LAILI or LAILA, a famous horse of superb beauty and grace, was originally owned by Yar Muhammad Khan Barakzai, the Sikh tributary governor of Peshawar. It was much coveted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose love for horses was proverbial. With the romantic name given it, Laili was known throughout Central

SAMMAN BURJ, also called Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower commanding a wide range of buildings within the Lahore Fort, was built by Emperor Akbar, who made the city his capital for some time. Within the Fort was situated the royal palace which was enlarged by Jahangir and,

AJIT SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1843), son of Basava Singh Sandharivalia, was a leading actor in the gruesome drama of intrigue and murder enacted in the Sikh kingdom following the passing away of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. One of the younger generation of the Sandharivalias, he outstripped his uncles, Atar Singh

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,

BHAGAT RAM, BAKHSHI (1799-1865), son of Baisakhi Ram, a small moneychanger in the city of Lahore, joined the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1818 at the age of nineteen as a writer in the treasury office under Misr Belt Ram, the chief to shakhama or keeper of the

BUR SINGH (d. 1892). son of Ruldu Ram, appointed to do menial jobs first as an attendant in the household of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s wife, Rani Mahtab Kaur, and then as a water carrier in Kanvar Sher Singh`s, carried out some of the confidential errands he was assigned to

DE MEVIUS, BARON, also known as Frank Ernest Mevins, was a Prussian who came to the Punjab in March 1827 and was employed in the Sikh army in the rank of colonel. According to the Khalsa Darbar records, Mevius had to sign a pledge that he would, "during his period

FATEH SINGH AHLUVALIA (d. 1836), son of Bhag Singh, and a grandnephew of Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, leader of the Ahluvalia misi and of the Dal Khalsa, who in 1758 proclaimed the sovereignty of the Sikhs in the Punjab. Fateh Singh succeeded to the Ahluvalia chiefship in 1801. He was

GOBIND RAM, BHAI (d. 1845), son of Bhai Harbhaj and a grandson of Bhai Vasti Ram, had, like his brother Bhai Ram Singh, an honoured position at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A good scholar of Sanskrit and Persian, Gobind Ram, was of a retiring nature and more

HARLAN, JOSIAH (1799-1871), adventurer and medical practitioner who served the British, the Sikhs and the Afghans, was born in Philadelphia, U.S.A., in 1799. At the age of 24, he arrived at Calcutta and was employed as an assistant surgeon by the East India Company and attached to the British army

JAGATJIT SINGH, MAHARAJA (1872-1949), son of Raja Kharak Singh, was born on 23 November 1872 and ascended the throne of Kapurthala state on 16 October 1877. He assumed full ruling powers in November 1890 and then commenced his unusual career as a world traveller and a Francophile. He received

JAWAHAR SINGH RANDHAVA, son ot`Prem Singh, a soldier in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, belonged lo the Randhava family of the village of Khunda in Gurdaspur district, who had once been with the Kanhaiya misi, but a major portion of whose territory had been confiscated by the Maharaja.