Punjab, also known as the Land of the Five Rivers, is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is specifically located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern-Pakistan and northwestern-India. Punjab's major cities are Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Sialkot, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jalandhar, Patiala, Gurugram, and Bahawalpur.
Ranjit Singh was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. He ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He survived smallpox in infancy but lost sight in his left eye. He fought his first battle alongside his father at age 10.
Pahari painting is an umbrella term used for a form of Indian painting, done mostly in miniature forms, originating from the lower Himalayan hill kingdoms of North India and plains of Punjab, during the early 17th to mid 19th century, notably Basohli, Mankot, Nurpur, Chamba, Kangra, Guler, Mandi and Garhwal. Nainsukh was a famous master of the mid-18th century, followed by his family workshop for another two generations. The central theme of Pahari painting is depiction of eternal love of the Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. A distinct lyricism, spontaneous rhythm, softness, minute intricate details of composition, and intense perception and portrayal of human emotions and physical features distinguish the Pahari miniatures from the other miniature schools like Deccan, Mughal and Rajasthani-Rajput.
The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous misls. At its peak in the 19th century, the empire extended from Gilgit and Tibet in the north to the deserts of Sindh in the south and from the Khyber Pass in the west to the Sutlej in the east as far as Oudh. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, which became the Sikh capital; Multan; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 4.5 million in 1831, it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire.
The Punjab Province was a province of British India. Most of the Punjab region was annexed by the British East India Company on 29 March 1849; it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British control. In 1858, the Punjab, along with the rest of British India, came under the rule of the British Crown. It had a land area of 358,355 square kilometers.
East Punjab was a province of India from 1947 until 1950. It consisted parts of the Punjab province that remained in India following the partition of the province between the new dominions of Pakistan and the Indian Union by the Radcliffe Commission in 1947. The mostly Muslim western parts of the old Punjab became Pakistan's West Punjab, later renamed as Punjab Province, while the mostly Hindu and Sikh eastern parts remained with India.
Khalsa College is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, the sprawling 300-acre (1.2 km2) campus is located about eight kilometers from the city-center on the Amritsar-Lahore highway, adjoining Guru Nanak Dev University campus, to which Khalsa College is academically affiliated.
Sobha Singh was an artist from Punjab, India.
Malaudh was a Cis-Sutlej Phulkian princely state of India till 1846, after which it was merged into the Ludhiana District by the British when they annexed the territories around Ludhiana. The town of Malaudh, or Maloud, is situated at a distance of about 40 kilometres from Ludhiana on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla Road and is linked by approach road kup-payal road though village Rorian which is now part of it as Nagar Panchayat. It lies on 75°- 56' Longitude and 30° – 38' Latitude. Malaudh is a very ancient place which was known as Malla Udey or rise of the Mallas with whom Multan or Mallustan is associated and later got corrupted to Malaudh. There was a The Loharan about 1 kilometer on the southern side which has now disappeared. Malaudh has a government high school (co-educational), middle school for girls and a primary school for boys, a post office, primary health centre and a veterinary dispensary. Malaudh became a part of the Ludhiana District when it was formed out of the territories annexed by the British in 1846.
The Phulkian Dynasty of Maharajas or sardars were Sikh royals and aristocrats in the Punjab region of India. Members of the dynasty ruled the states of Badrukhan, Bhadaur, Faridkot, Jind, Malaudh, Nabha, and Patiala, allying themselves with the British Empire according to the terms of the Cis-Sutlej treaty of 1809. The dynasty is named after Phul Sidhu-Brar, the 17th-century common ancestor of the Phulkian states and the founder of the Phulkian Misl. Members of the Phulkian dynasty, who are the direct descendants of Rawal Jaisal Singh, the founder and ruler of the Kingdom of Jaisalmer, migrated to the present-day Malwa region in Punjab.
Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, is a public museum of North India having collections of Gandharan sculptures, sculptures from ancient and medieval India, Pahari and Rajasthani miniature paintings. It owes its existence to the partition of India. Prior to the partition, much of the collections of art objects, paintings and sculptures present here were housed in the Central Museum, Lahore, the then capital of Punjab. The museum has one of the largest collection of Gandharan artefacts in the world.
Religion in the Punjab in ancient history was characterized by Hinduism and later conversions to Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism and Christianity; it also includes folk practices common to all Punjabis regardless of the religion they adhere to. Such practices incorporate local mysticism, including ancestral worship and worship of local saints of all faiths.
The Bhangi Misl was a large and powerful Sikh Misl headquartered in Amritsar. It was founded in the early 18th century by Sardar Chhajja Singh Dhillon, who was baptised by Banda Singh Bahadur. The misl received its name "Bhangi" because Chhajja Singh and his soldiers frequently used the herbal intoxicant bhang. It was a first misl to established a Khalsa Raj and publish Khalsa currency coins. The Bhangi Kingdom/Misl was founded by Dhillon Jats.
The Sikh Rule in Lahore initiated from the conquest and rule of the Sikh Misls and extended till the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh which ended in 1849. The Sikhs began gaining power following the decline of the Mughal Empire in Punjab and consisted of a collection of autonomous Punjabi Misls, which were governed by Misldars, mainly in the Punjab region.
Guler was a minor kingdom in the Lower Himalayas. Its capital was the town of Haripur Guler, in modern-day Himachal Pradesh. The kingdom was founded in 1415 by Raja Hari Chand, a scion of the ancient royal family of Kangra. The etymology of the word Guler can be traced to the word Gwalior, meaning the abode of cowherds. One of the foremost schools of Pahari miniatures is named after this small principality.
Ramgarhia Misl was a sovereign state (misl) in the Sikh Confederacy of Punjab region in present-day India and Pakistan. The misl's name is derived from Qila Ramgarh, a place located in Ramsar, near Amritsar, which was fortified and redesigned by Ramgarhia Misl chief Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. The Ramgarhia Misl was one of the twelve major Sikh misls, and held land near Amritsar.
Sikh art, also known as the Sikh School, is the artwork created by or associated with Sikhs and Sikhism. Sikh artwork exists in many forms, such as miniature, oil, and watercolour paintings, murals, and wood carvings.
Kishan Singh was a Sikh painter who specialized in mussawir. He was the brother of Bishan Singh. Kishan Singh had been employed as a court painter in the Sikh states of Kapurthala and Patiala. Kishan Singh was employed by royal courts located in Amritsar, Kapurthala, and Lahore. Whilst working in Lahore, Kishan Singh helped facilitate the arrival of other artists.
Kehar Singh was a Sikh artist who was employed as a court painter by the Sikh states of Lahore and Kapurthala. Baba Kehar Singh Musawar was a prominent artist of the Sikh Naqqashi school of art and helped innovate it. The art of frescoes was introduced by the artist Bhai Kehar Singh Musawar under the patronage of Maharaja Ranjit Singh during the era of the Sikh Empire. Kehar Singh was responsible for decorating the interiors of Ranjit Singh's Lahori palace with frescoes. After Ranjit Singh witnessed the fine artwork of Kehar Singh, he decided to commission him for beautifying the Golden Temple shrine in Amritsar to embellish it with mural work. He also worked on adornment work. He was one of the most important of the court painters of Ranjit Singh. He was influenced by European-styles of watercolour and oil painting. Him and his family specialized in mussawir. When portraying a particular societal grouping, such as an occupation or caste, Kehar Singh portrayed actual living, breathing individuals rather than creating generalized depictions.
Bhai Jawahir Singh Kapur was a leading figure of the Singh Sabha Movement, specifically the Lahore Singh Sabha. He was a social reformer, a civil worker, a poet, writer and proponent of the Khalsa Diwan (Lahore).
