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

PROCLAMATION (1849), declaring that the kingdom of the Punjab had ceased to be and that all the territories of Maharaja Duleep Singh had become part of the British dominions in India, was issued on 29 March 1849 by Governor General Lord Dalhousie. Earlier in the day a darbdrwsis held in

SHAH DIN, FAQIR (d. 1842), son of Faqir `Aziz udDin, minister to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the Sikh court`s envoy with the British political agent at Ludhiana and later at Firozpur. He is described in contemporary chronicles as an able diplomat who often accompanied foreign dignitaries visiting Lahore and acted

THACKWELL, SIR EDWARD JOSEPH (1781-1859), commander of cavalry division of the army of the Sutlej under Lord Hugh Gough in the first Anglo Sikh war was born on 1 February 1781, the son of John Thackwell. A veteran of Peninsula and Waterloo, he assumed command of the army of the

AMIR CHAND, son of Misr Ram Kumar of the village of Dalval, in Jehlum district, joined service in Maharaja RanjitSingh`s toshakhana or treasury in 1830, soon becoming superintendent of Bela To shakhana, i.e. the treasury for charitable purposes. In June 1832, he was appointed to collect arrears of land

ATAR SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1844). son of Amir Singh, was a collateral of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After the direct descendants of the Maharaja, he, as the eldest of the Sandhanvalia family, stood close to the throne. A daring soldier, Atar Singh was a calculating and shrewd courtier. He took

BHANDARI PAPERS, a large collection of sundry papers, letters and documents preserved in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, and named after the collector, Rai Indarjit Singh Bhandari of Batala. Little is known about the life of Indarjit Singh beyond a conjecture based upon some of the letters in the collection

CHET SINGH, military commander, engineer and a kardar, i.e. a revenue officer, under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1831 he became engineer in charge for constructing a bridge over the River Sutlej for the Ropar meeting between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Governor General William Bentinck. He constructed another bridge at

FERINGHEE is an adaptation of the Indo Persian term frangi or firingi used to denote a person of European origin. It is dervied from Frank, "a member of a group of ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered Gaul [modern

HURBON, a Spaniard, who joined the Sikh army as an engineer in 1842. He was given command of a regiment and, later, that of a brigade. He was an astute tactician and is said to have planned and built, in concert with Mouton, entrenchments at Ferozeshah and Sabhraori during

KARAM SINGH SIDDHU, son of Dial Singh, of village Othiari in Gurdaspur district, popularly known as Karam Singh Othiarivala, rendered service in several campaigns undertaken by Maharaja Ranjil Singh, including those of Peshawar and Hazara. Under the Sikh court he received rupees 1,800 annually subject to the service of

LITTLER, SIRJOHN HUNTER (1783-1856), garrison commander at Firozpur, the concentration point of British forward movement preparatory to the first Anglo Sikh war, was born on 6 January 1783 at Tarvin, Cheshire, England. He joined the 10th Bengal Native Infantry in August 1800 and served in the campaigns under Lord Lake