Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire

325 Pages·2020·13.094 MB·English

by  Priya Atwal

ROYALS AND REBELS

PRIYA ATWAL
Royals and Rebels
The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire
A
3
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Press in the UK and in certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison
Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
© © Priya Atwal, 2020
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
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system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in
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A copy of this book’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is on fi le with the Library of Congress.
ISBN 9780197548318
CONTENTS
Maps vi
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
1. To Be a Sikh King 11
2. New Dynasty, New Empire 43
3. All the World’s a Stage 85
4. After the Lion: Writing the Story of Ranjit Singh’s Heirs 125
5. The Boy-King, the Rebel Queen and the British Empire 171
Conclusion 207
Appendices: Queens of the Sikh Empire 215
Notes 225
Bibliography 251
Index 263
v
Map 1: The twelve Sikh misls or clans and surrounding powers, eighteenth century. © Navtej Heer.
© S.Ballard (2020)
Gilgit
Expansion under
Duleep Singh
(r.1843-9)
KABUL Peshawar KASHMIR SrinagarR.Indus LehLADAKH
Rawalpindi
EMIRATE of
AFGHANISTAN
Dera R.Chenab Jammu
Ismail
Khan
Amritsar R.Beas
LAHORE
Jalandhar
Quetta R.Indsu Multan R.R avi RP.HSutUlejLKFIeAroNzp/urCIS-PSaUtiTalLaEJ S T A T E S
Sirsa BRITISH
Bahawalpur Hisar INDIA
DELHI
N
RAJPUT STATES
Map 2: The Sikh Empire and surrounding powers, first half
of nineteenth century.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The author and the publisher thank the following for their kind
permission to reproduce illustrations in this book: Aown Ali (AA),
the British Library (BL), the British Museum (BM), the Kapany
Collection (KC), the Samrai Collection (SC) and the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London (V&A).
1. Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana in a landscape (SC).
2. Guru Arjan, seated portrait (SC).
3. Guru Gobind Singh, equestrian portrait mounted on a Mughal
album page (SC).
4. Maharajah Ranjit Singh (© V&A).
5. Ranjit Singh’s throne (© V&A).
6. Golden Temple, Amritsar (photograph by Kay v11, Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International).
7. Scene from the Persian epic the Shahnameh: Rustem slaying a
dragon with Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan depicted in the bor-
ders (SC).
8. Ranjit Singh and wives (Wellcome Collection, Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International).
9. Maharani Mai Nakain (collection unknown, Wikimedia
Commons/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International).
10. Mai Nakain’s apartments, fresco of Guru Gobind Singh (photo-
graph by AA).
11. Mai Nakain’s apartments, ground-floor courtly fresco (photo-
graph by AA).
12. Mai Nakain’s apartments, courtyard (photograph by AA).
13. Ranjit Singh’s wives committing sati at his funeral (© Trustees
of the BM).
14. Maharajah Kharak Singh (SC).
15. Two men look through a telescope, Sanskrit astronomy manu-
script (© BL Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images).
ix