SRI FATEH SINGH PRATAP PRABHAKAR

SRI FATEH SINGH PRATAP PRABHAKAR, an undated manuscript preserved in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, under accession No. M/ 774, is an account of the life and achievements ol`Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluvalia (1784-1836). The manuscript since published, by Joginder Kaur (1981), comprises 401 folios, size 23×17 cm, each containing 16 lines. The author, Ram Sukh Rao, a tutor to Fateh Singh during the latter`s childhood, wrote this chronicle as well as two others, Sn Jassa Singh Binod and Bhag Singh Chandrodaya, at the instance of his pupil and patron.

The author being an eyewitness to events recorded in this manuscript is more authentic here than in the other two works. Fateh Singh`s army and its weapons and methods of warfare, contemporary politics and diplomacy as also territorial disputes and alliances and relations with the British as well as with the Sikh sovereign of Lahore are elaborately dealt with in Sn Fateh Singh Pratap Prubhakar. The work provides useful information in respect of the central as well as local and revenue administration in Kapurthala state during the early nineteenth century, social history of the time, (lie common people, professional classes, customs and ceremonies, economic activity and trade and industry.