Lahore During Ranjit Singh Rule

The Sikh Rule in Lahore initiated from the invasion and rule of the Sikh Misls and extended till the Sikh
Empire of Ranjit Singh which ended in 1849. The Sikhs began gaining power following the decline of the
Mughal Empire in Punjab and consisted of a collection of autonomous Punjabi Misls, which were
governed by Misldars, mainly in the Punjab region.

Ranjit Singh was crowned on 12 April 180 as the leader of a Sikh misl. Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of
Guru Nanak Dev, conducted the coronation. The 1740s were years of chaos, and the city had nine
different governors between 1745 and 1756. Invasions and chaos in local government allowed bands of
warring Sikhs to gain control in some areas. In 1799, all Sikh Misls(warring bands) joined into one to
form a sovereign Sikh state ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singhfrom the royal capital, Lahore. During the
1740s, frequent invasions by Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Abdali and chaos in local government had
made life very uncomfortable for the citizens of Lahore. Bhangi Misl was the fist Sikh band to plunder
the Mughal Lahore. Later Ranjit Singh was able to make gains in this chaos. He defeated the son of
Abdali, Zaman Shah in a battle between Lahore and Amritsar. Out of the chaos of Afghani and Sikh
conflicts emerged a victorious Sikh by the name of Ranjit Singh who was able to unify the Sikh factions
and capture Lahore where he was crowned Emperor. Ranjit Singh made Lahore his capital (shifting from
the former capital, Gujranwala) in 1799 and was able to expand the kingdom to the Khyber Pass and also
included Jammu and Kashmir, while keeping the British from expanding across the River Sutlej for more
than 40 years. He rose to power in a very short period, from a leader of a single Sikh misl to finally
becoming the Maharaja (Emperor) of Punjab.

For a brief half century, from 1799 to 1846, Lahore recovered under the patronage of Ranjit Singh and
his successors. Ranjit Singh consolidated the Sikh misldaars (commanders) who had ruled more or less
independently during the eighteenth century under a unified command and in 1799 he established
Lahore as the administrative capital of a new Sikh kingdom. Nearby Amritsar became the spiritual and
commercial center of the kingdom in 1802, after Ranjit Singh’s troops occupied the city and the
maharaja announced his intention to extend patronage and protection to the city’s leading groups.

While much of Lahore’s Mughal era fabric lay in ruins by the end of eighteenth century, rebuilding
efforts under the Sikhs were shaped by and indebted to Mughal practice. Ranjit Singh moved into the
Mughal palace in Lahore’s citadel. By 1812 he had mostly refurbished the city’s defences by adding a
second circuit of outer walls that followed the outline of Akbar’s original walls and were separated from
them by a moat. The maharaja also partially restored Shah Jahan‘s decaying gardens at Shalimar, and
British maps of the area surrounding Lahore dating from the mid-nineteenth century show that walled
private gardens – many of them bearing the names of prominent Sikh nobles – continued in the Mughal
pattern under Sikh rule. The Sikh court continued to endow religious architecture in the city, including a
number of Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu temples, and mosques. In short, the decaying structures and
architecture of Lahore was restored by the emperor.
Ranjit Singh death in 27 June 1839 ultimately ended his reign, while his son Dalip Singh became his
successor. He was buried in Lahore and his samadhi still stands there.