ARMY OF MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH, a formidable military machine that helped the Maharaja carve out an extensive kingdom and maintain it amid hostile and ambitious neighbours, was itself the creation of his own genius. His inheritance was but a scanty force which, in the manner of the Sikh misldari days,

DHAUNKAL SINGH (d. 1844), a drillnaik in the army of the East India Company who deserted the service of the British and joined the Sikh army about 1805. In 1807, Jamadar Khushal Singh, who had come to Lahore to seek his fortune and had eventually risen to the position

JAGAT SINGH alias Jai Singh (1883-1915), a leading Ghadr revolutionary, was born about 1883, the son of Arur Singh, at Sursirigh, a village in Lahore (now Amritsar) district. He was a hefty, sturdy man and joined the Indian army when twenty. Leaving the army, he migrated to Shanghai and

MAHER JOHN, was a Eurasian musician who served as a drum-major in Maharaja Ranjit Singh\'s army.

RAMSAY, JOHN, was a Eurasian musician who served as a drum major in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army.

WEIR, a Russian, who served in the Khalsa army for some time in 1842. He married a Kashmir! Muslim woman and lived within the walled city of Lahore.

AVITABILE, PAOLO CRESCENZO MARTINO (1791-1850), a Neapolitan soldier of fortune who, starting life as a private gunner, succeeded in obtaining high ranks in two widely separated Asiatic armies of Persia and Punjab, was born at Agerola, Naples, Italy, on 25 October 1791. From 1807 onwards he successively served in the

FATEH SINGH MAN (d. 1845). son of Sham Singh Man, soldier, diplomat and commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. He entered the service of the Maharaja as a trooper, and took part in several campaigns, including those of Multan (1818) and Kashmir (1819). He rose to be a kumeddn.

JAMES (d. 1825), in Sikh records known as James Sahib Feringhee, was an Englishman from Yorkshire. A deserter from the British army, he had taken up service under Raja Sansar Chand of Karigra. In 1820, he left Sansar Chand and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army as a gunner. In

MAZHABI SIKHS, commonly pronounced as Mazhbi Sikhs, is the name given to Sikh converts from the Chuhra community, among the lowest in the Hindu caste order. Chuhras in medieval Punjab, corresponding to Bharigis of the Hindi speaking regions, were the village menials who received customary payment in kind at

RANJIT SINGH (1780-1839), Maharaja of the Punjab, popularly called Sheri Punjab, i.e. the Lion of the Punjab, was the most colourful, the most powerful and yet the most endearing figure in the history of the Sikhs. He ruled over a domain extending from the Khaibar Pass in the west

AKRURA Oodho, Akrura (of the Dwapara age) and Trilochan, Namdev and Kabir (of Iron age) got their sins effaced by remembering the Name of the Lord and the same undeceivable Name, which ferries the saints across the world-ocean, came into the mind of Guru Amar Das. (Swayye Mahle Teeje