Maharani Mehtab Kaur ( 1782 – 1813)
was the first wife of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He s ...
,
the founder of the
Sikh Empire
The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...
. She was the mother of Ranjit's reputed son,
Maharaja Sher Singh, who briefly became the ruler of the Sikh Empire from 1841 until his death in 1843.
Mehtab Kaur was the only daughter of
Sada Kaur
Rani Sada Kaur ( Punjabi: ਸਦਾ ਕੌਰ; 1762 – 1832) was a Sikh leader. She served as the Chief of the Kanhaiya Misl from 1789 to 1821, following the death of her husband Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya, the heir to Jai Singh Kanhaiya, the lead ...
and
Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya
Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya ( 1759 - 1785) was the eldest son and heir of Jai Singh Kanhaiya, the chief of the Kanhaiya Misl. He was the father of Maharani Mehtab Kaur and thus, the father-in-law of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empir ...
. She was betrothed to a six-year-old
Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He s ...
at the age of four.
Mehtab Kaur was the senior-most of Ranjit Singh's wives and according to historian Jean-Marie Lafont, the only one to bear the title of
Maharani (high queen) while his other wives bore the lesser title of
Rani
''Rani'' in Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, sometimes spelled ''Ranee'', is a Hindu/Sanskrit feminine given name. The term is the female form of the term for princely rulers in South and Southeast Asia and applies equally to the wife of a ...
(queen).
After her death, the title was held by Ranjit's second wife and mother of his
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
Maharaja Kharak Singh
Kharak Singh (22 February 1801 – 5 November 1840) was the second Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and his consort, Maharani Datar Kaur. He succeeded his father on 27 June ...
,
Datar Kaur
Maharani Datar Kaur (born Bibi Raj Kaur Nakai; (c. 1784– 20 June 1838) was the queen consort of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire and the mother of his successor, Maharaja Kharak Singh. She was the daughter of Sardar Ran ...
. After her death the title was passed down to Ranjit's youngest widow
Jind Kaur
Maharani Jind Kaur ( – 1 August 1863) was regent of the Sikh Empire from 1843 until 1846. She was the youngest wife of the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh, and the mother of the last Maharaja, Duleep Singh. She was renowned fo ...
, who served as regent of the Sikh Empire (after Sher Singh's death) from 1843 till 1846 and was the mother of
Maharaja Duleep Singh
Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, GCSI (4 September 1838 – 22 October 1893), or Sir Dalip Singh, and later in life nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire", was the last ''Maharaja'' of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son, ...
.
Family
Mehtab Kaur, the only child of
Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya
Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya ( 1759 - 1785) was the eldest son and heir of Jai Singh Kanhaiya, the chief of the Kanhaiya Misl. He was the father of Maharani Mehtab Kaur and thus, the father-in-law of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empir ...
(
Sandhu
Sandhu or Sindhu is a clan or family name found among the Punjabi Jatts in India and Pakistan. It is Punjab's second largest Jatt clan. The etymology is connected to the word ''Sindhu'', the native name for the Indus river.
Notable people with ...
) and his wife
Sada Kaur Dhaliwal, was born in 1782.
Upon her birth she was named "
Mehtab" (مهتاب) which means 'moonlight' or 'splendor of the moon' in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
due to her fair and clear complexion.
Her father, Gurbaksh Singh, was the
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
of
Jai Singh Kanhaiya
Jai Singh Kanhaiya (1712–1793) was the founder and leader of the Kanhaiya Misl until his death. His daughter-in-law, Sada Kaur succeeded him in the leadership of the ''misl''.
Early life
Jai Singh was born in the village of Kahna, 21 km s ...
(a Sandhu Jat), the founder and chief of the
Kanhaiya Misl
The Kanhaiya Misl was founded by the Sandhu Jats.
Jai Singh Sandhu (son of Khushal Singh) of the village Kanha (district Lahore) was the founder of this ''Misl''; hence the misl came to known as Kanhaiya Misl; another founder leader of thi ...
.
The Kanhaiya Misl, who had replaced the
Bhangis as the most powerful ''
misl
The Misls (derived from an Arabic word wikt:مثل#Etymology_3, مِثْل meaning 'equal') were the twelve sovereign states of the Sikh Confederacy, which rose during the 18th century in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian ...
'', disputed Ranjit Singh's father's (
Maha Singh
Maha Singh ( pa, ਮਹਾਂ ਸਿੰਘ, Mahaṅ Singh; 1760 – 15 April 1790 or 1756 – April 1792), also spelt as Mahan or Mahn Singh, was the second chief of the Sukerchakia Misl. He was the eldest son of Sardar Charat Singh and Sardar ...
) right to plunder
Jammu
Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi Ri ...
, and in one of the many skirmishes between the two ''misl''s, Gurbaksh Singh was killed in battle against Maha Singh in February 1785.
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, leaving his estates to Sada Kaur who took over the leadership of the Kanhaiya Misl.
The same year the young Mehtab Kaur and Ranjit Singh were betrothed and married. The Muklawa happened in 1796.
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
Gujranwala ( ur, , label=none; ) is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Pakistan. It is also known as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. It is the 5th most populous city proper after Karachi, Lahore, Faisala ...
for
Batala
Batala is the eighth largest city in the state of Punjab, India in terms of population after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Mohali and Hoshiarpur. Batala ranks as the second-oldest city after Bathinda. It is a municipal corpo ...
, the chief town of the Kanhaiyas, to perform the after marriage rituals with Mehtab Kaur in 1796. This alliance between the two important
Sikh
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...
families was a major event for
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
. 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.
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. Plus she was haughty and self-willed, a proud woman born to rich parents
while Ranjit Singh was a typically simple Punjabi man, rustic in his habits. It was a marriage of convenience for both and they rarely stayed together.
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 to for some time. The marriage turned out to be more successful than the first. His second wife bore his mother's name: Raj Kaur. She was renamed
Datar Kaur
Maharani Datar Kaur (born Bibi Raj Kaur Nakai; (c. 1784– 20 June 1838) was the queen consort of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire and the mother of his successor, Maharaja Kharak Singh. She was the daughter of Sardar Ran ...
and was warmly known as ''Mai Nakain'' and turned into Ranjit's most loved wife.
Ranjit's second marriage and his little interest in her gave Mehtab Kaur an excuse to return to Batala.
From there on she made only occasional appearances at her husband's home and Ranjit Singh irregularly visited her in Batala.
The second marriage took place under the guardianship of
Raj Kaur
Rani Raj Kaur was the wife of Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia Misl and the mother of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire. She was affectionately known as ''Mai Malwain'' (Malwa Mother) after her marriage. She is also r ...
and Sada Kaur in 1792; Sada Kaur accommodated herself to Ranjit's second marriage as she had set her heart on greater and better things. She made laid out plans which Ranjit Singh followed, she hoped to use her influence on him to secure the future of her daughter, her future children as well as the Kanhaiya Misl.
Ranjit Singh's second wife, Datar Kaur bore him his first son and
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
,
Kharak Singh
Kharak Singh (22 February 1801 – 5 November 1840) was the second Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and his consort, Maharani Datar Kaur. He succeeded his father on 27 June ...
in 1801. With this Sada Kaur left Ranjit Singh's side and returned to her home in Batala, taking her daughter with her, her plans to secure the future of her daughter and the Kanhaiyas in tatters.
Issue
![Sher Singh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Sher_Singh.jpg)
Sada Kaur kept on trying to bring Ranjit Singh closer to her daughter and felt happy when Mehtab bore Ranjit his second son (and her first child) in 1804. Thanking God (
Ishwar
''Ishvara'' () is a concept in Hinduism, with a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism.Monier Monier Williams, Sanskrit-English dictionarySearch for Izvara University of Cologne, Germany In ancient texts of H ...
) the child was named
Ishar Singh
Sardar Bahadur Ishar Singh VC, OBI (30 December 1895 – 2 December 1963) was a soldier in the British Indian Army and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British ...
. 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 sons,
Sher Singh
Sher Singh (4 December 1807 – 15 September 1843) was the fourth Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. Elder of the twins of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and Maharani Mehtab Kaur. His reign began on 18 January 1840 following his ...
and
Tara Singh in Batala. Ranjit was near
Jawalamukhi
Jawalamukhi, also Jawalaji, is a Shakti Pitha town and a nagar parishad in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Hindu genealogy registers are kept here like that of Haridwar. The Hindi word 'Jwalamukhi' literally means 'Volc ...
when he received the news of their birth, he rushed to
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...
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
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
, he gave away vast entire-ties in philanthropy and the city was enlightened for a few nights.
Historians differ over whether Sher Singh and Tara Singh were Ranjit Singh's biological sons. During March 1837, on the occasion of the marriage of
Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, Henry Edward Fane, the nephew and aide-de-camp to the
Commander-in-Chief, India
During the period of the Company rule in India and the British Raj, the Commander-in-Chief, India (often "Commander-in-Chief ''in'' or ''of'' India") was the supreme commander of the British Indian Army. The Commander-in-Chief and most of his ...
,
General Sir Henry Fane, who spent several days in Ranjit Singh's company, reported that the Maharaja never thoroughly acknowledged Sher Singh. The contemporary historian,
Joseph Davey Cunningham
Joseph Davey Cunningham, (b. Scotland, 9 June 1812, died 28 February 1851) was the author of the book ''History of the Sikhs'' (1849) and an authority in Punjab University. His father was the Scottish poet and author Allan Cunningham and his br ...
, who attended the 1838 conversations between Ranjita Singh and
Lord Auckland
Baron Auckland is a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in 1789 when the prominent politician and financial expert William Eden was made Baron Auckland in the Peerage of Ireland. In ...
, also recorded that the Maharaja had doubts.
However,
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...
, writing in 1962, considered that the rumours regarding the parentage of Sher Singh and Tara Singh were inaccurate and had been spread by
Kharak Singh
Kharak Singh (22 February 1801 – 5 November 1840) was the second Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and his consort, Maharani Datar Kaur. He succeeded his father on 27 June ...
and his mother,
Datar Kaur
Maharani Datar Kaur (born Bibi Raj Kaur Nakai; (c. 1784– 20 June 1838) was the queen consort of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire and the mother of his successor, Maharaja Kharak Singh. She was the daughter of Sardar Ran ...
, in order to reduce the possibility of Ranjit Singh preferring Sher Singh, who was fast becoming his father's favourite.
Sohan Lal Suri, the official court biographer too notes that Sher Singh and Tara Singh were not the biological sons of Ranjit Singh in his Umdat ut-tawarikh often referring to them as Despite his doubts, Ranjit Singh gave Sher Singh commands in the army and conferred honours on him,
although Kharak Singh remained his favourite.
However, no honours were bestowed on Tara Singh and he was not permitted to appear in court.
Death
After suffering from a failing health, Mehtab Kaur died in 1813. At the time of her death, Ranjit Singh was at
Amritsar
Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...
, where the death of the former had taken place. Ranjit Singh did not go to the incineration and other condolatory functions. After a ton of claims and influences,
Dewan Mokham Chand
Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar (died 29 October 1814) was a general of Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Sikh Empire.
Early life
Mokham Chand was born in a Hindu Khatri family, to Vaisakhi Mal, a tradesman of the village Kunjah near Gujrat.Khushwant ...
could take the Maharaja to Sada Kaur's ''derah'', where he played out a portion of the critical functions of condolence.
In popular culture
*Mehtab Kaur is portrayed in the TV series
Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
*A teenage Mehtab Kaur is portrayed by
Tunisha Sharma
Tunisha Sharma (4 January 2002 – 24 December 2022) was an Indian television and film actress. She made her acting debut with ''Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap'' as Chand Kawar in 2015. Sharma is best known for having played Rajkumar ...
in
Life OK
Life OK was an Indian pay television channel owned by Star India. It was launched on 18 December 2011 replacing Star One.
It also started airing in the United States on 1 March 2012, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 28 May of that same ...
's historical drama ''Sher-e-Punjab: Maharaja Ranjit Singh''.
See also
*
Sher Singh
Sher Singh (4 December 1807 – 15 September 1843) was the fourth Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. Elder of the twins of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and Maharani Mehtab Kaur. His reign began on 18 January 1840 following his ...
*
Kanhaiya Misl
The Kanhaiya Misl was founded by the Sandhu Jats.
Jai Singh Sandhu (son of Khushal Singh) of the village Kanha (district Lahore) was the founder of this ''Misl''; hence the misl came to known as Kanhaiya Misl; another founder leader of thi ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{authority control
Women of the Sikh Empire
1782 births
1813 deaths
Indian queen consorts
19th-century Indian women
19th-century Indian people
18th-century Indian women
18th-century Indian people
Punjabi people