Maharajah Ranjit Singh is recognized as a great king and ruler of Punjab, but one is apt to overlook his foibles as far as women are concerned. The important point is that he maintained a ‘harem in the Muslim tradition. More important it went against the tenets of the Sikh faith as laid down by Guru Nanak. Not withstanding this Ranjit was a great king but he was overtly fond of women.
How many women were part of his harem? Their number is 46 which is not an insignificant number. He was also a devout Sikh and often prayed at
Ranjit also had a band of 125 of the choicest women as his court dancers led by a Kashmiri girl with blue eyes. The girls were picked up young and were the exclusive property of Ranjit singh.Ranjit was fond of wine, aphrodisiacs to give him greater sexual potency. In fact even when he was sick he insisted on sleeping with Rani Jindan Kaur who was his youngest wife and she was with child when he died in 1838.
This aspect of Ranjit Singhs life has not been written or researched by historians who have dwelt on the other qualities of Ranjit Singh as a soldier and statesman which were prodigious. On can temporize and say that Ranjit was like other Indian kings, no better and no worse as far as women was concerned.
