Qila Gujar Singh
Encyclopedia
Qila Gujar Singh is a town located in the central part of Lahore
. As shown by name it was the fort of Gujjar Singh Banghi
. Some walls and a gate still remains as a memory of the Gujar Singh's fort. All the area of fort has became local property. There is a busy market in streets of Qila Gujar Singh area. It is surrounded by Police line, Lahore Hotel, TV station & Radio station.
came to power in 1799, Lahore and its environs were ruled by a triumvirate of Sikhs which included Gujjar Singh Bhangi as one of the chieftains.
The rule of these three Sikh chieftains started when Ahmed Shah Abdali began to lose ground inside his own base and decided to give Lahore to a sardar named Lehna Singh. Lehna Singh teamed up with two other Sikh chieftains to secure the environs around Lahore in 1765 and that is how the triumvirate of Lehna Singh, Suba Singh and Gujjar Singh came to occupy power in and around Lahore.
Gujjar Singh was the son of a cultivator of modest means, Nattha Singh. Strong and well built, Gujjar Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of his maternal grandfather Gurbakhsh Singh Roranvala, who presented him with a horse and recruited him a member of his band. For thirty long years he, along with Lehna Singh and Suba Singh, ruled supreme and kept paying the Afghan invader and his offspring an annual sum to keep them at bay.
The Lahore Fort and the Walled City and its gates went to Lehna Singh. He was, for formal purposes, the governor of Lahore, and was so recognized. To Suba Singh went the area to the south of the Walled City, and he resided in the garden of Zubaida Begum in Nawankot, where he built a small fort for himself. The area between Amritsar and Lahore, or more correctly between the Shalamar Gardens and Lahore, went to Gujjar Singh. Gujjar Singh erected that part of the city, then a jungle and invited people to settle there. He also dug wells to supply water. A mosque was also built for the Muslims in the area. He also built himself a small fort called Qila Gujjar Singh. Today, a few walls of that old fort can be seen in a street between today’s Nicholson Road and Empress Road, and the area is still called Qila Gujjar Singh.
On a final note, their rule ended when Ranjit Singh besieged the Lahore Fort in 1799 and the three chieftains fled, leaving the city firmly in the hands of the young man from Gujranwala.
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. As shown by name it was the fort of Gujjar Singh Banghi
Gujjar Singh Banghi
Sardar Gujjar Singh Bangahi was a great Sikh warrior. He was the one of triumvirate who ruled over Lahore for thirty years before Ranjeet Singh Gujjar Singh was son of a cultivator of modest mean, Nattha Singh trong and well built, Gujjar Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of his...
. Some walls and a gate still remains as a memory of the Gujar Singh's fort. All the area of fort has became local property. There is a busy market in streets of Qila Gujar Singh area. It is surrounded by Police line, Lahore Hotel, TV station & Radio station.
History
About 30 years before Maharaja Ranjit SinghRanjit Singh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...
came to power in 1799, Lahore and its environs were ruled by a triumvirate of Sikhs which included Gujjar Singh Bhangi as one of the chieftains.
The rule of these three Sikh chieftains started when Ahmed Shah Abdali began to lose ground inside his own base and decided to give Lahore to a sardar named Lehna Singh. Lehna Singh teamed up with two other Sikh chieftains to secure the environs around Lahore in 1765 and that is how the triumvirate of Lehna Singh, Suba Singh and Gujjar Singh came to occupy power in and around Lahore.
Gujjar Singh was the son of a cultivator of modest means, Nattha Singh. Strong and well built, Gujjar Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of his maternal grandfather Gurbakhsh Singh Roranvala, who presented him with a horse and recruited him a member of his band. For thirty long years he, along with Lehna Singh and Suba Singh, ruled supreme and kept paying the Afghan invader and his offspring an annual sum to keep them at bay.
The Lahore Fort and the Walled City and its gates went to Lehna Singh. He was, for formal purposes, the governor of Lahore, and was so recognized. To Suba Singh went the area to the south of the Walled City, and he resided in the garden of Zubaida Begum in Nawankot, where he built a small fort for himself. The area between Amritsar and Lahore, or more correctly between the Shalamar Gardens and Lahore, went to Gujjar Singh. Gujjar Singh erected that part of the city, then a jungle and invited people to settle there. He also dug wells to supply water. A mosque was also built for the Muslims in the area. He also built himself a small fort called Qila Gujjar Singh. Today, a few walls of that old fort can be seen in a street between today’s Nicholson Road and Empress Road, and the area is still called Qila Gujjar Singh.
The three hakeems
The three chieftains cooperated very closely with one another, and often they would have parties in which dancing women, or ‘nautch girls’ as the British liked to call them, entertained them. In these sessions, opium smoking was the norm. When asked why they used this drug, they laughed it off as a medicine recommended by hakeems. Thus they began to be called the three hakeems, a name that stuck to them.On a final note, their rule ended when Ranjit Singh besieged the Lahore Fort in 1799 and the three chieftains fled, leaving the city firmly in the hands of the young man from Gujranwala.