Mehtab Kaur
Maharani Sahiba
Maharani Mehtab Kaur by Rattan Singh c.1810
Maharani consort of the Sikh Empire
Tenurec. 1801 – 1813
Sardarni of Sukerchakia Misl
TenureApril 1792 – 11 April 1801
PredecessorRaj Kaur
SuccessorPosition abolished
Born1782
Batala, Kanhaiya Misl, Sikh Confederacy (present-day Punjab, India
Died1813 (aged 30–31)
Amritsar, Sikh Empire (present-day Punjab, India)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1789; sep. 1797)​
[1][2]
IssueIshar Singh
Maharaja Sher Singh
Tara Singh
HouseKanhaiya (by birth)
Sukerchakia (by marriage)
FatherGurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya
MotherSada Kaur
ReligionSikhism

Maharani Mehtab Kaur (c. 1782 – 1813)[3][4][5] was the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,[5][6] the founder of the Sikh Empire. She was the mother of Ranjit's reputed son, Maharaja Sher Singh,[7][8] who briefly became the ruler of the Sikh Empire from 1841 until his death in 1843.[9]

Mehtab Kaur was the only daughter of Sada Kaur and Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya. She was betrothed to a six-year-old Ranjit Singh at the age of four.

Mehtab Kaur was the senior-most[10] of Ranjit Singh's wives and according to historian Jean-Marie Lafont, the only one to bear the title of Maharani (high queen) while his other wives bore the lesser title of Rani (queen).[11][12] After her death, the title was held by Ranjit's second wife and mother of his heir apparent Maharaja Kharak Singh, Datar Kaur.[13][14] After her death the title was passed down to Ranjit's youngest widow Jind Kaur, who served as regent of the Sikh Empire (after Sher Singh's death) from 1843 till 1846 and was the mother of Maharaja Duleep Singh.[15]

Family

Mehtab Kaur, the only child of Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya (Sandhu) and his wife Sada Kaur Dhaliwal, was born in 1782.[4] Upon her birth she was named "Mehtab" (مهتاب) which means 'moonlight' or 'splendor of the moon' in Persian due to her fair and clear complexion.[16][17] Her father, Gurbaksh Singh, was the heir of Jai Singh Kanhaiya (a Sandhu Jat), the founder and chief of the Kanhaiya Misl.[18]

The Kanhaiya Misl, who had replaced the Bhangis as the most powerful misl, disputed Ranjit Singh's father's (Maha Singh) right to plunder Jammu, and in one of the many skirmishes between the two misls, Gurbaksh Singh was killed in battle against Maha Singh in February 1785.[19][20]

Mehtab Kaur's mother, Rani Sada Kaur, an intelligent, high spirited and ambitious woman, used to lend support of the Kanhaiya misl to Ranjit Singh till 1821, when she developed differences with him and as a consequence lost her territory to him.[18]

Marriage

Painting of Maharani Mehtab Kaur of the Sikh Empire with an attendant

Jai Singh disagreed to betroth his granddaughter, Mehtab Kaur, to Maha Singh's son, Ranjit Singh, but was persuaded by his widowed daughter-in-law, Sada Kaur to agree to the match.[21] The Kanhaiya chief died shortly afterwards in 1789,[22] leaving his estates to Sada Kaur who took over the leadership of the Kanhaiya Misl.[19] The same year the young Mehtab Kaur and Ranjit Singh were betrothed and married.[23][24] The Muklawa happened in 1796.[25]

As a teenager, Ranjit Singh took hardly any interest in the affairs of the state, making his mother, Raj Kaur, anxious for his future. She felt that marriage might bring him around to the responsibilities of life.[26] She approached Sada Kaur to fix the muklawa (tradition where the wife goes back to her maternal home) date. Ranjit was fifteen years old when he left Gujranwala for Batala, the chief town of the Kanhaiyas, to perform the after marriage rituals with Mehtab Kaur in 1796. This alliance between the two important Sikh families was a major event for Punjab. All the leading Sikh chiefs were present at the wedding.[26] Mehtab Kaur was very beautiful and her looks made her seem mismatched for the rugged Ranjit Singh.[16] Even if Mehtab Kaur could reconcile herself to her husband's looks, it must have been difficult for her to forget that her father was killed in battle with Ranjit Singh's father.[27] Plus she was haughty and self-willed, a proud woman born to rich parents[16][28] while Ranjit Singh was a typically simple Punjabi man, rustic in his habits.[29] It was a marriage of convenience for both and they rarely stayed together.[30]

After entering into a matrimonial alliance with the Kanhaiya Misl, Ranjit Singh wanted to consolidate his position further which could only be done by drawing some other misl to his side. He made suggestions to head of the Nakais and early in 1797 took a second wife, who was the sister of the Nakai Sardar Gyan Singh Sandhu- with whom he was betrothed to for some time.[31] The marriage turned out to be more successful than the first. His second wife bore his mother's name: Raj Kaur. She was renamed Datar Kaur and was warmly known as Mai Nakain and turned into Ranjit's most loved wife.[32][33]

Ranjit's second marriage and his little interest in her gave Mehtab Kaur an excuse to return to Batala.[34][35] From there on she made only occasional appearances at her husband's home and Ranjit Singh irregularly visited her in Batala.

The second marriage took place under the guardianship of Raj Kaur and Sada Kaur in 1792;[36] Sada Kaur accommodated herself to Ranjit's second marriage as she had set her heart on greater and better things. She made laid out plans which Ranjit Singh followed, she hoped to use her influence on him to secure the future of her daughter, her future children as well as the Kanhaiya Misl.[35][28]

Ranjit Singh's second wife, Datar Kaur bore him his first son and heir, Kharak Singh in 1801. With this Sada Kaur left Ranjit Singh's side and returned to her home in Batala, taking her daughter with her, her plans to secure the future of her daughter and the Kanhaiyas in tatters.[37][28]

Issue

Maharaja Sher Singh (r. 1841 - 1843)

Sada Kaur kept on trying to bring Ranjit Singh closer to her daughter and felt happy when Mehtab bore Ranjit his second son (and her first child) in 1804. Thanking God (Ishwar) the child was named Ishar Singh.[38] The prince died in infancy - at the age of one and a half years.[11] Mehtab Kaur was pregnant again in 1807 and gave birth to twin sons, Sher Singh and Tara Singh in Batala.[39] Ranjit was near Jawalamukhi when he received the news of their birth, he rushed to Amritsar to pay a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple there.[40] The birth of his sons was celebrated greatly. There was cheering in the illustrious camp and when Ranjit returned to Lahore, he gave away vast entire-ties in philanthropy and the city was enlightened for a few nights.[41]

Historians differ over whether Sher Singh and Tara Singh were Ranjit Singh's biological sons. During March 1837, on the occasion of the marriage of Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, Henry Edward Fane, the nephew and aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, India, General Sir Henry Fane, who spent several days in Ranjit Singh's company, reported that the Maharaja never thoroughly acknowledged Sher Singh.[43] The contemporary historian, Joseph Davey Cunningham, who attended the 1838 conversations between Ranjita Singh and Lord Auckland, also recorded that the Maharaja had doubts.[45] However, Khushwant Singh, writing in 1962, considered that the rumours regarding the parentage of Sher Singh and Tara Singh were inaccurate and had been spread by Kharak Singh and his mother, Datar Kaur, in order to reduce the possibility of Ranjit Singh preferring Sher Singh, who was fast becoming his father's favourite.[46] Sohan Lal Suri, the official court biographer too notes that Sher Singh and Tara Singh were not the biological sons of Ranjit Singh in his Umdat ut-tawarikh.[47] Despite his doubts, Ranjit Singh gave Sher Singh commands in the army and conferred honours on him,[48] although Kharak Singh remained his favourite.[46] However, no honours were bestowed on Tara Singh and he was not permitted to appear in court.[49]

Death

After suffering from a failing health, Mehtab Kaur died in 1813. At the time of her death, Ranjit Singh was at Amritsar, where the death of the former had taken place. Ranjit Singh did not go to the incineration and other condolatory functions. After a ton of claims and influences, Dewan Mokham Chand could take the Maharaja to Sada Kaur's derah, where he played out a portion of the critical functions of condolence.[50]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Atwal, Priya (2020-11-01). "Royals and Rebels". doi:10.1093/oso/9780197548318.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-754831-8. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ↑ Atwal, Priya (2020). Royals and Rebels:The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire. London: C. Hurst Limited. ISBN 9781787383081.
  3. ↑ "The Panjab Past and Present". 20. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University. 1 January 1986: 122. Retrieved 3 May 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. 1 2 Noor, Harbans Singh (2004). Connecting the dots in Sikh history. Chandigarh: Institute of Sikh Studies. p. 67. ISBN 9788185815237.
  5. 1 2 "The Sikh Courier International". 38–42. Sikh Cultural Society of Great Britain. 1 January 1998: 9. Retrieved 27 April 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ "The Sikh Review". 53. Sikh Cultural Centre. 1 January 2005: 45, 86. Retrieved 29 April 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ↑ "Punjab District Gazetteers". Compiled and published under the authority of the Punjab government. 1 January 1905: 226. mehtab kaur ranjit singh. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ↑ "Calcutta Review". University of Calcutta. 1 January 1944: 74. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ Grewal, J.S. (1998). The new Cambridge history of India : II. 3 The sikhs of the Punjab (Rev. ed., 1st pbk. ed.). Cambridge[England]: Cambridge University Press. p. 249. ISBN 9780521637640.
  10. ↑ Chhabra, G.S. (2004). Advanced study in the history of modern India ([3rd ed.] ed.). New Delhi: Lotus Press. p. 155. ISBN 9788189093075.
  11. 1 2 Lafont 2002, p. 251
  12. ↑ Lafont 2002, p. 252
  13. ↑ Suri, Sohan Lal Suri. Umdat Ul Tawarikh.
  14. ↑ Singh, Patwant; Rai, Jyoti M. (2008-11-01). Empire of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Peter Owen Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7206-1371-1.
  15. ↑ Lafont 2002, p. 258
  16. 1 2 3 Dalrymple, William; Anand, Anita (2016). Kohinoor: The Story of the WorldÕs Most Infamous Diamond. Juggernaut Books. ISBN 978-93-86228-08-6.
  17. ↑ Richardson, John (1777). A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English. Clarendon Press. p. 1905.
  18. 1 2 Singha, H.S. (2000). The encyclopedia of Sikhism (over 1000 entries). New Delhi: Hemkunt Publishers. p. 137. ISBN 9788170103011.
  19. 1 2 Singh, Patwant; Rai, Jyoti M. (2008). Empire of the Sikhs : the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. London: Peter Owen. pp. 63, 169. ISBN 9780720613230.
  20. ↑ Garrett, Joseph Davey Cunningham (1994). H.L.O. (ed.). A history of the Sikhs from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. p. 175. ISBN 9788120609501.
  21. ↑ Singh 2008, p. 3
  22. ↑ Roy, Kaushik (2015). Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. p. 82. ISBN 9781317321286.
  23. ↑ Proceedings - Punjab History Conference. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University. 2006. ISBN 978-81-302-0094-1.
  24. ↑ Atwal, Priya (2020). Royals and rebels : the rise and fall of the Sikh empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-755459-3. OCLC 1256081616.
  25. ↑ Atwal, Priya (2020-11-01). "Royals and Rebels". doi:10.1093/oso/9780197548318.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-754831-8. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  26. 1 2 Singh 2008, p. 6
  27. ↑ Vaḥīduddīn, Faqīr Sayyid (1965). The Real Ranjit Singh. Lion Art Press.
  28. 1 2 3 Singh, Sarbpreet (2019). The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia: Stories from the Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Tranquebar by Westland Publications Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-88689-47-2.
  29. ↑ Duggal, Kartar Singh (2001). Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Last to Lay Arms. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 978-81-7017-410-3.
  30. ↑ Amini, Iradj (2013-06-01). The Koh-i-noor Diamond. Roli Books Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5194-035-7.
  31. ↑ Griffin, Lepel (2004). Ranjit Singh and the Sikh hindrance between our developing domain and Central Asia (AES Repr. ed.). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. p. 108. ISBN 9788120619180.
  32. ↑ Sardar Singh Bhatia. "Mahitab Kaur (d, 1813)". Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Punjabi University Patiala. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  33. ↑ Singh 2008, p. 35
  34. ↑ Dalrymple, William; Anand, Anita (2016). Kohinoor: The Story of the WorldÕs Most Infamous Diamond. Juggernaut Books. ISBN 978-93-86228-08-6.
  35. 1 2 Singh 2008, p. 8
  36. ↑ Hügel, Karl Alexander, Freiherr von, 1795 or (2000). Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab : containing a particular account of the government and character of the Sikhs. Low Price Pub. ISBN 81-7536-199-9. OCLC 858595304.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  37. ↑ Fakir, Syed Waheeduddin; Vaḥīduddīn, Faqīr Sayyid (1965). The Real Ranjit Singh. Lion Art Press.
  38. ↑ Noor, Harbans Singh (2004). Connecting the specks in Sikh history. Chandigarh: Institute of Sikh Studies. p. 70. ISBN 9788185815237.
  39. ↑ Singh 2008, p. 300
  40. ↑ Lafont 2002, p. 25
  41. ↑ Singh 2008, p. 62
  42. ↑ Fane, Henry Edward (1842). Five Years in India, Volume 1, Chapter VII, page 120. Henry Colburn.
  43. ↑ "Though reported to be the Maha Rajah’s son, Shere Sing’s father has never thoroughly acknowledged him, though his mother always insisted on his being so."[42]
  44. ↑ Cunningham, Joseph Davey (1849). A History of the Sikhs. London: John Murray. p. 186.
  45. ↑ "The Maharaja doubted: and perhaps he always gave credence to the report that Sher Singh was the son of a carpenter, and Tara Singh the child of a weaver, yet they continued to be brought up under the care of their reputed grandmother, as if their parentage had been admitted."[44]
  46. 1 2 Singh 2008, p. 278
  47. ↑ Suri (Lala), Sohan Lal (1961). Umdat-ut-tawarikh ... S. Chand.
  48. ↑ Hasrat, B.J. "Sher Singh, Maharaja". Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Editor-in-Chief Harbans Singh. Punjab University Patiala.
  49. ↑ Fane, page 121
  50. ↑ "The Panjab Past and Present". 20. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University. 1 January 1986: 124. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  51. ↑ Sher-E-Punjab: Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Retrieved 29 April 2017. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)

Bibliography

  • Singh, Khushwant (2008). Ranjit Singh. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0143065432.
  • Lafont, Jean-Marie (2002). Maharaja Ranjit Singh : Lord of the five rivers (2. impression ed.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-566111-8.
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