Samadhi of Ranjit Singh
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The Samadhi of Ranjit SinghTemplate:Efn is a 19th-century building in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, that houses the funerary urns of the former Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It is located within the Walled City, adjacent to the Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque, and the Gurdwara Dera Sahib. Its construction was started by his son and successor, Maharaja Kharak Singh, after the Maharaja's death in 1839, and completed nine years later. It overlooks the Hazuri Bagh, built by Ranjit Singh, to its south.
History
Maharaja Ranjit Singh died on Thursday, 27 June 1839, with there being a large funeral and cremation of his remains.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Reference page The hair of the corpse was washed with Ganges water, the body was bathed and dressed in new clothes, being placed on a bier of sandalwood decorated with gold flowers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Four queens, most principally Rani Katochan, committed sati on his funeral pyre.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Three days after the cremation, Kharak Singh retrieved his father's ashes.<ref name=":3" /> His ashes were brought to Haridwar to be dispersed into the Ganges river.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page There were initial proposals for a large-scale funerary monument at Shahdara across the Ravi River, comparable to Jahangir’s mausoleum.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page However, eventually a more modest construction began under the reign of Ranjit Singh's successor, Kharak Singh.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Few details on the structure's construction are given by the court-chronicler, Sohal Lal Suri, and its construction occurred during a period of hardship for the court of Lahore, due to internal struggles.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page
Construction of the mausoleum began in August 1839 but its completion was delayed due to infighting within the Sikh Empire between different factions.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Construction of the building was started by his son, Kharak Singh on the spot where he was cremated, and was completed by his youngest son, Duleep Singh in 1848.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> However, according to Khan, the construction of the monument was still not totally complete when the British annexed the territory in 1849.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page The new British-rulers of Punjab, having annexed the Sikh Empire in 1849, undertook repairs of the mausoleum, which was completed in 1851.<ref name=":0" /> For several decades afterwards, the samadhi functioned as both a mausoleum and gurdwara, with the primary Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, being installed in it.<ref name=":1" />
Urdu literary works about the city of Lahore, such as by Nur Ahmad Chishti (1867), Mufti Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi Lahori (1877), Kanhaya Lal (1884), and Syad Muhammad Latif (1892), cover the samadhi in-detail, with a work by Chishti in 1867 documenting a white, marble statue of Ganesha located on the eastern entrance of the complex and that its interior contained marble statues of Hindu goddesses with silk curtains on them, with one of these goddess statues supposedly being donated by Jind Kaur.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page The Ganesha and goddess statues mentioned in these accounts cannot be traced today.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Furthermore, the account records that both the Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth were kept in prakash (installed and read from) located on the southern side of the central chhatrī, with there being two granthis appointed to read from the scriptures.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Lahori and Lal's own works claim that Kanhaya Lal was employed by the British as an engineer to save the structure from collapse, due to issues related to its eight columns in the interior not being able to bear the load of the dome, with Lal deciding to add an additional eight columns to help bear the weight of the dome and prevent an imminent collapse.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Lal further stated that he repaired cracked, marble columns by adding iron clamps to them.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page
Architecture
Building
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The building combines elements of Sikh, Hindu, and Islamic architecture.<ref>Samadhi of Ranjit Singh – a sight of religious harmony, Pakistan Today. JANUARY 16, 2016, NADEEM DAR</ref> Portions of the building are believed to have been plundered from the adjacent Lahore Fort.<ref>Samadhi of Ranjit Singh – a sight of religious harmony, Pakistan Today. JANUARY 16, 2016, NADEEM DAR</ref>
The building has gilded fluted domes and cupolas, and an ornate balustrade around the upper portion of the building. The front of the doorway has images of Ganesh, Devi and Brahma that are cut from red sandstone. The dome is decorated with Nāga (serpent) hood designs - the product of Hindu craftsmen that worked on the project.<ref>Samadhi of Ranjit Singh – a sight of religious harmony, Pakistan Today. JANUARY 16, 2016, NADEEM DAR</ref> The wooden panels on the ceiling are decorated with stained glass work, while the walls are richly decorated with floral designs. The ceilings are decorated with glass mosaic work.
Funerary urns
Ranjit Singh's ashes are contained in a marble urn in the shape of a lotus, sheltered under a marble pavilion inlaid with pietra dura, in the centre of the tomb. Surrounding him, in smaller urns, are the ashes of four Hindu sati queens and seven concubines.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Scholarly assessments
Various authors in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Thornton, Khan, Ihsan H. Nadiem, Nazir Ahmed Chaudhry, Kamil Khan Mumtaz, F. S. Aijazuddin, wrote assessments on the architecture of the samadhi, with most being negative due to being influenced by views first expressed by Thornton.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page
Thomas Henry Thornton wrote a disparaging account of the structure in 1876:<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Template:Blockquote Khan Muhammad Waliullah Khan, writing in 1961, being influenced by Thornton's earlier account, gives an unfavourable assessment of the structure's architectural design:<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page Template:Blockquote Nearly all of the 19th and 20th century accounts of the structure fail to take note or recognize its distinctively Sikh features.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page According to Nadra Khan, the structure represents the "pitome of Sikh architectural ornament and art", building upon previous architectural traditions with Sikh innovations, blending both the Punjabi and Pahari art styles in its painted murals within its interior, showcasing a merging of Sikh and Hindu themes, which have been ignored.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page She states that the samadhi has distinctively Sikh features and can be regarded as an "indigenous art".<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page
Artwork
The walls of the samadhi are decorated with murals in the form of frescoes.<ref name=":1" /> They were painted between 1839–49.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Forty-eight individual fresco wall-paintings remain on the two-levels of the samadhi's interior.<ref name=":2" />Template:Reference page
Associated monuments
Two small samadhi monuments to the west of the main building commemorate Maharaja Ranjit Singh's son Maharaja Kharak Singh and grandson Nau Nihal Singh, along with their wives.<ref name=":1" /> The patron of the samadhis of Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh is unknown.<ref name=":1" /> The building is located adjacent to Gurdwara Dera Sahib, the place of Guru Arjun's martyrdom.
Gallery
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Samadhi of Ranjit Singh in 2015
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The Samadhi of Emperor Ranjit Singh in 1880s.
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A view of the Samadhi.
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Samadhi Ranjit Singh
See also
Notes
References
External links
- A photo of the tomb Template:Webarchive
- An older photo of the samadhi
- The Latest News on the Heritage of the Punjab
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