Shah Mohammad
Muslim poet whose Jangnama laments the fall of the Sikh kingdom in the First Anglo-Sikh War as Punjab's own loss.
In their words
Famous linesਸ਼ਾਹ ਮੁਹੰਮਦਾ ਇੱਕ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਬਾਝੋਂ, ਫ਼ੌਜਾਂ ਜਿੱਤ ਕੇ ਅੰਤ ਨੂੰ ਹਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੇ।
شاہ مہمدا اک سرکار باجھوں، فوجاں جت کے انت نوں ہاریاں نے۔
Shah Mohammad, for want of one true government, the armies that had won were beaten in the end.
Jangnama, on the first Anglo-Sikh war (1846)
Shah Mohammad was born around 1780 at Wadala Viram near Amritsar, a Muslim poet who lived through the Sikh Empire and its fall.
His Jangnama, or Var Shah Mohammad, written soon after 1846, describes the First Anglo-Sikh War in some 105 stanzas. It is a lament for the Sikh kingdom as Punjab's own: it mourns the death of Ranjit Singh, blames the court intrigues and the traitors who led the army to defeat, and praises the courage of the Khalsa soldiers. Its famous line says that the war between the Sikhs and the British was a war of Hind and Punjab.
It is still recited by dhadis and is one of the most important Punjabi sources for the war. He died around 1862.
Connected
Sher-e-Punjab, the Lion of Punjab. United the misls into the Sikh Empire, ruled from Lahore for forty years and covered the Harmandir Sahib in gold.
Veteran general who, dressed in white, rode into the British lines at Sobraon and died with his men.