Ranjit Singh

Ranjit Singh (rŭn`jĭt sĭng), 1780–1839, Indian maharaja, ruler of the Sikhs. Seizing Lahore (1799) and Amritsar (1809), he established himself as the leading Sikh chieftain. In 1809 he made a treaty with the British, by which he agreed not to expand his domain south of the Sutlej River. However, he built up a formidable army with the help of European officers and rapidly expanded his holdings to the north and west. By the time of his death he controlled all of the Punjab north of the Sutlej as well as Kashmir. At the end (1849) of the Sikh Wars most of his kingdom fell to Great Britain.

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Ranjit Singh

(born Nov. 13, 1780, Budrukhan or Gujranwala, India—died June 27, 1839, Lahore) Founder and maharaja (1801–39) of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab. He became chief of the Shukerchakias (a Sikh group located in what is now Pakistan) on the death of his father in 1792. In 1799 he seized Lahore, the capital of the Punjab (and now in Pakistan), and in 1801 he proclaimed himself maharaja of the Punjab. In 1802 he captured Amritsar, a city sacred to the Sikhs, and by 1820 he had consolidated his rule over the whole of Punjab between the Sutlej and the Indus rivers. The Sikh state he created, which had included Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus in both the army and the cabinet, collapsed soon after his death.

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Ranjit Singh

called the Lion of the Punjab. 1780--1839; founder of the Sikh kingdom in the Punjab