Mehtab Kaur (c. 1782 - 1813)[1][2][3] was the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,[3][4] the founder of the Sikh Empire. She was the mother of Ranjit's reputed son, Maharaja Sher Singh.[5][6]
Mehtab Kaur was the senior-most of Ranjit Singh's wives and the only one to bear the title of Maharani (high queen) while his other wives bore the lesser title of Rani (queen).[7][8]
Family
Mehtab Kaur, the only child of Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya and his wife Sada Kaur, was born in 1782.[9] Although a Sikh, she bore the Persian name "Mehtab" () which means 'moonlight' in Persian.[10] Her father, Gurbaksh Singh, was the only son and heir of Jai Singh Kanheya, the chief of the Kanhaiya Misl.[11] The Kanhaiyas, who had replaced the Bhangi Misl as the most powerful misl, disputed Ranjit Singh's father's (Maha Singh) right to plunder Jammu, and in one of the many skirmishes between the two misls, Gurbaksh Singh was killed in battle against Maha Singh in February 1785.[12][13]
Mehtab Kaur's mother, Rani Sada Kaur, an intelligent, high spirited and ambitious woman, used to lend support of the Kanhaiya misl to Ranjit Singh till 1821, when she developed differences with him and as a consequence lost her territory to him.[11]
Marriage
Jai Singh's pride was humbled and he agreed to betroth his granddaughter, Mehtab Kaur, to Maha Singh's son, Ranjit Singh.[14] The Kanhaiya chief died shortly afterwards in 1789,[15] leaving his estates to his widowed daughter-in-law, Sada Kaur, the mother of Mehtab Kaur, who took over the leadership of the Kanhaiyas.[12]
The teenage Ranjit Singh took hardly any interest in the affairs of the state, making his mother, Raj Kaur, anxious for his future. She felt that marriage might bring him around to the responsibilities of life.[16] She approached Sada Kaur to fix the nuptial date. Ranjit was fifteen years old when he left Gujranwala for Batala, the chief town of the Kanhaiyas, to wed Mehtab Kaur in 1796. This alliance between the two important Sikh families was a major event for Punjab. All the leading Sikh chiefs were present at the wedding.[17]
The marriage was not a very happy one.[18] It is not unlikely that Mehtab Kaur felt somewhat inhibited in giving her affections to a man whose father had killed hers: and Ranjit Singh's reaction to her reserve was to withdraw into himself. It soon became a marriage of convenience. For obvious reasons, Ranjit also developed a strange love-hate relationship with his mother-in-law, Sada Kaur,[19] who has been described by historians as "a ladder by which Ranjit Singh climbed to power in his early years."[20]
After entering into a matrimonial alliance with the Kanhaiya Misl, Ranjit wanted to consolidate his position further which could only be done by drawing some other misl to his side. He made overtures to chief of the Nakkais and early in 1798 took a second wife, who was the sister of Nakkai Sardar.[21] The marriage proved to be more successful than the first. His second wife bore his mother's name: Raj Kaur. She was renamed Datar Kaur and was affectionately known as Mai Nakain by Ranjit. She became his favourite wife. Ranjit's second marriage gave Mehtab Kaur an excuse to return to Batala and thereafter she only made occasional appearances at her husband's home.[22]
It also soured Sada Kaur; but she reconciled herself to Ranjit's polygamous venture because she had set her heart on bigger and better things and was determined to see that for her own sake and the sake of her only child (and her progeny if she had any), Ranjit Singh carry out the plans that she had set for him.[23]
Issue
Mehtab Kaur bore Ranjit his second son Ishar Singh in 1804, who died in infancy.[24] In 1807, she gave birth to twin sons, Sher Singh and Tara Singh in Batala.[25] Ranjit was near Jawalamukhi, when he received the news their birth, he hurried to Amritsar to pay a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple there.[26] Alternatively, some sources state that Ranjit Singh did not believe the sons to be his and had very little to do with them. Both these statements are incorrect.[27] What gave rise to the suggestion of illegitimacy of Mehtab Kaur's sons was Ranjit's strained relations with his wife and her mother, Sada Kaur. Mehtab Kaur spent a lot of her time in her mother's home at Batala. Ranjit saw little of the two princes for some years and his first born Kharak Singh from his second wife, Datar Kaur, remained his favourite.
When Sada Kaur fell from power and the princes came to stay with their father, Kharak Singh and his mother gave rise to gossip of their illegitimacy in order to counteract any possibility of Ranjit preferring Sher Singh as his heir, who was fast becoming his father's favourite.[28] The illegitimacy of Mehtab Kaur's sons has not been proved and if Ranjit's attitude can be taken as any indication of facts, it is quite clear that he believed the children were his and Mehtab Kaur's. Court historians have a lot to say of Ranjit's joy at the birth of his sons and jubilations in the camp.[29]
Death
After suffering from a failing health, Mehtab Kaur died in 1813. At the time of her death, Ranjit Singh was at Amritsar, where the death of the former had taken place. Ranjit Singh did not attend the cremation and other condolatory ceremonies.[30]
Source: http://wikipedia.org
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