Sardar Maha Singh

Sardar Maha Singh, also written Mahan Singh, was the second chief of the Sukerchakia Misl and the father of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was the son of Charat Singh and Desan Kaur. Wikipedia gives his birth as 1756, though some sources say 1760. He came to lead the misl young, and his mother, Mai Desan, ran its affairs with the help of her brothers until he came of age.

In 1774 he married Raj Kaur, called Mai Malwain, daughter of Raja Gajpat Singh of Jind. Their son Ranjit Singh was born on 13 November 1780.

Key moments

• He took Rohtas Fort from Nur-ud-din Bamezai, a general of Ahmad Shah Durrani.
• With Jai Singh Kanhaiya he laid a four-month siege of Rasulnagar, defeated the Chattha chief Pir Muhammad and renamed the town Ramnagar. He went on to take Pindi Bhattian, Sahiwal and Isa Khel.
• 1782 or 1784: he plundered Jammu (1782 according to All About Sikhs, January 1784 according to Wikipedia) and kept the loot rather than share it with the Kanhaiyas. He fell out with them, and the fighting included Achal near Batala, where Gurbaksh Singh Kanhaiya died. Peace came with the betrothal, agreed in 1786, of Ranjit Singh to Mehtab Kaur, daughter of Gurbaksh Singh's widow Sada Kaur, and their marriage in 1789.
• Siege of Sodhra. Wikipedia says Gujjar Singh Bhangi died in 1788 and Maha Singh demanded tribute from his son Sahib Singh, who chose to fight, so Maha Singh besieged Sodhra with Ranjit Singh. All About Sikhs calls it a protracted siege, in which Maha Singh fell ill with dysentery. He handed command to his son and withdrew to Gujranwala, where he died. Wikipedia's article on the siege dates it to 1790; the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's entry on Jodh Singh Wazirabadia puts the siege of Sodhra in 1792.

The year of his death is disputed. Most accounts give April 1790, when Ranjit Singh, born on 13 November 1780, was nine. Some give April 1792, when he was eleven; Wikipedia's article on Ranjit Singh gives his age in 1792 as twelve.

Remembered for: raising the Sukerchakia Misl from a regional force into one of the strongest in the Punjab, the base on which Ranjit Singh built the Sikh kingdom. The historian Hari Ram Gupta judged that Maha Singh would have become sole ruler of northern India had he lived ten years longer.