Ranjit Singh
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Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a Sikh ruler of the Punjab. His tomb is located in Lahore, Pakistan.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a Sikh Jat born in 1780. At the time much of Panjab was ruled by the Sikhs, who had divided the territory between factions. Ranjit Singh's father Maha Singh was a warlord who led the Sukerchakia faction and controlled a territory in west Punjab based around his head quarters at Gujranwala. After several campaigns he united the Sikh factions into one state and he took the title of Maharaja, with Lahore serving as his capital. He then spent the following years fighting the Afghans, driving them out of western Panjab. He captured the province of Multan which encompassed the southern parts of Panjab, Jammu, Kashmir Peshawar and the hill states north of Anandpur, largest of which was Kangra. He also modernised his army, hiring European mercenaries to train his troops. The effect was to create a powerful and heavily armed state. Ranjit Singh died in 1839. He is remembered as a legendary soldier king by the sikhs and by other people. He is considered one of the 3 Lions of India, the most famous and revered heros in Indian history ( the other 2 Lions are Rana Partap Singh of Mewar and Shivaji the Maratha)
External links
- Ranjit Singh profile from sikh-history.com (http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/warriors/ranjit1.html)