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Punjab Monarchy and (mperialism
wrote Emily Eden. Despite his unprepossessing appearance, his face was animated and full of expression. Many people who met him commented on his penetrating look and the restlessness of his fiery eye. Fakir Azizuddin, who led a Punjabi delegation to Lord William Bentinck at Simla in 1831, was asked by an officer of the governor general in which eye Ranjit Singh was blind. 'The splendour ofhls face is such,' replied the Fakir, 'that I have never been able to look close enough to discover.' Despite his slight stature and spare frame, Ranjit Singh was wiry, as if made of whipcord. He was a superb horseman and, since horses were the niling passion of his life, he often spent as much as ten hours of the day in the saddle. Although of exceUent constitution, he was a hypochondriac. He consulted physicians every other day and insisted on their prescribing drugs (in later years, laudanum) for his imaginary ailments. But this obsession with illness did not produce a fear of death. He was a man of courage who led his men in battle and faced danger without concern for his own life. This quality earned for him the title, 'Lion of the Punjab'. Although ugly himself, Ranjit Singh was a lover of beautiful things. He surrounded himself with handsome men and beautiful women. He wore the plainest of clothes (saffron-coloured cashmere in winter and plain white muslin in summer) but he insisted that courtiers and visitors wear their regalia and jewellery in the Durbar. He maintained a bevy of.Kashmiri girls who dressed as soldiers and rode out with him on ceremonial occasions. His appreciation of beauty was not confined to human beings. He loved the open country and spent his morning hours riding out to the river or to some garden. Whenever dark monsoon clouds appeared in the sky or it started to rain he stopped work and gave himself up to merrymaking. The sight of the new moon moved him to rapturous delight and he would order a gun salute to honour its appearance. The Mughal garden at Shalamar (which he renamed Saliibiit/1, the Jover's garden) was his favourite haunt, where he relaxed amid the playing fountains, drank goblets of heady wine, and listened to his favourite flautist, Attar Khan, or watched the nautch. Ranjit Singh was a hon vivant who
Punjab Monarchy and (mperialism
wrote Emily Eden. Despite his unprepossessing appearance, his face was animated and full of expression. Many people who met him commented on his penetrating look and the restlessness of his fiery eye. Fakir Azizuddin, who led a Punjabi delegation to Lord William Bentinck at Simla in 1831, was asked by an officer of the governor general in which eye Ranjit Singh was blind. 'The splendour ofhls face is such,' replied the Fakir, 'that I have never been able to look close enough to discover.' Despite his slight stature and spare frame, Ranjit Singh was wiry, as if made of whipcord. He was a superb horseman and, since horses were the niling passion of his life, he often spent as much as ten hours of the day in the saddle. Although of exceUent constitution, he was a hypochondriac. He consulted physicians every other day and insisted on their prescribing drugs (in later years, laudanum) for his imaginary ailments. But this obsession with illness did not produce a fear of death. He was a man of courage who led his men in battle and faced danger without concern for his own life. This quality earned for him the title, 'Lion of the Punjab'. Although ugly himself, Ranjit Singh was a lover of beautiful things. He surrounded himself with handsome men and beautiful women. He wore the plainest of clothes (saffron-coloured cashmere in winter and plain white muslin in summer) but he insisted that courtiers and visitors wear their regalia and jewellery in the Durbar. He maintained a bevy of.Kashmiri girls who dressed as soldiers and rode out with him on ceremonial occasions. His appreciation of beauty was not confined to human beings. He loved the open country and spent his morning hours riding out to the river or to some garden. Whenever dark monsoon clouds appeared in the sky or it started to rain he stopped work and gave himself up to merrymaking. The sight of the new moon moved him to rapturous delight and he would order a gun salute to honour its appearance. The Mughal garden at Shalamar (which he renamed Saliibiit/1, the Jover's garden) was his favourite haunt, where he relaxed amid the playing fountains, drank goblets of heady wine, and listened to his favourite flautist, Attar Khan, or watched the nautch. Ranjit Singh was a hon vivant who
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