Lost treasures of Ranjit Singh
A slice of history
By K.R.N. Swamy

THE year 1999 is very sacred and poignant for Sikhs all over the world. It was in April 1699, three hundred years ago, that Guru Gobind Singh established the Khalsa, the supreme authority of the Sikh religion. It was 150 years ago on March 29, 1849, that the British took over the Sikh kingdom, deposing the 12-year-old Maharaja Dalip Singh, the son of legendary ruler of Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who had died ten years earlier. One important query that interests historians is as to what happened to all the fabulous treasures of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who had ruled as the greatest monarch of the Sikhs for 50 years from 1799? The purchasing value of a single silver rupee in Ranjit Singh’s days was more than Rs 400 of 1999! Those days for 10 silver rupees, you could buy a gold sovereign weighing 7 grams.

A few years after Ranjit Singh’s demise, historian Carl Steinback estimated that there were about eight crores of silver rupees in cash, and the jewels, shawls, and other precious items in his treasury amounted to several crores more. He also added that it was doubtful whether any royal family in Europe had so many jewels as the Court of Lahore. Two decades earlier, Captain Murray in 1832 stated that the land revenue and tribute from various territories belonging to Ranjit Singh in Punjab, from the conquered territories from Peshawar to Jallalabad, from the customs duties levied by his government in Punjab, from the Mohakana — a kind of tax on every legal paper laid before the Maharaja for his signature — all totalled to Rs 16 million. To this was added the tributes (Rs 11 million) from nobles for the traditional jagirs granted to them (and which could be withdrawn at the will of the ruler). In all, the Maharaja’s income was nearly Rs 27 million a year. In addition, there were priceless gifts offered to him by other rulers, including Afghan kings, whom the Sikh monarch had conquered.

But between 1849 and 1850, the treasures at Lahore were looted by the British and the 12-year-old Maharaja Dalip Singh was pensioned away at Rs 5,00,000 per annum. The most famous and well-known jewels of Ranjit Singh were taken away as "gifts to the British Sovereign Queen Victoria". The throne of Ranjit Singh is today in the Victoria and Albert Museum at London, the famous diamond Kohinoor is the star attraction in the display of British crown jewels in the Tower of London Museum. In fact some of the lesser known, but valuable treasures had to await proper identification before they could be stacked away. The famous spinel ruby, known as the Timur ruby (283 carats), the second largest in the world and once occupying pride of place in the 17th century Peacock Throne of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was kept for quite some time as one of the minor treasures, till one British officer recognised it as the Timur ruby.

Eminent gemologist Suzy Menkes states in her book on British royal jewels that the treasures accumulated from India by the British as gifts or war booty from the Indian maharajas are listed in a very secret manual kept by jewellers to the Royal family — Messrs Garrads & Co — and they are not willing to let the historians see the list, even a century after the demise of Queen Victoria.

Maharaja Dalip Singh was brought up as a ward of the East India Company and became a Christian. The British decided to take him to Britain and there he became the favourite of Queen Victoria. Photographs exist showing him in grand jewellery, a portion of the treasures of the Sikh empire. But when he found that he was just being treated as one of the British aristocracy and not as the last ruler of Punjab, he got angry and told the British to return to him all the jewellery looted from his father. The British Government was willing to give him only an annuity, besides giving him money to acquire a large mansion. Dalip Singh embarked on a campaign of trying to find out, how much of the treasures had been taken away from the Lahore Treasury and with great difficulty succeeded in locating two of the seven catalogues that had been printed for sales at Lahore in the years 1849 and 1850. No record could be found of the sum of money raised by these sales and it is not possible, with only two of the seven catalogues available, to ascertain correctly the value of the property sold.

Further, it is hardly necessary to point out that the sales organised at so distant a place like Lahore could not have fully realised the correct value of the property of such historic nature, especially as seven sales were held in so short a time. The seven auctions of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s confiscated treasures were sold by Messrs Lattie Brothers and Hays in the Diwan-e-aam of the citadel of Lahore, the last one starting on Monday, December 2, 1850, for five successive days.

The sale of 95 items of the second catalogue, out of 952 items listed fetched Rs 1,39,287 and the whole purchase money would have been upwards of Rs 10 lakh. But to realise the throwaway prices at which the treasures were sold, one can quote page 56 of the catalogue which describes item no 61, as a magnificent jewelled dagger with belt inlaid with diamonds of purest water, the gold mounting sheath beautifully enamelled also inlaid with large diamonds and rubies attached with massive tassels of large pearls. Item 70, a magnificent bajooband (armlet), the centre being a very large emerald of finest colour estimated to weigh 47 carats surrounded by very valuable rubies estimated to weigh 290 carats. At the end of the tassel was a very large sapphire. This ornament formerly belonged to Ahmad Shah, the founder of the Afghan Durrani empire, and bears his name. But all these listed items did not help Maharaja Dalip Singh. He calculated that the seven sales should have fetched Rs 7 million and modern jewellery historians concede that if sold in London in 1850, these treasures would have fetched at least Rs 70 million .

Maharaja Dalip Singh becoming desperate, turned against the British Government and died in 1893 in Paris, as a bankrupt refugee. His last grandchild Princess Bamba died in Lahore on March 10, 1957, gifting whatever was left of the Ranjit Singh’s treasures (mainly oil paintings of the 19th century) to Pakistan. They are today displayed by the Pakistan Government in Rani Jindan’s Palace in Lahore Fort.