RAM DEVI, RANI, daughter of Kaur Singh of the village of Chhachhrivala, in Gujrariwala district, was married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. She predeceased the Maharaja.

SANKARNATH, PANDIT (1789-1858), astrologer and diplomat, belonging to the village of Karivallur, in north Kerala, was a celebrated scholar of ancient lore. His reputation especially as an astrologer spread far beyond the confines of his native Kerala and he was in 1816 invited by Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra

SUKH RAJ (d. 1842) was the youngest of the five sons of Misr Divan Chand, a general in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. Sukh Raj himself joined an infantry regiment and soon rose to be its commandant. He commanded a number of infantry battalions and took part in several of

VIESKENAWITCH, a Russian adventurer, who, after several years of brigandage, escaped to Persia and took up service under Shah Abbas Mirza. He had attained the rank of colonel when he resigned and travelling through Central Asia, reached Peshawar in January 1829. Here he was employed by Pir Muhammad Khan

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

DE LA ROCHE, HENRI FRANCOIS STANISLAUS (d. 1842), a Frenchman born in Mauritius, served in the army of Begam Samru. As the force was disbanded by the British after the Begam`s death, he came to Lahore in 1838 and

FATEH SINGH (d. 1875), son of Nidhan Singh Hathu, was a soldier in the Sikh army and was attached to his father`s contingent wherein he remained until 1827 when he was placed in the Ghorcharha Kalan regiment. In 1834, he accompanied Maharaja Ranjit Singh to Peshawar and, in 1840,

GOBINDGARH FORT, raised in the lime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh on the ruins of an old fortress built at Amritsar by Guj[jar Singh (d. 1788) of the Bharigi clan, was named in honour of Guru Gobind Singh. The Fort took four years, 1805-09, to build. According to

HARKISHAN DAS, a purohit or family priest of Maharaja Dulcep Singh, who in 1883 went on a visit to the Maharaja in England and stayed there as his guest for nearly two years. When he returned to India in 1885, he brought with him offerings from the Maharaja for