METCALFE, SIR CHARLES THEOPHILUS (1785-1846), diplomat and provisional Governor General of India, son of Thomas Theophilus Matcalfc, a director of the East India Company, was born in Calcutta, on 30 January 1785. He started his career as a writer in the service of the East India Company. He was appointed

NANU SINGH, priest of Gurdwara Sri Hazur Sahib, Nanded (Hyderabad), who served as an intermediary between Thakur Singh Sandharivalia, prime minsiter to Maharaja Duleep Singh in his emigre government at Pondicherry and his associates in the Punjab. Correspondence and messages to and from those working for the restoration of

PANJAB SINGH NALVA (d. 1854), son of the famous Sikh general, Hari Singh Nalva, served in the army under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors. He received a sum of Rs 5,400 towards his patrimony after the death of his father. He also served under Maharaja Kharak Singh, and

PREM SINGH HOTI, BABA (1882-1954), historian and biographer, was born on 2 November 1882 at Hoti, near Mardan, in North-West Frontier Province, now part of Pakistan. His father Ganda Singh, a man of means, traced his ancestry back to Bhalla family of Goindval, in Amritsar district, to which noted Sikh

RAM DIAL, DIWAN (1798-1820), a general in the Sikh army, was the eldest son of Diwan Moti Ram. He is said to have become a divisional commaner at the age of 16. In 1814, during the second expedition of Kashmir, he had independent command of a force of 30,000

SANSAR CHAND (1765-1823), Katoch Rajput Raja of Kangra who ascended the throne in 1775. He was an ambitious ruler and began extending his influence over the neighbouring hill states as well as over the plains lying at the foot of the Sivalik ranges. He came as far as Hoshiarpur

SULTAN MAHMUD KHAN (d. 1859) , son of General Ghaus Khan, was a commander of a section of heavy artillery during the regime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His derah of artillery was designated as Topkhanai Sultan Mahmud. After the death of General Ghaus Khan in 1814, although the chief command

VIJAI VINOD, also called Bijay Binod, is an account of the events at Lahore Darbar after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This work was composed in 1844 by Gval, the court poet at Lahore Darbar, at the orders of Pandit Jalla, the mentor and most influential adviser of

AHMAD YAR KHAN TIWANA (d. 1829), second son of Khan Muhammad Khan, the Tiwana chief of Mittha Tiwana, in Shahpur district, measured swords with Sikhs more than once during Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s time. Ahmad Yar Khan revolted against his father and, having succeeded in attracting most of the tribe to

ARJAN SINGH THAPA was the son of the Gurkha general, Amar Singh Thapa, who had advanced his conquests up to Kangra in the early years of the nineteenth century. Maharaja Ranjit Singh expelled him from the Kangra hills, but the Gurkhas had fought so bravely that he decided to

BENET, a Frenchma n, was one of the European physicians at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He arrived at Lahore in 1838, and was given employment as a personal physician to the Maharaja and surgeon general to the Khalsa army on a monthly salary of Rs 1,000. After

BURNES, SIR ALEXANDER (1805-1841), British traveller, explorer and writer, was born on 16 May 1805. He joined Bombay infantry in 1821. Upon his arrival in India, he devoted himself to the study of the local languages and was, while still an ensign, selected for the post of regimental interpreter. In