Ranjit Singh proclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab
In Lahore, which he had taken two years earlier, Ranjit Singh, chief of the Sikh Sukerchakia misl, was solemnly invested as maharaja. The history of the Sikh Empire is usually counted from this ceremony.
- Date
- 12 April 1801exact date
- Place
- Lahoretoday: Lahore, Pakistan · South Asia
- Participants
- Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh
- Threads
- The world in the Age of Revolution
Ranjit Singh became head of the misl as a boy, after his father’s death in 1792, and rose to prominence fighting the invasions of the Afghan ruler Zaman Shah. In 1799 he took Lahore, and on 12 April 1801 Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak, performed the rite of his investiture. The maharaja called his government the “Sarkar Khalsa” and struck coins in the name of Guru Nanak.
By 1813 he had subdued the other Sikh misls, and then he took Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar from the Afghans. With an army trained on European lines, his state kept its independence from the East India Company longer than any other major Indian state and was annexed by the Company only in 1849.
Connections
Related events
- Fall of Seringapatam and death of Tipu Sultan5 April – 4 May 1799 · South Asiain 1799, as the British crushed Mysore, Ranjit Singh took Lahore; his state became the last major independent power in India
Same place
- Founding of the Delhi Sultanate1206 · South Asia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Voltaic pile20 March 1800 · Western and Central Europe
- Catholic persecution of 1801 in Korea22 February – 10 December 1801 · East Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Marengo14 June 1800
Eastern Europe
- Assassination of Paul I12 (24) March 1801
Middle East and Egypt
- French invasion of Egypt and Syria19 May 1798 – 2 September 1801
East Asia
- Catholic persecution of 1801 in Korea22 February – 10 December 1801
- White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804
Latin America
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Ranjit Singh
- Wikipedia (English): Sikh Empire
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сингх, Ранджит
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сикхское государство
- Grewal J. S. The Sikhs of the Punjab. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.