MAHITAB KAUR (d. 1813), the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the daughter of Gurbakhsh Singh Kanhaiya and Sada Kaur. Sada Kaur persuaded her father-in-law, Jai Singh Kanhaiya, after her husband had been killed in a show of arms with Maharn Singh Sukkarchakkia, to betroth her daughter to

NIDHAN SINGH PANJHATTHA (d. 1839), soldier, minor commander and jdgirddr under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He acquired the epithet Parijhattha, the "five handed," for his gallantry in the battle of Ten hill (1823). He singlehanded made five Pathans prisoners and captured their weapons. This act of valour earned him the

QUTB UDDIN (d. 1832), younger brother of Nizam udDin, the Afghan chief of Kasur, succeeded to the gaddi of Kasur on the latter`s death in 1802. He began fortifying Kasur in an endeavour to overthrow the authority of Ranjit Singh whose tributary he was. Ranjit Singh led an expedition

RUP LAL (d. 1865), the eldest son of Misr Divan Chand, served in the Lahore treasury until he was appointed in 1832 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to replace Shaikh Muhi udDin as governor of the Jalandhar Doab. Maharaja Sher Singh made him governor of Kalanaur and the Lahore territory

SULTAN MUHAMMAD KHAN, one of the several sons of Painda Khan, was a gorgeous person known as "Sultan Bibi" on account of Ills excessive love of finery and ostentation. In 1830 Sultan Muhammad Khan became governor of Peshawar and a tributary of the Sikhs. About this time, he was

WAFA BEGAM, the senior wife of Shah Shuja, the king of Kabul, who after the dethronement of her husband came in February 1810 to Lahore where the Sikh sovereign, Ranjit Singh, made arrangements for her reception and accommodation suiting her status. In 1812, Shah Shuja fell into the hands

AKHBAR-I-DARBAR-I-MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH, also called Akhbari Deorhi Sardar Ranjit Singh Bahadur, is a set of Persian manuscripts comprising 193 loose sheets of unequal size and containing, as the title indicates, news of the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839). These sheets are believed to be newsletters sent from the Punjab

AZIZ UDDIN, FAQIR (1780-1845), physician, diplomat, and foreign minister at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the eldest son of Ghulam Mohy udDin, a leading physician of Lahore. Of his two brothers, Nur udDin held charge of the city of Lahore and had been governor of Gujrat, and Imam

CANORA (KANAKA), FRANCIS JOHN (1799-1848), an Irishman, inscribed in Khalsa Darbar records variously as Kenny, Kennedy and Khora. Roaming across many countries, he reached Lahore in 1831, and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s artillery on a daily wage of Rs 3. Gradually, he rose to the rank of colonel, with a

DAYAKAUR, RANI (d. 1843), widow of Sahib Singh Bhangi of Gujrat, was married, in 1811, to Maharaja Ranjit Singh by the rite of chadar andazi, a rite having sanction under customary law to facilitate marriage with a widow who is accepted into nuptials by unfurling a chadar or sheet

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

HOTI, BAWA PREM SINGH (1882 - 1954) Bawa Kahan Singh, the grandfather of Bawa Prem Singh Hoti shifted to the North West Frontier Province after its annexation to the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from Goindwal (Amritsar). He got his education from indigenous institutions and gained proficiency in Punjabi,