RANJIT SINGH (1780-1839), originally a petty chief, was appointed governor of Lahore by Shah Zaman, king of the Afghans. Favoured by the dissensions between this prince and his brotherS, from 1801 he made himself entirely independent, and tolhe province confided to his care 'soon added ICashmir, Peshawur; Kohat, Dehra Ismail Khan, 'and Multan, which accessions of territory rendered his power equal, if \ not superior, to that of his former master. He did not extend his conquests to Kashmir, Multan, Peshawur, or even beyond the Jhelum, until he was assured of the pacific intentions of the British. He was the greatest leader of the Sikhs ; his rise commenced after the departure of Shah Zaman. He made Lahore his capital. In 1806, he first entered into a vague but friendly alliance with the British. Before the close of his loug life, in A.D. 27th June 1839, he had succeeded in moulding into one nation the various conflicting interests and peoples over whom his conquests extended. He
was of small stature. When young he was dext,er ous 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 smallpox, and the most marked characteristic of his mental powers was a broad and massive forehead, which the ordinary portraits do not show. From tracts of country which the Sikhs subdued, but did not occupy, Rakhi, literally protection money, was regularly levied. The Rakhi varied in amount from perhaps a fifth to a half of the rental or Government shard of the produce. It corre sponded with the Mahratta Chouth or fourth, and both terms meant black-mail, or, in a higher sense, tribute. He organized the Khalsa, or the liberated,' into an army under European officers, which for steadiness and religious fervour has had no parallel since the Ironsides ' of Cromwell. Ile died 1839.
Gaz.; Ferrier, Journ. p. 347 ; Cunning ham's Sikhs, p. 113.