Maharaja Gulab Singh

Maharaja Gulab Singh (1792-1857) of Jammu (later Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir), left, sits kneeling, facing his third son, Ranbir Singh, who kneels before him. Gulab Singh was a member of the Hindu Dogra family who served under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the first Sikh ruler of the Panjab, the region now divided between India and Pakistan. Gulab Singh was a fine soldier, and was allowed by Ranjit Singh to succeed his father as ruler of Jammu in 1822. Following Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the unity of the kingdom rapidly disintegrated, and Gulab Singh began to misappropriate the revenues of the territories assigned to his care. He finally passed on military intelligence to the British on the eve of the first Anglo-Sikh war (1845-46). After the British victory he was given control of all the hill country and its dependencies between the rivers Indus and Ravi. He became a British vassal whose supremacy he acknowledged.