Alexander burnes on Sikhs

[shastarSingh]

Alexander burnes wrote a book 'travels into bokhara' in 1834. It can be downloaded at

https://archive.org/details/travelsintobokh04burngoog

He personally met Maharaja Ranjit Singh during his travels.

His quotes:

1. About half way across the “ Doab" we reached Pidana, the seat of one of the principal chiefs of the Punjab, Sirdar Juwala Sing, who
had been sent from Lahore to entertain us at his family mansion. He met us about a mile out,
and delivered a letter with a bow and a bag of money. The chief had robed himself in a rich dress of brocade, and his retainers were arrayed in tunics of yellow, which is the favourite colour of the Seiks. 

[shastarSingh]

2. But we had come to hunt, not to philosophise ; and next day accompanied the Maharaja on a sporting expedition at noon . He rode a favourite bay horse, covered with an elegant saddle- cloth
of the richest embroidery, ornamented, in its border, by almost every beast and bird which the sportsman calls his own. Runjeet was dressed in a tunic of green shawls, lined with fur ; his
dagger was studded with the richest brilliants ; and a light metal shield.

[shastarSingh]

According to Alexander burnes, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's favourite topic of conversation was wine.

3. A conversation could
not, of course, conclude without his favourite topic of wine ; and, as he first sat down, he remarked that the site of his tent was an agreeable one for a drinking party, since it commanded a fine view of the surrounding country. He enquired of the doctors, whether wine was best before or after food ; and laughed heartily at an answer from myself, when I recommended
both.

[dallysingh101]

5 hours ago, shastarSingh said:

Alexander burnes write a book 'travels into bokhara' in 1834. It can be downloaded at

https://archive.org/details/travelsintobokh04burngoog

He personally met Maharaja Ranjit Singh during his travels.

His quotes:

1. About half way across the “ Doab" we reached Pidana, the seat of one of the principal chiefs of the Punjab, Sirdar Juwala Sing, who
had been sent from Lahore to entertain us at his family mansion. He met us about a mile out,
and delivered a letter with a bow and a bag of money. The chief had robed himself in a rich dress of brocade, and his retainers were arrayed in tunics of yellow, which is the favourite colour of the Seiks. 

Do you think the repeated references to yellow might reflect a particular 'fashion' at the time rather than a Sikh 'colour', which a lot of sources seem to suggest was dark blue? 

[shastarSingh]

36 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Do you think the repeated references to yellow might reflect a particular 'fashion' at the time rather than a Sikh 'colour', which a lot of sources seem to suggest was dark blue? 

Dark blue is no.1 khalsa colour but yellow is also a khalsa colour as mentioned by daya Singh rahitnama and other 18th century sources. Plz read 

Akali fauj wore blue all the time.

So Ranjit Singh opted for yellow as it was also a khalsa colour.

Though yellow was the main colour of his Darbaar, Ranjit Singh also wore white and sometimes green too.

Daya Singh Rahitnama mentions 4 khalsa colours

Blue

Yellow 

White 

Green

[californiasardar1]

5 hours ago, dallysingh101 said:

Do you think the repeated references to yellow might reflect a particular 'fashion' at the time rather than a Sikh 'colour', which a lot of sources seem to suggest was dark blue? 

That sounds plausible

It's not like the other things they were doing were in line with Sikhi

[dallysingh101]

19 hours ago, californiasardar1 said:

That sounds plausible

It's not like the other things they were doing were in line with Sikhi

I'm really trying to get away from sort of neo-puritan modern notions of 'Sikhism' and transposing them onto the past. But regarding the topic of colours under discussion, I think fashions and styles of prominent people would dictate too, so any preferred color (or even style?) adopted by a powerful figure would be emulated by many other subordinates, in the same way people like to adopt the style and look of celebrities even today. 

Asides from the dark blue, which has antecedents from dasmesh pita's time, I'm not sure if there were any sort of rigid preferred colours for Sikhs? I know that red may have been prohibited for a while, but that was probably in reaction to Bandai Singhs? If we look at this purportedly contemporary painting of SatGuru Tegh Bahadhur ji, we can see that they had no problem wearing red (if the image is what is claimed):

Plus you know Panjabis!  (not saying all Sikhs are Panjabi btw!!) They like bright, garish colours to cringe worthy levels.....

Here's some paintings by my favorite European painter of that era August Schoeft, who spent some time in the independent Sikh kingdom (and as his art testifies) had a very acute sense of detail. I think this reflects the ground level situation much better than just textual sources?

 

In the above we see gyanis/granthis seem to have preferred white? Nihungs/Akalis are in blue as expected, the others including M. Ranjit Singh (seated on the large red  pillow) are wearing a mixture of colours, including red.

The following reflects the situation regarding dress amongst the elites, as we can see, it looks like a free for all:

Here's a representation of the above from a contemporary (or near contemporary) Sikh perspective (artist Bishan Singh) - note the variety of bright colours: 

This one shows a wider community around Amritsar (you can see Harmandir Sahib in the back right):

[shastarSingh]

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

[shastarSingh]

Bhai Nand Lal ji's tankhanama

One who wears red  and takes snuff,

Gobind Singh says, he will be punished by the Yama

[intrigued]

I think there was another thread on this topic which said that red was the color of the mughals at that time. Maybe that's why it was prohibited...