Raja Gulab Singh
Dogra raja of Jammu under Lahore, whose general Zorawar Singh conquered Ladakh and Baltistan. In 1846 he stayed out of the war and bought Kashmir from the British for 7.5 million rupees.
Gulab Singh was born in 1792 into a minor Dogra family of Jammu and came to Lahore as a soldier with his brothers Dhian Singh and Suchet Singh. He served Ranjit Singh with distinction and was made Raja of Jammu in 1822.
From Jammu he extended his power across the hills, and his general Zorawar Singh conquered Ladakh from 1834 and Baltistan in 1840 in the name of the Lahore Durbar. After his brothers' deaths he was the most powerful man in the hills.
In the First Anglo-Sikh War he stayed aloof and acted as intermediary with the British. By the Treaty of Amritsar in March 1846 he paid them seventy-five lakh rupees and received Kashmir and the hill country as an independent maharaja under British protection. To the Sikhs he was the man who sold the kingdom. His Dogra dynasty ruled Jammu and Kashmir until 1947.
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Chief minister of the Sikh Empire for 25 years and the most powerful man at court after Ranjit Singh. Assassinated in 1843.
Dogra general who led armies across the high Himalaya: Ladakh from 1834, Baltistan in 1840 and western Tibet in 1841, where he was killed at To-yo in the snows.
American-Scottish adventurer and colonel of artillery at Lahore, remembered for his tartan turban.
In the world's museums
5 objects
Raja Gulab Singh (altNational Army Museum, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗
Gulab Singhca. 1850 - ca. 1870 · Lahore© Victoria and Albert Museum, London ↗
Raja Gulab Singh (1792–1857) of Jammu and Kashmirc. 1830–40 · Northern India, Pahari kingdomsCleveland Museum of Art ↗
Portrait of Gulab Singh Dogra.V&A, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗
Gulab Singh (1792-1857) was a member of the Hindu Dogra family who served under…V&A, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗