NANAK CHAND (d. 1831), the eldest son of Hoshnak Rai and a brother of Diwan Savan Mall, governor of Multan in Sikh times, entered the service of Dal Singh of Akalgarh in 1788. He served that chief until his death in 1804 when the estate of Akalgarh, which was

OMS (d. 1828), a Spaniard, also known as Amise, Musa Sahib, Urns and Hommus, served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. As a young man, he had enlisted in Napoleon`s artillery. After France`s defeat in 1815, he set out on his travels and reached Persia where he obtained employment declaring himself

PREM SINGH (d. 1824), son of Parnab Singh, a Randhava Jatt belonging to the village of Khunda in Gurdaspur district, was a solider in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. He took part in several of the Maharaja`s campaigns of conquest including those of Multan (1818) and Kashmir (1819). He was

RAM CHANDRA, PROFESSOR, born into a Kayastha family in 1821 at Panipat. Professor Ram Chandra became a distinguished teacher of mathematics. He joined the English school at Delhi in 1833 and earned a merit scholarship. At the age of 11, he was lured into marrying a girl who was completely

SUCHET SINGH, RAJA (1801-1844.), the youngest of the Dogra trinity who rose to high positions at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on 18 January 1801, the son of MIari Kishora Singh. He started his career a^ a young age, appointed to the duty of laying public petitions

VENTURA, JEAN BAPTISTE (1792-1858), a general in the Sikh army, was an Italian by birth who had served in Napoleon`s army as a colonel of infantry and had taken part in the battle of Wagram (1809), in the Russian campaign (1812) and in the battle of Waterloo (1815). After the

ADVENTURES OF AN OFFICER IN THE PUNJAB (2 vols.) by Major H. M. L. Lawrence, under the pseudonym of Bellasis, published in AD 1846 by Henry Colburn, London, and reprinted in 1970 by the Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala. The book which is a rambling account, half fact half fiction, of

ARJAN SINGH, BHAYEE (1875-1946), of Bagarian, titled chief much honoured in Sikh piety, was a descendant of Bhai Rup Chand, a devoted disciple of Guru Hargobind, who had bestowed on him the title `Bhai` (also written as Bhayee) or holy brother. Rup Chand belonged to the village of Vadda

BELI RAM (d. 1843). head of the royal to shakhana at Lahore, was the second of the five sons of Misr Divan Chand, a general in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. He joined the Maharaja`s treasury in 1809 and within seven years rose to occupy the highest position in it.

BUDDH SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1827), soldier wdjagirdar in the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was son of Amir Singh Sandhanvalia, his two brothers being the more famous Lahina Singh Sandhanvalia and Atar Singh Sandhanvalia. Buddh Singh entered the Maharaja`s service in 1811. The first independent command he held was

DAKNO, RANI, who came of a Rajput family of Kangra district, was married to Maharaja Sher Singh in 1842. Reputed to be a most beautiful woman of her time, she was tall and slender, graceful and very fair, with a peculiarly gentle and winning expression of countenance. In the

FATEHNAMAH GURU KHALSA JI KA, by Ganesh Das, an employee of the Sikh Darbar, and published as edited by Sita Ram Kohli, contains accounts, in Punjabi verse, of three of the major battles of Sikh times. The first of these was fought at Multan in 1818 between Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s