shastarSingh

Found this PhD thesis on the gurbilas of kuir singh and sukha singh.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/33230

3 hours ago, dallysingh101 said:

For ornaments he wore large round gold earrings with pearls in them

Why earrings?

16 minutes ago, shastarSingh said:

raj bina nahin dharam challe hai, dharam bina sab dalle malle hai"

Is the above text in sukha singh's gurbilas?

I could not find it's pdf online.

Can anyone find if "raj bina nahin dharam challe hai, dharam bina sab dalle malle hai" is from this granth and if yes, what verse no.

Thanks

dallysingh101 veerji

What do u say about Sahib Singh Bhangi?

He could hv easily lived in a big mansion but he lived in a small poor house.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh had a huge heart. He was a very very special soul.The European officers of Maharaja Ranjit Singh lived in grandeur. Every one of them had a large kothi or bungalow. Baron Charles Hugel, who had an opportunity to visit the house of the European officers Allard and Ventura in the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, thus talks about the style of their houses as: 

“Their house combined the splendour of the East with the comfort of a European residence. On the walls of the entrance hall, before the range of pillars on the first storey, was portrayed the reception of the two French officers at the court of Ranjit Singh, consisting of many thousand figures. The second room is adorned with a profusion of small mirrors in gilt frames, which have an excellent effect, the third is a large hall, extending the entire width of the house, and terminating in the sleeping apartment. At a short distance behind the 
house stands an ancient tomb, crowned with a lofty dome. Carpets 
brought from Kashmir and Kabul were spread, hangings of silk and 
brocade, pictures and filling of looking glasses to increase the 
beauty in the night when lights were lit, was done. Portraits adorned 
rooms with a profusion of small mirrors and gilt frame".

Such are the Siques, the terror and plague of this part of India, a nation and power well calculated for doing mischief and encouraging rebellion in the zemindars or cultiva-tors, who often follow steps at first with a view of saving themselves and afterwards from the pleasure of independence, and indeed it is that which makes them so troublesome, 
for they begin to have connections in almost all the parts they visit on their excursions, and if they are not attacked soon in their own proper provinces, it is much to be feared 
their tenets and manners will be adopted by all the zemindars of the soubah of Delhi and part of Agra. It is, however, imagined that so soon as Najjaf Khan is clear of 
the Matchery Rajah, he means to turn all his forces towards the Siques, and at least 
to drive them from this side of Sirhind, which he may I think easily do, though perhaps it 
would not be safe for him to go farther, except Timur Shah should on his side attack them also aerose the Attek, then indeed and by remaining a few years in the centre of their country they might be effectually reduced.

Taken from page no. 64 of Ganda Singh's book 'Early European Accounts of the Sikhs' which can be downloaded at

http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/displayPage.jsp?ID=3278&page=1&CategoryID=1&Searched=

On 6/5/2021 at 10:16 PM, shastarSingh said:

2. His(Maharaja Ranjit Singh) costume always contributes to increase his ugliness, being in winter the colour of gamboge, from the Pagri (the turban or Sikh cloth, on his head,) down to his very socks and slippers. The Sikh pagri consists of a long narrow piece of linen, in which the hair is wrapped up ; and it is so fastened either in the front or a
little on one side, that one cannot see either end or knot. It lies down
smooth on the head, one end hanging half way down the back. Ranjit Singh hides this end under his upper garment. The Angraka (coat) is tied over the chest, and reaches to the knee, and the trousers fall in many folds down to the ancle. Over the whole is worn a mantle lined with skins. The entire costume is, as I have said, of yellow Pashmina,
green being worn sometimes by him, but not commonly. In summer
he wears white muslin.

At the festival of the Basant, he was particu-larly disfigured by the straw-coloured dress he wore with a slight intermixture of green in it. 

Just see how the fuddu goraa calls Maharaja ugly...

Maharaja had his flaws but he was a very special soul.

These goraas were jealous..

https://www.thesikhencyclopedia.com/sikh-scriptures-and-literature/writings-by-non-sikhs-on-sikhs-and-punjab/sri-fateh-singh-pratap-prabhakar/

Ram sukh rao provides some fascinating insights into the life style of the ruling class of early 19th century. According to him, nobles lived in forts like havelis or mansions. Ram Sikh Rao had an interesting comment on the house of 
Sahib Singh Bhangi. He says that it was like the house of the poor (gharibon-ke-kothe) without any of the features generally associated with the residences of the aristocracy. Even the big zamindars constructed their houses along with underground chambers (tah-khanas) or (sard-khanas)

Baron Charles Hugel, narrates the 
celebration of holi at Lahore in March, 1836, as follows: 
“A quantity of singhara meal dyed yellow, green, red and blue mixed 
up with little pieces of gold and silver tinsel, a number of large pots of 
water dyed with the same colours and little water-engines being set near. Everyone appears in white garments, and the festival commences 
by the dancing girls sitting down, and breaking forth into a song in 
honour of the feast. The baskets of coloured meal are then introduced 
and thin glass balls full of singhara powder, are distributed to the 
assembly which they throw on each other and being broken with the 
slightest force discharge their contents on the white dresses, and stain 
them. Like all games of this description, these being gently, but soon 
assume a rougher aspect, each player seizing as many balls as he can, and flinging them at one another, when the glass balls are exhausted, they take the coloured meal, first, as much as the fingers can hold then by handfuls, and at last they empty the baskets over each other’s heads, covering the whole person. The dirtiest part of the entertainment consists in the sprinkling with coloured waters.

Jacquemont observed 
that, the Akalis were dressed in the blue and armed with swords, bows, spears or 
matchlocks. The base of their turban was surrounded with a steel ring

 Commenting on the dress of infantry Jacquemont observed that they dressed in tight white trousers, a white jacket and little blue turban. In winter they wore a uniform of red cloth like the British sepoys.
 

Veerji why did sikh soldiery started wearing red jackets in ur opinion?

18 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Let me know where I can find the English translation of these online if you know please.

http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/displayPage.jsp?ID=2892&page=1&CategoryID=1&Searched=W3GX&sbtsro=0

This granth is also available at amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Ut-tawarikh-Important-Historical-Document-Maharaja/dp/8177700715

Also see

https://www.sikhnationalarchives.com/book/umdat-ut-tawarikh_22815/

11 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Let me know where I can find the English translation of these online if you know please.

Veerji majority of my information is from this phd thesis

https://archive.org/details/SocietyAndCultureOfThePunjab

Not sure why Brahmans were consulted to do worshipping of horse.

Horse has always been dear to khalsa.

Polier in 1780's writes:

Though they make merry on the demise of any of their brethren.they mourn for the death of a horse, thus showing their love of an animal so necessary to them in their professional capacity. 

Umdat ut tawarikh is a huge persian granth written in 5 volumes (called Daftars) by Lala Sohan Lal Suri who was the official chronicler, record keeper and diplomatic representative (Vakil) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors and even British Residents after the annexation of Punjab. Suri writes:

In 1830, all the chieftains and Sardars enthusiastically engaged 
themselves in the preparation of their garments for the dussehra day.Celebrations of dussehra were begun by worshiping of horse, cannon and sword according to the 
advice of the Brahmans.The Maharaja then visited Harmandir Sahib, took sacred bath, made prostration and offered large sums of money as ardas in different bungas and other places. The poor and needy shared his bounty, as the Maharaja showered money with both hands.

5 hours ago, dallysingh101 said:

Interesting, judging by the uniform description I think he is talking about the infantry.   Plus, lots of 'domains' had already been taken by Singhs before the Europeanisation of parts of the army, plus even then, we know that nihungs (who were averse to the European style training) swung many battles with their traditional style of warfare in the tougher border regions with Afghanistan. 

Also note how Lahore seems to have been a manufacturing hub at the time, not only making guns but canons too. Plus I would imagine that the 'muskets' he is talking about could have equally been fashioned after French or Italian models given that there were people from this background in influential positions in Lahore. I think some of them were overseeing the foundries making taups? 

You can see with this example that they had achieved a high level of expertise in this by this time. Post 'annexation' I think this was another indigenous industry that the brits destroyed. 

This contemporary image shows captured Sikh canons. As we can see, there were a lot of them:

 

@shastarSingh Loving your threads bro!!!

The reason we see sikh soldiery wearing red jackets and other stuff is due to the below:

H.L.O Garrett in 1935 wrote 'The Punjab a Hundred Years Ago' in which he edited and translated the works of  V.Jacquemont (1831) & A. Soltykoff (1842). 

Jacquemont observed that “Sikh 
cavalry clothed and armed in a uniform that was half French and half Sikh”

Fauja Singh wrote 'military system of the sikhs' in 1964. He writes:

Maharaja Ranjit Singh borrowed from the British not only the idea but also the pattern of their uniform, with a few adjustments necessitated by his circumstances.

31 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Details of above:

 

 

Amazing photos

Osborne says Sikhs had a unique way of hunting wild hogs. It's written on page 182:

At six o'clock mounted our elephants
and proceeded to a jungle a few miles off, where I had promised to meet Sher Sing and have a few hours' wild hog and deer
shooting. Found him waiting our arrival with an immense establishment of elephants. and we fell in with a great many wild hogs,
some deer, and a few black partridges and
hares. The Sihks have a curious way of catching the wild hog, which I never saw practised in any other part of India. They make a kind of snare of strong withys, and setting them in runs of the hogs, generally
succeed in catching the finest boars, who, when once disturbed, rush blindly on, till brought up by these snares, when a man
goes up, and generally at a single blow of his sword puts an end to them. We caught five and twenty in this manner in the course
of a few hours.

Dark grey is wrong English translation below. Original text is 'surmaye' which means dark blue or deep blue.

Daya Singh Rahit-nama
Clothing should be dark grey, white, yellow, or green. Do not wear red clothing. 

Bhai jaita ji

Do not wear sooha(red) clothes

Bhai Nand Lal ji's tankhanama

One who wears red  and takes snuff,

Gobind Singh says, he will be punished by the Yama

1 hour ago, dallysingh101 said:

Look at the craftsmanship of the details  on this Sikh musket:

Amazing!!! No words

Thanks for sharing

16 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

I know that red may have been prohibited for a while, but that was probably in reaction to Bandai Singhs?

Red clothing is prohibited in

1.bhai nand lal ji's tankhanama

2. Bhai Daya Singh Rahitnama

3. Bhai jaita ji's Sri gur katha