Tempo:
— CHAP, vin
MAI CHAND KAUR
2o9
year; he promised to be an able and vigorous ruler; aijd had his life been spared, and had not English policy partly forestalled him, he would have found an ample field for his ambition in Sind, in Afghanistan, and beyond the Hindu Kush; and he might, perhaps, at last have boasted that the inroads of Mahmud and of Taimur had been fully avenged by the aroused peasants
]^
of India.
The good-natured voluptuary, Sher Singh, was sher singh regarded by the Sikh minister and by the British agent proclaimed ^^^^^^'^n. as the only person who could succeed to the sovereignty of the Punjab; and as he was absent from Lahore when the Maharaja died and his son was killed, Dhian Singh concealed the latter circumstance as long as possible, to give Sher Singh time to collect his immediate friends; and the English representative urged him by message to maintain good order along the frontier, as men's minds were likely to be excited by what had taken place.^ But Sher Singh's paternity was more than doubtful; he possessed no commanding and few popular qualities; the Rajas of Jammu were odious to the majority of the Sikh chiefs; and thus Chand Kaur, but chand the widow of Kharak Singh, and the mother of the ^aur. the widow of slain prince, assumed to herself the functions of regent Kharak or ruler, somewhat unexpectedly indeed, but still Singh,
unopposed at the moment by those whom she had sur- assumes prised. She was supported by several men of reputa- power, and tion, but mainly by the Sindhianwala family, which ^'^^^ ^'"^h ^^^""^^ traced to a near and common ancestor with Ranjit Singh. The lady herself talked of adding to the claims of the youthful Hira Singh, by adopting him, as he had really, if not formally, been adopted by the old Maharaja. She further distracted the factions by declaring that her daughter-in-law was pregnant; and one party tried to gain her over by suggesting a marriage with Sher Singh, an alliance which she spurned, and the other more reasonably proposed Atar Singh Sindhianwala as a suitable partner, for she might have taken an honoured station in his household agreeably to the latitude of village custom in the north-west of India. But the widow of the Maharaja loudly asserted her own right to supreme power, and after a few weeks the government was stated to be composed, 1st, of the or 'Mother', pre-eminently as sovereign,
'Mai', at
or as
Lahore facing the Hazuri Bagh and the Badshahi Musjid. now closed, but may be easily recognised by its prominent
It is
towers.
Ed.]
Mr. Clerk to Government, 7th Nov. 1840, and also Mr. Clerk's Memorandum of 1842. 1
14
Cf.
MAI CHAND KAUR
2o9
year; he promised to be an able and vigorous ruler; aijd had his life been spared, and had not English policy partly forestalled him, he would have found an ample field for his ambition in Sind, in Afghanistan, and beyond the Hindu Kush; and he might, perhaps, at last have boasted that the inroads of Mahmud and of Taimur had been fully avenged by the aroused peasants
]^
of India.
The good-natured voluptuary, Sher Singh, was sher singh regarded by the Sikh minister and by the British agent proclaimed ^^^^^^'^n. as the only person who could succeed to the sovereignty of the Punjab; and as he was absent from Lahore when the Maharaja died and his son was killed, Dhian Singh concealed the latter circumstance as long as possible, to give Sher Singh time to collect his immediate friends; and the English representative urged him by message to maintain good order along the frontier, as men's minds were likely to be excited by what had taken place.^ But Sher Singh's paternity was more than doubtful; he possessed no commanding and few popular qualities; the Rajas of Jammu were odious to the majority of the Sikh chiefs; and thus Chand Kaur, but chand the widow of Kharak Singh, and the mother of the ^aur. the widow of slain prince, assumed to herself the functions of regent Kharak or ruler, somewhat unexpectedly indeed, but still Singh,
unopposed at the moment by those whom she had sur- assumes prised. She was supported by several men of reputa- power, and tion, but mainly by the Sindhianwala family, which ^'^^^ ^'"^h ^^^""^^ traced to a near and common ancestor with Ranjit Singh. The lady herself talked of adding to the claims of the youthful Hira Singh, by adopting him, as he had really, if not formally, been adopted by the old Maharaja. She further distracted the factions by declaring that her daughter-in-law was pregnant; and one party tried to gain her over by suggesting a marriage with Sher Singh, an alliance which she spurned, and the other more reasonably proposed Atar Singh Sindhianwala as a suitable partner, for she might have taken an honoured station in his household agreeably to the latitude of village custom in the north-west of India. But the widow of the Maharaja loudly asserted her own right to supreme power, and after a few weeks the government was stated to be composed, 1st, of the or 'Mother', pre-eminently as sovereign,
'Mai', at
or as
Lahore facing the Hazuri Bagh and the Badshahi Musjid. now closed, but may be easily recognised by its prominent
It is
towers.
Ed.]
Mr. Clerk to Government, 7th Nov. 1840, and also Mr. Clerk's Memorandum of 1842. 1
14
Cf.
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