Mehtab Kaur Explained

Consort:yes
Mehtab Kaur
Succession:Maharani consort of the Sikh Empire
Maharani Sahiba
Reign: 1801  - 1813
Spouse:[1] [2]
Succession2:Sardarni of Sukerchakia Misl
Reign2:April 1792 – 11 April 1801
Predecessor2:Raj Kaur
Successor2:Position abolished
House:Kanhaiya (by birth)
Sukerchakia (by marriage)
Father:Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya
Mother:Sada Kaur
Birth Date:1782
Birth Place:Batala, Kanhaiya Misl, Sikh Confederacy(present-day Punjab, India
Death Place:Amritsar, Sikh Empire (present-day Punjab, India)
Issue:Ishar Singh
Maharaja Sher Singh
Tara Singh
Religion:Sikhism

Maharani Mehtab Kaur (1782  - 1813)[3] [4] [5] was the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,[6] the founder of the Sikh Empire. She was the mother of Maharaja Sher Singh,[7] [8] who briefly became the ruler of the Sikh Empire from 1841 until his death in 1843.[9]

Mehtab Kaur was the only daughter of Sada Kaur and Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya. Her father was the first commander or sardar of Khalsa army to protect Punjab. She was betrothed to a six-year-old Ranjit Singh at the age of four.

According to historian Jean-Marie Lafont, the only one to bear the title of Maharani (Great Queen)..

Family

Mehtab Kaur, the only child of Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya (Sandhu) and his wife Sada Kaur Dhaliwal, was born in 1782.[4] Upon her birth she was named "Mehtab" (مهتاب) which means 'moonlight' or 'splendor of the moon' in Persian due to her fair complexion.[10] [11] Her father, Gurbaksh Singh, was the heir of Jai Singh Kanhaiya (a Sandhu Jat), the founder and chief of the Kanhaiya Misl.[12]

The Kanhaiya Misl, who had replaced the Bhangis as the most powerful misl, disputed the right of Ranjit Singh's father's (Maha Singh) to plunder Jammu, and in one of the many skirmishes between the two misls, Gurbaksh Singh was killed in battle against Maha Singh in February 1785.[13]

Mehtab Kaur's mother, Rani Sada Kaur, an intelligent, high spirited and ambitious woman, used to lend support of the Kanhaiya misl to Ranjit Singh till 1821, when she developed differences with him and as a consequence lost her territory to him.

Marriage

Jai Singh disagreed to betroth his granddaughter, Mehtab Kaur, to Maha Singh's son, Ranjit Singh, but was persuaded by his widowed daughter-in-law, Sada Kaur to agree to the match. The Kanhaiya chief died shortly afterwards in 1789,[14] leaving his estates to Sada Kaur who took over the leadership of the Kanhaiya Misl.[15] The same year the young Mehtab Kaur and Ranjit Singh were betrothed and married.[16] [17] The Muklawa happened in 1796.[1]

As a teenager, Ranjit Singh took hardly any interest in the affairs of the state, making his mother, Raj Kaur, anxious for his future. She felt that marriage might bring him around to the responsibilities of life. She approached Sada Kaur to fix the muklawa (tradition where the wife goes back to her maternal home) date. Ranjit was fifteen years old when he left Gujranwala for Batala, the chief town of the Kanhaiyas, to perform the after marriage rituals with Mehtab Kaur in 1796. This alliance between the two important Sikh families was a major event for Punjab. All the leading Sikh chiefs were present at the wedding. Mehtab Kaur was very beautiful and her looks made her seem mismatched for the rugged Ranjit Singh.[10] Even if Mehtab Kaur could reconcile herself to her husband's looks, it must have been difficult for her to forget that her father was killed in battle with Ranjit Singh's father.[18] Plus she was haughty and self-willed, a proud woman born to rich parents[10] [19] while Ranjit Singh was a typically simple Punjabi man, rustic in his habits.[20] It was a marriage of convenience for both and they rarely stayed together.[21]

After entering into a matrimonial alliance with the Kanhaiya Misl, Ranjit Singh wanted to consolidate his position further which could only be done by drawing some other misl to his side. He made suggestions to head of the Nakais and early in 1797 took a second wife, who was the sister of the Nakai Sardar Gyan Singh Sandhu- with whom he was betrothed for some time.[22] The second marriage not only provided Ranjit Singh more political power but a more successful marriage as Datar Kaur become Ranjit Singh's most favorite and mother of his heir, Kharak Singh.[23] [24] [25]

Issue

Sada Kaur kept on trying to bring Ranjit Singh closer to her daughter and felt happy when Mehtab bore Ranjit his son (and their first child) in 1804. Thanking God (Ishwar) the child was named Ishar Singh.[26] The prince died in infancy - at the age of one and a half years. Mehtab Kaur was pregnant again in 1807 and gave birth to twin boys, Sher Singh and Tara Singh in Batala. Ranjit was near Jawalamukhi when he received the news of their birth, he rushed to Amritsar to pay a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple there. The birth of his sons was celebrated greatly. There was cheering in the illustrious camp and when Ranjit returned to Lahore, he gave away vast entire-ties in philanthropy and the city was enlightened for a few nights.

Death

After suffering from a failing health for a long time,Maharani Mehtab Kaur died in 1813. At the time of her death,Maharaja Ranjit Singh was at Amritsar, where the death of the former had taken place. Ranjit Singh was present in her last breath and performed her last ceremonies after death.

In popular culture

See also

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Atwal. Priya. 2020-11-01. Royals and Rebels. 10.1093/oso/9780197548318.001.0001. 978-0-19-754831-8.
  2. Book: Atwal. Priya. Royals and Rebels:The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire . 2020. C. Hurst Limited. London. 9781787383081.
  3. The Panjab Past and Present. 1 January 1986. 20. 122. 3 May 2017. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University.. en.
  4. Book: Noor. Harbans Singh. Connecting the dots in Sikh history. 2004. Institute of Sikh Studies. Chandigarh. 9788185815237. 67.
  5. The Sikh Courier International. 1 January 1998. 38-42. 9. 27 April 2017. Sikh Cultural Society of Great Britain. en.
  6. The Sikh Review. 1 January 2005. 53. 45, 86. 29 April 2017. Sikh Cultural Centre. en.
  7. Punjab District Gazetteers. 1 January 1905. 226. mehtab kaur ranjit singh.. Compiled and published under the authority of the Punjab government. en.
  8. Calcutta Review. 1 January 1944. 74. University of Calcutta.. en.
  9. Book: Grewal. J.S.. The new Cambridge history of India : II. 3 The sikhs of the Punjab. 1998. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge[England]. 9780521637640. 249. Rev. ed., 1st pbk..
  10. Book: Dalrymple. William. Kohinoor: The Story of the WorldÕs Most Infamous Diamond. Anand. Anita. 2016. Juggernaut Books. 978-93-86228-08-6. en.
  11. Book: Richardson. John. A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English. 1777. Clarendon Press. 1905. en.
  12. Book: Singha. H.S.. The encyclopedia of Sikhism (over 1000 entries). 2000. Hemkunt Publishers. New Delhi. 9788170103011. 137.
  13. Book: Garrett. Joseph Davey Cunningham . H.L.O.. A history of the Sikhs from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej. 1994. Asian Educational Services. New Delhi. 9788120609501. 175.
  14. Book: Roy. Kaushik. Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. 2015. Routledge. 9781317321286. 82. en.
  15. Book: Singh. Patwant. Rai. Jyoti M.. Empire of the Sikhs : the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 2008. Peter Owen. London. 9780720613230. 63, 169.
  16. Book: Proceedings - Punjab History Conference. 2006. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University.. 978-81-302-0094-1. en.
  17. Book: Atwal, Priya. Royals and rebels : the rise and fall of the Sikh empire. 2020. Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-755459-3. 1256081616.
  18. Book: Vaḥīduddīn, Faqīr Sayyid. The Real Ranjit Singh. 1965. Lion Art Press. en.
  19. Book: Singh, Sarbpreet. The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia: Stories from the Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 2019. Tranquebar by Westland Publications Private Limited. 978-93-88689-47-2. en.
  20. Book: Duggal, Kartar Singh. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Last to Lay Arms. 2001. Abhinav Publications. 978-81-7017-410-3. en.
  21. Book: Amini, Iradj. The Koh-i-noor Diamond. 2013-06-01. Roli Books Private Limited. 978-93-5194-035-7. en.
  22. Book: Griffin. Lepel. Ranjit Singh and the Sikh hindrance between our developing domain and Central Asia. 2004. Asian Educational Services. New Delhi. 9788120619180. 108. AES Repr..
  23. Book: Tibbetts, Jann . 50 Great Military Leaders of All Time . 2016-07-30 . Vij Books India Pvt Ltd . 978-93-85505-66-9 . en.
  24. Web site: Mahitab Kaur (d, 1813) . Sardar Singh Bhatia . Encyclopaedia of Sikhism . Punjabi University Patiala . 18 August 2015.
  25. Book: Dalrymple. William. Kohinoor: The Story of the WorldÕs Most Infamous Diamond. Anand. Anita. 2016. Juggernaut Books. 978-93-86228-08-6. en.
  26. Book: Noor. Harbans Singh. Connecting the specks in Sikh history. 2004. Institute of Sikh Studies. Chandigarh. 9788185815237. 70.
  27. Book: Sher-E-Punjab: Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 29 April 2017. en. IMDb.