Ranjit Singh

The "Lion of Punjab," who unified Punjab and founded the Sikh Empire.

Life

One-eyed youth

Ranjit Singh was born into the family of a chief of a Sikh military confederacy and lost an eye to smallpox as a child. In 1799 he captured Lahore, and in 1801 he was proclaimed Maharaja of Punjab.

Lion of Punjab

He united the Sikh confederacies and successively took Amritsar, Multan, Kashmir, and Peshawar, building a Sikh Empire that stretched from the Sutlej River to the Khyber Pass. He hired European officers to train his army, was tolerant in religion, and had Hindu and Muslim ministers at his court. He covered the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar with gold leaf, and it has been known as the Golden Temple ever since.

Golden Temple

He signed a treaty with the British East India Company fixing the Sutlej River as the border. After his death in 1839 the empire fell into internal strife and was annexed by Britain ten years later.

Legacy

Ranjit Singh is the most revered monarch among the Sikhs, and the empire he founded was the last powerful indigenous state in South Asia before the British conquest.

Did you know? He once owned the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which the British later took away and set in the British crown.

Key dates

• 1799Captures Lahore
• 1801Proclaimed Maharaja of Punjab
• 1809Signs the Treaty of Amritsar with Britain
• 1819Takes Kashmir
• 1834Takes Peshawar
• 1839Died