Chand Kaur

Maharani Chand Kaur (1802 – 11 June 1842) was briefly regent of the Sikh Empire. She was the wife of Maharaja Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, her only son.

In 1840 Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh were assassinated and, on the grounds that Nau Nihal Singh's widow Sahib Kaur was pregnant, Chand Kaur staked her claim as regent for the unborn successor to the throne.^[1] She remained regent for approximately two-and-a-half months, from 5 November 1840 to 18 January 1841, but abandoned her claim when Sahib Kaur delivered a stillborn son.

She was awarded a pension of 900,000 rupees and for a while lived in her late son's palace in Lahore. However her enemies still saw her as a threat and she was battered to death by her servants on 11 June 1842.

Family

Maharani Chand Kaur,
Empress of the Sikh Empire

Chand Kaur was born in 1802 in Fatehgarh Churian in the Gurdaspur District of Punjab.^[1] Her father was Sardar Jaimal Singh, chief of the Kanhaiya Misl. In February 1812, at the age of ten, she married Raja Kharak Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Their son, Nau Nihal Singh, was born on 23 February 1821 and in March 1837 he married Sahib Kaur, daughter of Sham Singh Atarivala.

After the death of Ranjit Singh on 27 June 1839, Kharak Singh was appointed as his successor and Raja Dhian Singh Dogra as his wazir (vizier).^[2] The new Maharaja only ruled for a few months until October 1839, when he was overthrown in a coup by his son, Nau Nihal Singh, and Dhian Singh. He was imprisoned at Lahore until his death in November 1840 from slow poisoning.^[3] Contemporary chroniclers suggest that the poison had been administered under Dhiān Siṅgh's orders.^[4]

Returning from the cremation of his father on 5 November, Nau Nihal Singh went through the gate of the Hazuri Bagh with his companion Udam Singh, son of Gulab Singh, and Dhian Singh's nephew. As they passed through the gate stones fell from above, killing Udam Singh and injuring the prince. Dhian Singh, who was a few steps behind, immediately arranged for the prince to be taken into the fort. Nobody else was allowed into the fort, not even his mother, Chand Kaur, who beat on the fort gates with her bare hands in a fever of anxiety. Eyewitnesses stated that before he was taken into the fort the prince appeared to be only slightly injured, was conscious and asked for water. However, when his mother and friends were allowed in to see him, he was dead with severe injuries to his head.^[5]

Regency

After the deaths of Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh, Dhian Singh supported the claim of Sher Singh, the son of Ranjit Singh's estranged first wife, Mehtab Kaur. Chand Kaur turned to Gulab Singh for support. A compromise was proposed that Chand Kaur should adopt Sher Singh's son Pratap Singh.

However, she pointed out that Nau Nihal's widow, Sahib Kaur, was pregnant and might give birth to a rightful successor. The arrival in Lahore of two powerful opponents of Sher Singh, Sardar Atar Singh Sandhanvalia and Sardar Ajit Singh Sandhanvalia, settled the matter. On 2 December 1840 Chand Kaur was proclaimed Maharani of the Punjab, with the title Malika Muqaddasa, Empress Immaculate.^[6]

On 13 January, Sher Singh arrived in Lahore. The regiments outside the city walls went over to his side, leaving Chand Kaur with 5,000 men and a limited quantity of gunpowder against a force of 26,000 infantry, 8,000 horse and 45 guns. Chand Kaur's troops in the fort fought for two days, but Dhian Singh arrived on the evening of 17 January and arranged a ceasefire. Chand Kaur was persuaded to accept a pension and relinquish her claim to the throne, and on 27 January Sher Singh was formally anointed as Maharaja.^[7]

Retirement and assassination

The dowager Maharani retired to her late son's palace in Lahore and received a pension of 900,000 rupees. In July 1841 Sahib Kaur's son was stillborn, ending any justification for a renewed claim to the regency. However she had made an enemy of Dhian Singh, who replaced her servants with women from Jammu, who killed her on 11 June 1842 by smashing her head in with wooden pikes.^[1]

The samadhi of Maharani Chand Kaur is in the grounds of Islamia College at Civil Lines in Lahore, on the same platform as, and to the south of, the samadhi of Kharak Singh's mother Maharani Datar Kaur, lovingly called Mai Nakain by Ranjit Singh. In between the samadhis of the two maharanis is the smaller samadhi of Sahib Kaur.^[8]

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chand Kaur.

Harbans Singh, Editor-in-Chief. "Encyclopaedia of Sikhism". Punjab University Patiala.