Ranjit Singh takes Lahore

Who: Ranjit Singh, then about eighteen, chief of the Sukerchakia misl; the three Sikh sardars who held Lahore, named by the Dawn columnist Majid Sheikh as Chet Singh, Sahib Singh and Mohar Singh; and the traders and townspeople of the city.

What: On 7 July 1799 Ranjit Singh drove the Bhangi rulers out of Lahore and became master of the capital. Majid Sheikh writes that the three sardars had taken over the city and begun a reign of terror, and that Lahore's Muslim traders sent Ranjit Singh desperate messages. He returned and surrounded the city, and a breach was made with the active help of Lahore's Muslims. The traders then threw open the gates of the walled city, and the gates of the Fort were opened the same day. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism adds that the populace, largely Muslims and Hindus, welcomed him as their redeemer.

Where: Lahore, the capital of the Punjab and now in Pakistan: the walled city and the Fort.

Why it mattered: Lahore became the seat of the Sikh government that Ranjit Singh built over the next forty years, and the taking of the city ended Bhangi misl rule in the capital. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes him as master of Lahore from 1799 and says he then began a series of conquests that united the whole country north of the Sutlej under him. It credits his forty years of rule with giving the Punjab peace, stability and prosperity. Less than two years later, in April 1801, he was proclaimed Maharaja in the same city. The Lahore Darbar that ruled from here lasted until the British annexation of 1849, ten years after his death.