Tempo:
CHAP. VII
DEATH OF RANJIT SINGH
201
When Ran jit Singh was Lord Auckland's host at i839^ Lahore and Amritsar, his utterance was difficult, and the powers of his body feeble; he gradually lost the use of his speech, and of the faculties of his mind; and, before his death, the Rajas of Jammu had usurped to themselves the whole of the functions of government, which the absence of Nau Nihal Singh enabled them The army was assembled, to do with little difficulty. and a litter, said to contain the dying Maharaja, was The artifices carried along the extended line. Dhian Singh was of Dhian assiduous in his mournful attentions^ he seemed to take singh to orders as if from his departing sovereign, and from ^""^^^ about time to time, during the solemn procession, he made ^^^^^^jon known that Ran jit Singh declared the Prince Kharak of Karak Singh his successor, and himself, Dhian Singh, the smgh. wazir or minister of the kingdom.^ The soldiery acquiesced in silence, and the British Government was perhaps more sincere than the Sikh people in the congratulations offered,, agreeably to custom, to the new and unworthy master of the Punjab. Mr. Masson (Journeys, i. 430) gives the same revenue; but fixes the army at 7C,000 men, of whom 20,000 were disciphned. This may be assumed as an estimate of 1838, when Mr. Masson returned from Kabul. In 1845, Lieut. -Col. Steinbach (Punjab, p. 58) states the army to have amounted to 110,000 men, of whom 70,000 were regulars. The returns procured for Government in 1844, and which cannot be far wrong, show that there were upwards of 40,000 regularly drilled infantry, and a force of about 125.000 men in all, maintained with about 375 guns or field carriages. Cf. the Calcutta Review, iii. 176; Dr. Macgregor, Sikhs, ii. 86, and Major Smith, Reigning Family of Lahore, appendices, infantry.
estimates, correct in some particulars, and p. xxxvii, for moderate in others. For a statement of the Lahore revenues, see Appendix XXXVIII; and for a list o£ the Lahore army, see Appendix •
XXXIX. Many descriptions of Ranjit Singh's person and manners been written, of which the fullest is perhaps that in Prinsep's edition of Murray, Life, p. 187, &c.; while Capt. Osborne's Court and Camp, and Col. Lawrence's Adventurer in the Punjab, contain many illustrative touches and anecdotes. The only good likeness of the Maharaja which has been published is that taken by the Hon. Miss Eden; and it, especially in the original drawing, is true and expressive. Ranjit Singh was of small stature. When young he was dexterous in all manly exercises, but in his old age he became weak and inclined to corpulency. He lost an eye when a child by the small-pox, and the most marked characteristic of his
have
mental powers was a broad and massive forehead, which the ordinary portraits do not show. 1 Mr. Clerk's memorandum of 1842 for Lord Ellenborough.
DEATH OF RANJIT SINGH
201
When Ran jit Singh was Lord Auckland's host at i839^ Lahore and Amritsar, his utterance was difficult, and the powers of his body feeble; he gradually lost the use of his speech, and of the faculties of his mind; and, before his death, the Rajas of Jammu had usurped to themselves the whole of the functions of government, which the absence of Nau Nihal Singh enabled them The army was assembled, to do with little difficulty. and a litter, said to contain the dying Maharaja, was The artifices carried along the extended line. Dhian Singh was of Dhian assiduous in his mournful attentions^ he seemed to take singh to orders as if from his departing sovereign, and from ^""^^^ about time to time, during the solemn procession, he made ^^^^^^jon known that Ran jit Singh declared the Prince Kharak of Karak Singh his successor, and himself, Dhian Singh, the smgh. wazir or minister of the kingdom.^ The soldiery acquiesced in silence, and the British Government was perhaps more sincere than the Sikh people in the congratulations offered,, agreeably to custom, to the new and unworthy master of the Punjab. Mr. Masson (Journeys, i. 430) gives the same revenue; but fixes the army at 7C,000 men, of whom 20,000 were disciphned. This may be assumed as an estimate of 1838, when Mr. Masson returned from Kabul. In 1845, Lieut. -Col. Steinbach (Punjab, p. 58) states the army to have amounted to 110,000 men, of whom 70,000 were regulars. The returns procured for Government in 1844, and which cannot be far wrong, show that there were upwards of 40,000 regularly drilled infantry, and a force of about 125.000 men in all, maintained with about 375 guns or field carriages. Cf. the Calcutta Review, iii. 176; Dr. Macgregor, Sikhs, ii. 86, and Major Smith, Reigning Family of Lahore, appendices, infantry.
estimates, correct in some particulars, and p. xxxvii, for moderate in others. For a statement of the Lahore revenues, see Appendix XXXVIII; and for a list o£ the Lahore army, see Appendix •
XXXIX. Many descriptions of Ranjit Singh's person and manners been written, of which the fullest is perhaps that in Prinsep's edition of Murray, Life, p. 187, &c.; while Capt. Osborne's Court and Camp, and Col. Lawrence's Adventurer in the Punjab, contain many illustrative touches and anecdotes. The only good likeness of the Maharaja which has been published is that taken by the Hon. Miss Eden; and it, especially in the original drawing, is true and expressive. Ranjit Singh was of small stature. When young he was dexterous in all manly exercises, but in his old age he became weak and inclined to corpulency. He lost an eye when a child by the small-pox, and the most marked characteristic of his
have
mental powers was a broad and massive forehead, which the ordinary portraits do not show. 1 Mr. Clerk's memorandum of 1842 for Lord Ellenborough.
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