ਮਹਾਰਾਜਾ ਰਣਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ) (13 November 1780 – 20 June 1839) was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.
Early Life
Ranjit Singh belong to a sikh clan of Northern India. He was born in Gujranwala, now in Modern Pakistan, according to some Historians, into a jatt family and some that he was born into a Sansi family who were Sukerchakia misldars.As a child he suffer from smallpox which resulted in the loss of one eye.At the time much of punjab was ruled by the Sikhs under a confedrate Sarbat Khalsa System, who had divided the territory among factions known as misls. Ranjit Singh's Father Maha Singh was the commander of Sukerchakia Misl and controlled a territory in west Punjab based around his headquarters at Gujranwala. After his Father's death he was raised under the protection of the Sada Kaur of the Kanheya Misl. Ranjit Singh succeeded his father at the age of 18. Afther several campaigns, he conquered the other misls and created the Sikh Empire.
The Maharaja
Ranjit Singh was crowned on 12 April 1801 (to concide with Baiskahi . Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendent of Guru Nanak Dev .conducted the coronation. Gujranwala served as his capital from 1799. In 1802 he shifted his capital to lahore to Lahore. Ranjit Singh rose to power in a very short perio, from a leader of a simple sikh mislto finally becoming the Maharaja (Emperor) of the Punjab.
He then spent the following years fighting the Ahgans, driving them out of the Punjab. He also captured Pashtun territory including Peshawar (now referred to as frontier province and the terribal areas). This was the first time that Peshawari Pashtuns were ruled by Punjabis. He captured the province of the Multan which encompassed the Sourthern parts of Punjab,Peshawar (1818), jammu and Kashmir(1819). Thus Rangit Singh put to an end to more than a thousand years of a Muslim Rule. He also conquered the hill states north of the Anandpur Sahib, the largest of which was Kangra.
When the Foreign Minister of the Ranjit Singh's court, Fakir Azizuddin, met the British Governor-General of India, lord Auckland , in Simla, Lord Auckland asked Fakir Azizuddin which of the Maharaja's eyes was missing, Azizuddin replied: "The Maharaja is like the sun and sun has only one eye. The splendor and luminosity of his single eye is so much that I have never dared to look at his other eye." The Governor General was so pleased with this reply that he gave his gold watch to Azizuddin. Ranjit Singh's Empire was secular, none of the subjects were discriminated against on account of their religions. the Maharaja never forced Sikhism on their subjects.
