A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. VII DEATH OF RANJIT SINGH

223

When Ranjit Singh was Lord Auckland's host at Lahore 1839.
and Amritsar, his utterance was difficult, and the powers of
The artihis body feeble; he gradually lost the use of his speech, and fices of
of the faculties of his mind; and, before his death, the Dhian
Singh to
Rajas of Jammu had usurped to themselves the whole of bringabout
the functions of government, which the absence of Nau the quiet
succession
Nihal Singh enabled them to do with little difficulty. The sf Kharau
army was assembled, and a litter, said to contain the dying Singh.
Maharaja, was carried along the extended line. Dhian
Singh was assiduous in his mournful attentions; he seemed
to take orders as if from his departing sovereign, and from
time to time, during the solemn procession, he made known
that Ranjit Singh declared the Prince Kharak Singh his
successor, and himself, Dhian Singh, the wazir or minister
of the kingdom.1 The soldiery acquiesced in silence, and
the British Government was perhaps more sincere than the
Sikh people in the congratulations offered, agreeably to
custom, to the new and unworthy master of the Punjab.
trative touches and anecdotes. The only good likeness of the
Maharaja which has been published is that taken by the Hon. Miss
Eden; and it, especially in the original drawing, is true and expressive. Ranjit Singh was of small stature. When young he was dexterous in all manly exercises, but in his old age he became weak and
inclined to corpulency. He lost an eye when a child by the small-pox,
and the most marked characteristic of his mental powers was a broad
and massive forehead, which the ordinary portraits do not show.
1 Mr. Clerk's memorandum of 1842 for Lord Ellenborough.