Painting picture courtesy Christie's Auction House Sometimes, a painting begins to ask more questions than it answers. A late eighteenth-century painting, attributed to the Mandi school and catalogued as showing Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra with a courtier, has intrigued me for some time. At first glance, the identification appears straightforward enough. Two men sit opposite each other, smoking hookahs, while attendants stand behind them holding fly-whisks. One figure is dressed in red, the other in white. The scene is informal, almost intimate, and yet unmistakably courtly. But the more I looked at the painting, the less convinced I became that the red-clad figure was Sansar Chand. The reason came from looking at other portraits. Among the surviving paintings associated with the Mandi court are several portraits of Raja Surma Sen, who ruled Mandi from 1781 until his death in 1788. One such portrait shows him seated smoking a hookah, attended by a fly-whisk bearer. Another depicts ...
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| Maharaja Gulab Singh (sourced from Wikipedia) |
Contrary to what others believe, Maharaja Gulab Singh did not pay any sums to purchase Kashmir. There are several books that will point out that particular instance on the manner in which Kashmir came under Dogra rule. 1845 had seen the fight between the Sikh rulers of Punjab and the British East India Company. While it is fashionable to call Hindus villains, fact remains that a certain section of the Darbar had given the British the opportunity to declare war against the Lahore Darbar. Subsequent to their defeat in the first of the three Anglo-Sikh Wars, vakils were appointed on drawing up the terms of the surrender. It is here that Maharaja Gulab Singh comes into picture.
Gulab Singh was the Vakil of the Lahore Darbar in the entire event, and there has been much noise made about the treaty and it's terms. Let's get some facts straight hereon, so that certain misnomers can be corrected.
1.Treaty of Amritsar was part of the arrangement of the terms of defeat of the Lahore Darbar.
2. Initially, 1.5 core Nanakshahi rupees were to be paid. However, the Lahore Darbar expressed its inability to do so. Hence, 75 lakh Nanakshahi rupee were the indemnity that the Lahore Darbar finally had to pay to the British EIC. There was no purchase of the province of Kashmir.
Subsequently, it must be pointed out that the British deliberately took away land from the state of Punjab, particularly the Hill States, since it was noted that the Sikh empire should be kept under watch. It was not just Kashmir - entire region up to the boundary Beas, including the regions of Kangra, Nurpur, Chenab Valley, Chamba and Mandi that were taken away from the Darbar.
So why did the British EIC give up on the region? The British EIC officials realized a few hard truths about access to the region in general and the harshness of the terrain. Avoiding direct conflict with the Afghans and the possible encounter with the Russians was to be avoided at any cost. Hence, a decision was taken to give up some of that territory. Since only 75 lakhs could be arranged, Kangra and Nurpur were retained by the British as they served the boundary with the whittled Sikh empire and could provide easy access in times of war. The more inaccessible regions, Chamba, Chenab Valley and even several parts of Mandi were essentially handed to Maharaja Gulab Singh for management, who was still in the service of the Lahore Durbar for management as his fee for the vakalat.
Another thing to add - while all of this was ongoing, Ladakh had already been annexed by the Dogras, under the general ship of Zorawar Singh, who would go on to invade Tibet in a legendary but disastrous campaign.
And that is how a large part of the Jammu and Kashmir as was known came into being.
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