Ranbir Singh

Maharajah Ranbir Singh of Jammu and Kashmir

Ranbir Singh,(Urdu; رنبیر سنگھ) CIE (August 1830 – 12 September 1885) was the son of Maharaja Gulab Singh, Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and head of the Jamwal Rajput clan.

The trans-Himalayan territories of Gilgit, Astore, Hunza-Nagar were conquered and made part of Jammu and Kashmir in his time. He was noted as a great scholar of classical Persian, and was also learned in Swedish and English. Maharaja Ranbir Singh established a Translation Bureau called "Daarul Tarjumah" under the patronage of a learned Hakim of Turkish Afghan ancestry, Agha (Hakim) Muhammad Baqir who also happened to be the Chief Physician to the Maharaja. It was under this bureau that Maharaja Ranbir Singh got "Tibb-e-Unaani" translated from Arabic and Latin into Persian and Dogri.^[1]

Family

Singh married five times and had six children, four sons:

1. Pratap Singh (18 July 1848 – 23 September 1925). Succeeded his father as Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in 1885.
2. Ram Singh, KCB (31 May 1861 – 22 June 1899); issue
3. Amar Singh, KCSI (14 January 1864 – 1909). Married twice and had one son:
   1. Hari Singh (30 September 1895 – 26 April 1961). Succeeded his uncle as Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir in 1925.
4. Mian Lakshman Singh (1870–1875)

and two daughters.

References