Ranjit Singh Biography

Dromo's Den

RANJIT SINGH, (1780-1839). Maharajah of the Punjab. He was born at Gujranwala, the son of Maha Singh, Sirdar of Sukur-Chukeah, who died when Ranjit Singh was about 12 years old. When he was about 17 years old his mother died under somewhat suspicious circumstances, and he immediately assumed the reins of government.

In 1798, having rendered important service as an ally to Zaman Shah of Afghanistan, who had invaded the Punjab, he received Lahore, which he defended against the neighboring sirdars. To them he next turned his attention and succeeded in subduing some and rendering others tributary. His successes alarmed the Sikh chiefs, allies of the British, situated between the Sutlej and the Jumna, who besought the interference of Lord Minto, the Governor-General. According to a treaty made with Ranjit Singh in 1809 by Charles Metcalfe, the English gave up all interference north of the Sutlej, on condition that that boundary should be respected. Ranjit Singh, thus freed from the only danger he feared, by 1812 had compelled all but three of the Punjab sirdars to resign their authority and proclaimed himself Rajah. In 1813 he obtained possession of Attock, took Multan by storm in 1817, and in 1819 annexed Kashmir, assuming after these exploits the title of Maharajah. In 1822 he took into his service Allard and Ventura, two French officers who had served under Napoleon, and by their aid he finished the reconstruction of his army, with the view of extending his dominion to the west of the Indus. In pursuance of this scheme he wrested the Province of Peshawar from the Afghans in 1829. After several years of desultory war with the Afghans his army was routed by them in 1836, but this reverse does not seem to have affected the stability of his rule, even in the most recently acquired districts, and his reign was not disturbed by a single revolt. He died June 27, 1839. He was totally uneducated, but his administration was energetic and, for an Oriental despotism, equitable. Consult: Griffin, Ranjit-Singh (Oxford, 1892); Gen. Sir John Gordon, The Sikhs (London, 1904); James Burgess, The Chronology of Modern India, 1494-1894 (Edinburgh, 1913).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 545.