Statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

R Venugopal 16 months ago

The statue is massive and presents a great look. Located very near to the famous Golden Temple on the main road, you cannot miss it. The great King Ranjit Singh, is rightly called the Lion of Punjab (Sher-e-Punjab) is a legend. You will find everyone takes photos in front of it. Don't miss! It will be a proud moment. Despite his handicaps like small pox and losing one eye, he rose like a lion to fight the war alongside his father when he was just 10!
First Sikh emperor to drive back the enemies and built Sikh empire. He is remembered for his donation of Gold to cover the famous Harminder Sahib temple with playing and thus making it Golden Temple.
Well maintained place, worth visiting. No entry fee.

AJITH BR 13 months ago

Located near golden Temple, One of the main landmark near golden Temple.
The statue shows Maharaja Ranjit Singh saddled on his horse proudly looking towards the horizon. The statue is a symbol of the Sikh power during the 18th century.

Foxtrot Elite 15 months ago

Beautiful Sculpted statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Absolutely mesmerising to look at.
Ranjit Singh was the first Indian in a millennium to turn the tide of invasion back into the homelands of the traditional conquerors of India, the Pashtuns (Afghans), and he thus became known as the Lion of the Punjab. At their height, his domains extended from the Khyber Pass in the northwest to the Sutlej River in the east and from the Kashmir region at the northern limit of the Indian subcontinent southward to the Thar (Great Indian) Desert. Although he was uneducated, he was a shrewd judge of people and events, free from religious bigotry, and was mild in the treatment of his adversaries.

Ranjit Singh was reported to be short and unattractive. He was blind in one eye and had a face pitted with pockmarks. A lover of life, he liked to surround himself with handsome men and women, and he had a passion for hunting, horses, and strong liquor.

He was the only child of Maha Singh, on whose death in 1792 he became chief of the Shukerchakias, a Sikh group. His inheritance included Gujranwala town and the surrounding villages, now in Pakistan. At 15 he married the daughter of a chieftain of the Kanhayas, and for many years his affairs were directed by his ambitious mother-in-law, the widow Sada Kaur. A second marriage, to a girl of the Nakkais, made Ranjit Singh preeminent among the clans of the Sikh confederacy.

In July 1799 he seized Lahore, the capital of the Punjab (now the capital of Punjab province, Pakistan). The Afghan king, Zamān Shah, confirmed Ranjit Singh as governor of the city, but in 1801 Ranjit Singh proclaimed himself maharaja of the Punjab. He had coins struck in the name of the Sikh Gurus, the revered line of Sikh leaders, and proceeded to administer the state in the name of the Sikh commonwealth. A year later he captured Amritsar (now in Punjab state, India), the most-important commercial entrepôt in northern India and sacred city of the Sikhs. Thereafter, he proceeded to subdue the smaller Sikh and Pashtun principalities that were scattered throughout the Punjab.