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.

DEVI DAS, DIWAN (1767-1830), eldest son of Diwan Thakur Das Khatri of Peshawar, was, like his father, in the service of the Afghan rulers prior to joining the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. At the time of Shah Zaman`s last invasion of northern India (1798-99), the Maharaja, who had

KARAM SINGH NIRMALA, nephew of Himmat Singh of the Nishanarivali chicfship, who had captured Shahabad Markanda and Isma`ilabad in January 1764 after the sack of Sirhind. On Himmat Singh`s death without issue in 1771, Karam Singh succeeded him in the leadership of the Nishanarivali misl. Karam Singh commanded a

KHARAK SINGH, MAHARAJA (1801-1840), eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on 9 February 1801. He was married to Chand Kaur, daughter of Jaimal Singh Kanhaiya, in 1812. The Maharaja brought him up in ihe family`s martial tradition and assigned him to a variety of military expeditions. While

KHUSHAL SINGH, JAMADAR (1790-1844), son of Hargobind, a Brahman shopkeeper of Ikri in Mccrut district of Uttar Pradesh, was born in 1790. At a very young age, he arrived in Lahore in search of employment, and joined the Sikh army as a trooper in Dhaunkal Singh`s regiment in 1807.

LAHORE DARBAR, i.e. the Sikh Court at Lahore, denoted the government of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors (1799-1849). However, the Persian chroniclers refer to this government as Sarkar Khalsaji, and the term "Lahore Darbar" is not used even in British records until about the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

MAZHAR ALI, an artillery officer in Sikh times who commanded the horse battery of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s Topkhanai Khas. For a time, he served under General Ghaus Khan with command of a battery of 10 light guns. He took part in the Attock operations in 1813 under the command

NAU NIHAL SINGH, KANVAR( 1821-1840), son of Maharaja Kharak Singh, was born on 23 February 1821. According to the official Lahore diarist, Sohan Lal Suri, great rejoicing took place at his birth and a Persian chronogramA bouquet of wisdom`s garden was coined recording the year of his birth. Nau

SHAHI TIBBI, a low mound about 6 km south of KIratpur Sahib (31"11`N, P&`SaE) in Ropar district of the Punjab, was the scene of a fierce battle in the time of Guru Gobind Singh. The Guru who evacuated Anandpur on the night of 56 December 1705, was given a hot