This translation from Urdu of a passage of Gulām Sarvar Lāhaurī's (alias Bute Shah) written in the mid-19th century, is given in the Gazetteer for the Ludhiana District 1888-89: It was originally known as Lodi-Ana (The Lodi's Place) during the Lodi Dynasty under which the city was created.
"In the reign of Sikandar, son of Bahlol Lodi, the people about Ludhiana were oppressed by the plundering Baluchis, and applied to the Emperor for assistance. Sikandar, in answer to their prayer, sent two of his Lodi chiefs, by name Yusaf Khan and Nihang Khan, with an army. These chiefs fixed on the present site of the Ludhiana city, which was then a village called Mir Hota. Nihang Khan remained at Mir Hota as the Emperor's Lieutenant; and called the place Ludhiana. He was succeeded by his son a grandson. The latter, Jalal Khan, built the fort of Ludhiana out of the bricks found at Sunet. He saved the town from invaders and treated all its citizen equally. His two sons partitioned the country round about Ludhiana, which was then lying in waste, amongst the people of the town, and distributed them in villages. In the time of Jalal Khan's grandsons, Alu Khan and Khizr Khan, the Lodi dynasty was overthrown by Babar; and the Lodis of Ludhiana sunk to the position of ordinary subjects of the Mughal empire. They are said to have lived close to the fort for many generations, but all traces of them have now disappeared, and even the tombs of Nihang and his immediate descendants have been lost sight of, although they are said to have been standing some years ago."
The Lodi dynasty lost control of the throne of Delhi in 1526. The Mughals established a strong government at Sirhind, which itself was a sarkar (division) of the Delhi subah (province) and attached Ludhiana as a mahal or parganah.
The century and a half following the death of Akbar (a Mughal emperor) in 1705 was dominated by the rise of Sikhism as a power, and the decline of the Mughal empire. By this
