Sikh Empire: A Visual History

The Sikh Empire was created by Ranjit Singh, who took Lahore in 1799 at 19 and united the Sikh misls (confederacies) of the Punjab, proclaiming himself Maharaja in 1801. He conquered Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar from the Afghans and ruled a multi-religious state from Lahore with a European-trained army, the Fauj-i-Khas. His death in 1839 unleashed murders and coups; the army fought the British in the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-1846) and lost, and after the Second (1848-1849) the Punjab was annexed and the boy maharaja Duleep Singh sent to England.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Sikh Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Sikh Empire territory

Timeline of the Sikh Empire

1. 1799
   Ranjit Singh takes Lahore
2. 1801
   Proclaimed Maharaja
3. 1809
   Treaty of Amritsar with the British
4. 1819
   Kashmir conquered
5. 1834
   Peshawar taken
6. 1839
   Ranjit Singh dies
7. 1846
   Sobraon; First Anglo-Sikh War ends
8. 1849
   Gujrat; Punjab annexed

Ranjit Singh

Blind in one eye from smallpox, Ranjit Singh inherited the Sukerchakia misl at 12 and by shrewd alliances and force united the Punjab. He took Amritsar in 1802, gilded the Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple), and expanded west and north: Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819), Peshawar (1834). He employed Muslims and Hindus in his government, was tolerant in religion, drank heavily and negotiated the 1809 Treaty of Amritsar that fixed the Sutlej as his border with the British.

The Khalsa army

Ranjit hired European officers, notably the Napoleonic veterans Jean-Francois Allard, Jean-Baptiste Ventura, Paolo Avitabile and Claude Auguste Court, to drill infantry and artillery on French lines. The Sikh army of about 120,000 with fine artillery was the strongest in India apart from the Company's. Hari Singh Nalwa's campaigns against the Afghans took the frontier to the Khyber.

Anarchy and annexation

In the six years after Ranjit's death four maharajas were killed or died and the army's panchayats ran the state. The British, alarmed and tempted, fought a Sikh invasion across the Sutlej in 1845-1846 at Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon, hard battles won partly by Sikh commanders' treachery. Kashmir was sold to Gulab Singh. Revolt at Multan in 1848 led to the Second War, Chillianwala and Gujrat, and annexation on 29 March 1849. Duleep Singh, aged 11, surrendered the Koh-i-Noor.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857)
• Maratha Empire (1674 to 1818)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1526)
• Qajar Empire (1789 to 1925)
• Danish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)

Wars of the same era and region

• Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857 to 1858)
• Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763)
• Maratha invasions of Bengal (1741 to 1751)

8 surprising things about the Sikh Empire

1. The Koh-i-Noor diamond, taken from Duleep Singh in 1849, is in the British Crown Jewels; India, Pakistan and Afghanistan all claim it.
2. Ranjit Singh's court included a French general who was a Freemason, an Italian governor of Peshawar famous for hanging people, and an American, Alexander Gardner.
3. The Golden Temple got its gold plating from Ranjit Singh's donations.
4. Ranjit Singh reportedly said of a map of India that 'it will all be red one day', red being the British colour.
5. Duleep Singh grew up in England as Queen Victoria's protege, converted to Christianity, and later tried and failed to reclaim his throne with Russian help.
6. Sikhs were a minority in their own empire; most subjects were Muslim.
7. The Battle of Sobraon in 1846 was described by British officers as the hardest fought in India.
8. The Sikh Empire's fall gave the British the Punjab troops who helped suppress the 1857 rebellion eight years later.

Sources

• Sikh Empire Wikipedia
• Ranjit Singh Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Anglo-Sikh Wars Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, vol. 1 (1963) Princeton University Press

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