangi

6. Kanhayia

7. Nakkai

8. Dallewalia

9. Shaheed

10. Karorsinghia

11. Ramgarhia.