Raja Dhian Singh

Raja Dhian Singh was the middle one of the three Dogra brothers from Jammu who served Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Born on 22 August 1796, he rose from a trooper to the most powerful man in the kingdom after the Maharaja, and he stood at the centre of the killings at Lahore between 1839 and 1843.

Key moments

• 1812: his elder brother Gulab Singh presented him to Ranjit Singh at Rohtas, and he was taken on as a trooper at sixty rupees a month.
• 1818 to 1827: he replaced Jamadar Khushal Singh as chamberlain in 1818, was created Raja in 1822, and on 20 June 1827 was given the title Raja-i-Rajgan Raja Kalan Bahadur. He became the principal minister, or wazir (prime minister), with large jagirs in the hills of Jammu.
• 21 June 1839: Ranjit Singh declared that the heir, Kharak Singh, had chosen him as Wazir. On the morning of the Maharaja's funeral, 28 June, he said he would burn himself on the pyre and had to be dissuaded.
• 9 October 1839: he spread the rumour that Kharak Singh and his favourite, Chet Singh, were seeking British protection, and then killed Chet Singh with a dagger before the Maharaja, who was placed under restraint. Prince Nau Nihal Singh ran the state.
• November 1840 to January 1841: after Nau Nihal Singh's death he hid it for three days until Sher Singh could reach Lahore. The Sandhanwalia sardars backed Chand Kaur, who was proclaimed Maharani on 2 December. Dhian Singh withdrew to Jammu, wrote to the army commanders, and returned on 17 January. Sher Singh was proclaimed Maharaja on 18 January 1841, with Dhian Singh as his Wazir.
• 15 September 1843: the Sandhanwalia sardars Ajit Singh and Lehna Singh killed Maharaja Sher Singh and the heir, Partap Singh. They met Dhian Singh, who was lured into the Fort. When he put forward his claim to be Wazir to the next Maharaja, Ajit Singh shot him dead.

The Encyclopaedia holds him responsible for the plot against Chet Singh and says contemporary chroniclers indicate he ordered the poisoning of Kharak Singh and that his men killed Nau Nihal Singh. The second charge is disputed in other accounts, set out on the page for Nau Nihal Singh. After his death his son Hira Singh became Wazir, and his brother Gulab Singh later became the first ruler of Jammu and Kashmir under the Treaty of Amritsar of 1846, according to Wikipedia.

He is remembered mainly for the part the sources give him in the killings at the Lahore court between 1839 and 1843, the years that followed the death of Ranjit Singh.