ATAR SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1844). son of Amir Singh, was a collateral of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After the direct descendants of the Maharaja, he, as the eldest of the Sandhanvalia family, stood close to the throne. A daring soldier, Atar Singh was a calculating and shrewd courtier. He took

KIRPAL SINGH (d. 1830) came from the neighbourhood of Bathinda in 1770 and received the village of Shamgarh from Sahib Singh, the Sardar ofLadva, who had married his sister. He joined Sahib Singh in most of his expeditions. His daughter was married to Karivar Partap Singh of Jind and

SHER SINGH, MAHARAJA (1807-1843), Sikh sovereign of the Punjab from January 1841 until his death in September 1843, was the son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, born on 4 December 1807 to Mahitab Kaur, the Maharaja`s first wife. Sher Singh grew up into a handsome, broad chested young man. His

BAINTAN SHER SINGH KIAN, by Nihal Singh, is a poem dealing with some gruesome events from the history of the Sikhs murders in 1843 of the Sikh monarch Maharaja Sher Singh, his young son Partap Singh, and minister Dhian Singh Dogra at the hands of Sandhanvalia collaterals Ajit Singh and

LAHINA SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1843), son of Amir Singh Sandhanvalia, enjoyed at the court of Ranjit Singh the title of "Ujjal Didar, Nirmal Buddh, Sardar i-ba-Waqar (Resplendent presence, pure of intellect, the Sardar with prestige marked) Sardar Lahina Singh Sandhanvalia Bahadur." Like other collaterals of the Maharaja, Lahina Singh

SIKH ARMY PANCHAYATS, or regimental committees, were a singularly characteristic phenomenon of the post Ranjit Singh period of Sikh rule in the Punjab. Based on the Sikh principle of equality as well as of the supremacy of sangat or the sarbatt khalsa, they wielded great power during 1841-45. Like the

BAISAKHA SINGH, DlWAN (d. 1844), soldier and administrator in the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the son of Diwan Kahn Singh Chamiarivala. In 1831, he accompanied Kanvar Sher Singh and General Ventura to Peshawar to put down the tumult raised by Sayyid Ahmad Barelavi. When in 1832 Kanvar

MAHITAB SINGH MAJITHIA (1811-1865), General in the Sikh army, son of Amar Singh Majithia (junior). Mahitab Singh started his career as a subahdar in the irregular Sikh cavalry of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1831, he was promoted Colonel and posted as commandant of Sikh troops stationed at Amritsar. He

SURAT SINGH MAJITHIA, RAJA (d. 1881), son of Atar Singh Majithia, was a soldier, commander and notable sardar of the Sikh Darbar. Details of his early career and of his service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh are scanty. Surat Singh was commandant of the Sikh battalion posted at Peshawar during

BAZIGARS or acrobats, a counterpart of nats outside the Punjab, are a nomadic people travelling from one place to the other, using camels and donkeys as pack animals. Earlier they had been an occupational group performing bazi, i.e. acrobatic feats, in the form of various types of jumps and other

NIHAL SINGH SODHI (d. 1859), son of Megh Singh, entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army in 1819, and was, five years later, made commandant of 100 horsemen in the Charyari corps. He fought for Maharaja Sher Singh during the siege of Lahore in January 1841. Under Sher Singh`s successor, Nihal