Ranbir Singh

Ranbir Singh
Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir
Reign	30 June 1857 - 12 September 1885
Predecessor	Gulab Singh
Successor	Pratap Singh
Born	(1830-08-00)August 1830 Jammu, Kashmir and Jammu, British Raj
Died	12 September 1885(1885-09-12) (aged 55)
Issue	Maharaja Pratap Singh I of Jammu and Kashmir
House	Dogra
Father	Maharaja Gulab Singh I of Jammu and Kashmir
Mother	Rani Rakwal
Religion	Hinduism[1]

Memorial Shrines for Gulab Singh and Ranbir Singh, Jammu, India, ca.1875-ca.1940

Ranbir Singh, 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.^[2]

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

Bibliography

• Rai, Mridu (2004), Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, C. Hurst & Co, ISBN 1850656614