When Ranjit Singh wanted to send the Koh-i-noor to Jagannath: An English artist writes

In the late 1830s, in north India, the artist and writer Emily Eden was fascinated by Sikhs – both royalty and commoners. She visited Sikh religious sites and experienced the hospitality of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Emily and her younger sister Frances (Fanny) accompanied their brother George, Lord Auckland, India’s newly appointed governor-general, on his progress across north India, from October 1837 to December 1838. Occasional mentions of Sikhs continue to appear in her correspondence till at least November 1839.

When Lord Auckland and his sisters met Ranjit Singh in December 1838, they probably knew little of the Sikhs’ distinctive religious and martial heritage.

Luckily there were interpreters, and Emily had a sharp intellect, acute powers of observation, liberal Whig values and a lively curiosity about people. She also had a keen sense of humour. She journalled and painted assiduously and prolifically.

Among nineteenth-century Western sources on Sikh history, historians have usually drawn on the more formal accounts published by male authors. The journals and letters of women, as well as their sketches and paintings, have been largely overlooked. So, consideration is overdue of Emily Eden’s insights into interactions between Sikhs and the British a decade before their annexation of Punjab.

In particular, for the encounters between Maharaja Ranjit Singh...

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