Umdat-ut-Tawarikh

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Title page of the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh by Lala Sohan Lal Suri, lithograph, 1888 Title page of the 'Umdat-ut-Tawarikh' by Lala Sohan Lal Suri, lithograph, 1888.png
Title page of the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh by Lala Sohan Lal Suri, lithograph, 1888

The Umdat-ut-Tawarikh is a Sikh historiographical work by Sohan Lal Suri covering the period of the Sikh gurus to the Sikh Empire. The Umdat-ut-Twarikh originally consisted of around 7,000 pages in-total written in shikasta running Persian script. [1] Sohan Lal penned events at the Lahore Durbar in Persian, contiguous with the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The work, in five daftars or volumes, was translated into English in the twentieth century by Vidya Sagar Suri, his descendant. [2] :General Preface

Contents

Structure

Legacy

Claude Martin Wade was appointed the political agent by the East India Company and was ordered to report the proceedings of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's court. In speaking of the indigenous work, he said—

"Allowing for the partiality of the writer’s views and opinions, as regards the fame and credit of his patron, yet, as a record of dates and a chronicle of events, tested by a minute comparison with other authorities, and my own personal investigations into its accuracy during a residence of seventeen years among the Sikhs, I am enabled to pronounce it, in those two respects, as a true and faithful narrative of Runjeet Singh’s eventful life." [3]

According to Bayly, a twenty-first-century specialist in global and Indian history, Sohan Lal Suri's Umdat-ut-Tawarikh gives ‘a good impression of the density of information coming in to Ranjit Singh…’. [4]

Manuscripts

The original manuscript of the Umdat-ut-Twarikh is lying somewhere in the disorganized and poorly kept collection of the Punjab Archives in Lahore. [5] Another early copy is with the Royal Asiatic Society Library in London. [5] [6]

Printing and translation

Photograph of Lala Harbhagwan Das Suri, grandson of Lala Sohan Lal Suri, taken by the photographer Gopaldas, Karachi, ca.1886 Photograph of Lala Harbhagwan Das Suri, grandson of Lala Sohan Lal Suri, taken by the photographer Gopaldas, Karachi, ca.1886.jpg
Photograph of Lala Harbhagwan Das Suri, grandson of Lala Sohan Lal Suri, taken by the photographer Gopaldas, Karachi, ca.1886

The Persian work was published under the orders of Sohan Lal Suri's son and grandson, Mul Chand and Har Bhagwan Das, by the Albert Press in Lahore in 1886. [7] This publishing was scribed by Narani (Nurayni) Das, resident of Salkut. A colophon by the scribe gives the date of 17 September 1886. [7] For the work, a subsidy was bestowed from the Punjab University College of Lahore of which G. W. Leitner was the registrar. [7] Only 500 copies were lithographed. [7] This print was to be translated into English by R. C. Temple. [7]

Title-page of volume III, part II of the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh of Sohan Lal Suri, published under the orders of Mul Chand and Har Bhagwan Das, Gumti Bazar, Lahore, 1888 Title-page of volume III, part II of the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh of Sohan Lal Suri, published under the orders of Mul Chand and Har Bhagwan Das, Gumti Bazar, Lahore, 1888.jpg
Title-page of volume III, part II of the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh of Sohan Lal Suri, published under the orders of Mul Chand and Har Bhagwan Das, Gumti Bazar, Lahore, 1888

The 1880s publishing of the work, consisting of around 2,000 pages in-total, was subdivided as follows: [7]

Eventually, the work was translated into English by Vidya Sagar Suri, a descendant of the original author, in the 20th century. [2] :General Preface

References

  1. Suri, V. S. (2004). Singh, Harbans (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Vol. 4: S–Z (2nd ed.). Patiala: Punjabi University. pp. 226–27. ISBN   817380530X.
  2. 1 2 3 Suri, Sohan Lal (2002). Umdat ut-tawarikh. Amritsar: Guru Nanak University.
  3. Morley, W.H. (1854). A Descriptive Catalogue of the Historical Manuscripts. London: John W. Parker & Son. p. 90.
  4. Bayly (1996). Empire and Information. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 133 ft nt.
  5. 1 2 Sheikh, Majid (April 17, 2024). "The mysterious genius who was a double-agent". Dawn. Lahore, Pakistan. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  6. "'Umdat al-tawarikh. (See f199a) [manuscript]". Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Lot 262: 'Umdat al-Tawarikh, four lithograph volumes of the life and times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh and a survey of the history of the Sikh empire, in Persian and some English, by Suhan La'l Suri (d. 1852), the court chronicler and the vakil of the Sikh court, Albert Press, Lahore, 1886". Bonham's. 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025.