Baron Charles Hugel on Maharaja and his kingdom

[shastarSingh]

Baron Charles hugel visited  Lahore in 1836. He wrote a book 'travels in Kashmir and the Punjab'. It can be downloaded at

https://archive.org/details/TravelsInKashmirAndThePanjabBaronCharlesHugel

His quotes:

1. The court colour of the
Durbar is yellow or green ; and the chiefs and officers were all clothed in yellow garments of the wool of Kashmir, except Hira Singh, who wore a satin dress of light green and pink. 

 

 

 

[shastarSingh]

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. 

[shastarSingh]

Some negative aspects of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's life told by baron Charles Hugel......

3. He gave me the receipt for a brandy prepared for him, in which were the strongest sauces compounded from the flesh
of every kind of animal, beef excepted, pearls and jewels, musk, opium, plants of various kinds, all mingled together into a beverage, which must be nearly as strong as alcohol itself

 

[GurjantGnostic]

3 minutes ago, shastarSingh said:

Some negative aspects of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's life told by baron Charles Hugel......

3. He gave me the receipt for a brandy prepared for him, in which were the strongest sauces compounded from the flesh
of every kind of animal, beef excepted, pearls and jewels, musk, opium, plants of various kinds, all mingled together into a beverage, which must be nearly as strong as alcohol itself

 

Protein shakes really have changed over the years. 

 

[shastarSingh]

4. The day was bitterly cold, and my fingers were almost frozen as I
arranged my papers. I paced the terrace very often to warm myself in
the sun's rays. In the evening we had a Nach, and the Maha Raja
did not forget to send his presents, and three of his dancing girls.

[shastarSingh]

We followed the windings of the
Dudh Ganga, and were in Kashmir before we were aware of it. Fine
avenues of plane and poplar are the first signs of the former beauty
of this favourite and lovely abode of the splendid Moghul emperors; and
then comes the square, where the soldiers of Ranjit Singh practised
those European tactics which gained him possession of his large
dominions. Two of his regiments, disciplined by Europeans, are
stationed here; their uniform consisted of a red jacket, with yellow facings, and blue trousers and turban, blue being the favourite Sikh colour. The subalterns wear white turbans. The whole would have had an excellent effect, the men being evidently carefully selected for height and carriage, if their fine dresses had not been in so ragged a condition.
The muskets are made after the English fashion, and manufactured in Lahor.

[dallysingh101]

53 minutes ago, shastarSingh said:

We followed the windings of the
Dudh Ganga, and were in Kashmir before we were aware of it. Fine
avenues of plane and poplar are the first signs of the former beauty
of this favourite and lovely abode of the splendid Moghul emperors; and
then comes the square, where the soldiers of Ranjit Singh practised
those European tactics which gained him possession of his large
dominions. Two of his regiments, disciplined by Europeans, are
stationed here; their uniform consisted of a red jacket, with yellow facings, and blue trousers and turban, blue being the favourite Sikh colour. The subalterns wear white turbans. The whole would have had an excellent effect, the men being evidently carefully selected for height and carriage, if their fine dresses had not been in so ragged a condition.
The muskets are made after the English fashion, and manufactured in Lahor.

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!!!

[dallysingh101]

Here's an image to show you the quality of indigenous muskets:

 

Apparently, French drill manuals were translated into Persian and illustrated for training purposes during Sikh raj, here's an example of a folio:

 

[dallysingh101]

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

[intrigued]

These are beautiful pictures!