He entered the service of the army in 1802. Following a re-organization of the army in 1810, Bakhsh was transferred to a new artillery corps, the
Fauj-i-Khas, led by Mian Ghaus Khan. In 1814 he was placed in command of a special wing of artillery named the Derah-i-Ilahi. In 1818 he assisted
Misr Diwan Chand at the
Battle of Multan. He was later employed in the pacification of
Hazara and
Dera Ghazi Khan. He fought at the
Battle of Nowshera in March 1823. In 1831 at the
Ropar meeting between
Maharaja Ranjit Singh and
Lord William Bentinck, the
Governor-General of India, he arranged a demonstration of his artillery as well as of his own firing skill in the course of evening entertainments and the review of troops. In the beginning of January 1844, he was removed from his command in suspicion of corresponding with Jawahar Singh and Suchet Singh but was restored to his command a few days later. He was present at many of the battles during the
First Anglo-Sikh War and
Second Anglo-Sikh War. He played a key role at the
Battle of Chillianwala, one of the bloodiest British battles fought in India. Three days after the battle, Ilahi Bakhsh defected to the British, possibly due to a monetary incentive from the British. The defection of Bakhsh dealt a blow to the Sikh artillery and they capitulated to the British the following month at
Gujrat. He died in the
Battle of Chillianwala in 1849. ==Family==