AKHBAR DARBAR LAHORE

AKHBAR DARBAR LAHORE, an unpublished collection of 92 letters, reports, notes and summaries of events connected with the second Anglo Sikh war, 1848-49. The manuscript, in Persian, is preserved in Dr Ganda Singh Collection at Punjabi University, Patiala. The entire manuscript comprises 382 pages. These documents are communications written by or summaries of those received or procured by news writers employed by the British and stationed at Lahore.

The earliest of these is dated 23 August 1848 and the last 25 January 1849. A number of them are undated, too, but they relate to this very period. Several of those initiating from Lahore are by “Lala Harsaran Das, Akhbarnawis, Darbar Lahore.” Other places from which these papers originated include Multan, Firozpur, Bahawalpur and Ramnagar. A 4page “Persian translation of a letter in English” gives an eyewitness account of the battle fought at Ramnagar on 22 November 1848.