| Description |
This account based on the archival records of Govt. of India (pertaining to 1812-1849) gives the details about the composition, salary structure, numerical strength, ranks and weaponry of the army of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. It shows his modern outlook and professional attitude towards military affairs. The account is authentic, well-documented and critically evaluative.
How well-organized, well-trained, professional, disciplined, well-paid and well looked after was Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army (1801-1839) can he guessed from this article published in the “Journal of Indian History” issue of February 1922 and excepted from ‘The Army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’, Oxford University Press. With its contents, statistics, figures taken from the original records of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s government (1812-1849) procured from Archives of the Punjab Secretariat lying abandoned and properly catalogued by the author, the article provides a detailed information about the composition, numerical strength, articles of equipment, weaponry, regimental structure, modes of training, rank and pay structure of Maharaja’s army at once compatible with the best professional armies of the contemporary western European powers. Specimen tables of Battalion strength of Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery limits and their pay rolls (p.218, 221, 225) provide a glimpse into the highly professional army of the Sikh Maharaja. Besides this comprehensive information, the article traces a bare outline of the Sikh nationality since its spiritual origin with Guru Nanak up to a sovereign ideological order in Maharaja’s time through the gradual combination of ten Sikh Gurus, Banda Bahadur and chieftains of Dal Khalsa during the 18th Century. It is an authentic chronicle and a capsuled summary of the entire Sikh history from the mid fifteenth to the mid nineteenth century.[edit]
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| Keywords |
Khalsa, Drill, Artillery, Infantry, Cavalry, General Allard, Lord Lake, Charles Metcalfe, Ranjit Singh, Maharaja, [edit]
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| Accession Number BK-005125 |
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