At age 18, his mother died and Lakhpat Rai was assassinated, and thereon he was helped by his mother-in-law from his first marriage. The first attempt on his life was made when he was 13, by Hashmat Khan, but Ranjit Singh prevailed and killed the assailant instead. He then inherited his father's Sukerchakia Misl estates and was raised by his mother Raj Kaur, who, along with Lakhpat Rai, also managed the estates. However, he was trained at home in horse riding, musketry and other martial arts. He was short in stature, never schooled, and did not learn to read or write anything beyond the Gurmukhi alphabet. Ranjit Singh contracted smallpox as an infant, which resulted in the loss of sight in his left eye and a pockmarked face. The child's name was changed to Ranjit (literally, "victor in battle") Singh ("lion") by his father to commemorate his army's victory over the Chatha chieftain Pir Muhammad. Upon his birth, he was named Buddh Singh after his ancestor who was first in line to take Amrit Sanchaar. His mother Raj Kaur was the daughter of Sikh Raja Gajpat Singh of Jind. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born on 13 November 1780 to Maha Singh and Raj Kaur in Gujranwala, Punjab region (present-day Punjab, Pakistan). Maharaja Ranjit Singh was succeeded by his son Kharak Singh.īirthplace of Ranjit Singh in Gujranwala, Punjab, Pakistan. His legacy includes a period of Sikh cultural and artistic renaissance, including the rebuilding of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar as well as other major gurudwaras, including Takht Sri Patna Sahib, Bihar and Hazur Sahib Nanded, Maharashtra under his sponsorship. His Khalsa army and government included Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and Europeans. Ranjit Singh's reign introduced reforms, modernisation, investment into infrastructure and general prosperity. He repeatedly defeated invasions by outside armies, particularly those arriving from Afghanistan, and established friendly relations with the British. Ranjit Singh successfully absorbed and united the Sikh misls and took over other local kingdoms to create the Sikh Empire. Prior to his rise, the Punjab region had numerous warring misls (confederacies), twelve of which were under Sikh rulers and one Muslim.
His empire grew in the Punjab region under his leadership through 1839. After his father died, he fought several wars to expel the Afghans in his teenage years and was proclaimed as the "Maharaja of Punjab" at age 21.
He fought his first battle alongside his father at age 10. He survived smallpox in infancy but lost sight in his left eye. Maharaja Ranjit Singh (2 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. Cremated remains stored in the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, Lahore