Known as the “Lion of Punjab”, Ranjit Singh was a revered leader with a wicked sense of humour, whose rule united the once fractured Punjab into a powerful and prosperous state.

Sarkar-e-Khalsa (the Sikh Raj) was admired and renowned amongst nations, sometimes grudgingly, for its inclusiveness, fostering harmony regardless of religion, caste or creed. Against this backdrop, Ranjit Singh would often joke that the vision he lost in one eye [due to smallpox] enabled him to see everyone equally.

And yet this one-eyed man managed to evade his enemies as a child before going on to unify the Misls, ultimately bringing peace and prosperity to Panjab during his reign.

What marked Ranjit Singh out was his forward thinking.  He is renowned for creating a formidable military force and was not scared to introduce innovative ideas such as the introduction of modern artillery and the incorporation of European military acumen into his forces.

The Koh-I-Noor diamond, mounted on Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s arm, originally weighed 191 carats.  The diamond was kept in a high security facility at the Gobindgarh Fort when it was not in use.  During transport it was hidden among 39 identical guarded camels, with only Ranjit Singh’s trusted treasurer knowing which camel carried the diamond.

Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, a British scholar and traveller, says there was no dearth of money to set up schools and other institutions of learning in Punjab. Leitner writes, “Punjab has this tradition whereby the most unscrupulous chief, the avaricious moneylender, and even the freebooter, vied with the small landowner in making peace with his conscience by founding schools and rewarding the learned. There is not a mosque, a temple, a dharmsala that had not a school attached to it.”