MURRAY, Dr, a British physician attached to 4th Native Infantry, who was in 1836 sent from Ludhiana to Lahore by the British for Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s treatment after he had suffered a stroke of paralysis. During his 8 months` stay in Lahore, Murray found it difficult to persuade the Maharaja to accept his treatment. Nevertheless, his despatches from Lahore to the Ludhiana Political Agency provide interesting information about the Maharaja, his government and his nobles.
ADVENTURES OF AN OFFICER IN THE PUNJAB (2 vols.) by Major H. M. L. Lawrence, under the pseudonym of Bellasis, published in AD 1846 by Henry Colburn, London, and reprinted in 1970 by the Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala. The book which is a rambling account, half fact half fiction, of the author`s adventures, provides information about the rise of the Sikhs and about the person and government of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This is "a dose of history, which the reader may read or not, as he pleases" (p. 236), mixed with scandal and bazaar gossip.
AKHBAR-I-DARBAR-I-MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH, also called Akhbari Deorhi Sardar Ranjit Singh Bahadur, is a set of Persian manuscripts comprising 193 loose sheets of unequal size and containing, as the title indicates, news of the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839). These sheets are believed to be newsletters sent from the Punjab for the Peshwa Daftar at Poona (now Pune). The collection was first discovered in 1932-33 by Dr Muhammad Nazim, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India, in the Alienation Branch of the Divisional Commissioner\'s office at Poona.
PUNJAB, A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE, translated and edited by H.L.O. Garrett, and first published in 1935 by the Punjab Government Record Office, Lahore, is a compendium of two travelogues. The first part comprises the portion of Victor Jacquemont`s Journal which deals with his travels through the Punjab and Kashmir. Jacquemont`s description of the condition and administration of the cis Sutlej area after the Anglo Sikh treaty of 1809 is particularly interesting. So is his account of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s court, and comments on the character and personal habits of the Maharaja who is described as a thin little man with an attractive face, in spite of having lost an eye from smallpox, a lively hunter and lover of horses.
COURT, CLAUDE AUGUSTE (1793-1880), general in the Sikh army, honorary general of France, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, recipient of the Auspicious Order of the Punjab, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England, and Member of several continental scientific and learned societies, was born at Saint Cezaire, France, on 24 September 1793. In 1813. he joined the French army. After Napoleon`s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 he was dismissed from service.
RANI RAJINDRAMATI CHARITRA by Sahib Singh Mrigind is a versified account (charitra = character; portrayal) in Braj (Gurmukhi characters) of Queen (rdm== queen) Jindan, the wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, here referred to as Rajindramati. Sahib Singh Mrigind (c. 1800-1876) who later became the court poet in the princely state of Jind, served the Sikh Darbar in the early years of his life, but had to leave Lahore following differences with Rani Jindari (Jind Kaur), widow of the Sikh sovereign. Because of his personal grudge against her and because of his loyalty to the Jind rulers who were pro-British, he presents the Rani in very poor light