THE WORLD ATLAS

Empire · 1799–1849 · Middle East & South Asia

Sikh Empire

Also known as Sikhs, Lahore

The Sikh faith, founded by Guru Nanak in Punjab around 1500, was forged into a martial brotherhood, the Khalsa, by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. As Mughal power collapsed in the 18th century, Sikh bands fought both the Mughals and Afghan invaders and divided Punjab among a dozen confederacies called misls.

Ranjit Singh, leader of the Sukerchakia misl, captured Lahore in 1799 and was proclaimed Maharaja of Punjab in 1801. He united the misls, built a modern army trained partly by European officers, and conquered Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar, ruling Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus with notable tolerance. After his death in 1839, court intrigue and a rapid succession of rulers weakened the state. The British East India Company defeated it in two Anglo-Sikh wars and annexed Punjab in 1849.

See it on the map

Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) at Amritsar, rebuilt in the 1760s and gilded under Maharaja Ranjit Singh from the 1830s
Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) at Amritsar, rebuilt in the 1760s and gilded under Maharaja Ranjit Singh from the 1830s Oleg Yunakov · CC BY-SA 3.0
Years
1799–1849
Capital
Lahore
Greatest extent
1839, about 520,000 km²
Region
Middle East & South Asia

c. 520,000 km² (200,000 sq mi; Singh 2010); Punjab, Kashmir and the Peshawar valley

Legacy

Ranjit Singh's kingdom is remembered as a golden age of Sikh power, and the Koh-i-Noor diamond, taken by the British in 1849, is still claimed by several countries.

Rulers

Realms on the map

Sources