1 Administration of Ranjit Singh. 119
2 which we found the Maharaja himself waiting to
3 receive us. After a friendly embrace, he led us to
4 the upper end of the hall, and seated us on golden
5 chairs opposite to himself. Kajah Sher Singh was
6 seated on his right hand, and Rajah Hira Singh, his
7 Minister's son, upon his left, the only two individuals
8 who are allowed a seat in his presence on public
9 occasions, with the exception of his son and heir,
10 Kharak Singh, though in private that privilege is
11 sometimes accorded to the three gurus, or priests,
12 who act as his spiritual advisers. The floor was
13 covered with rich shawl carpets, and a gorgeous
14 shawl canopy, embroidered with gold and precious
15 stones, supported on golden pillars, covered three
16 parts of the hall.
17 " The coup d'ceil was most striking ; every walk in
18 the garden was lined with troops, and the whole
19 space behind the throne was crowded with Ranjit's
20 chiefs, mingled with natives from Kandahar, Kabul,
21 and Afghanistan, blazing with gold and jewels, and
22 dressed and armed in every conceivable variety of
23 colour and fashion. Cross-legged in a golden chair,
24 dressed in simple white, wearing no ornaments but
25 a string of enormous pearls round the waist and the
26 celebrated Koh-i-nur, or mountain of light, on his
27 arm — the jewel rivalled if not surpassed in brilliancy
28 by the glance of fire which every now and then shot
29 from his single eye as it wandered restlessly around
30 the circle — sat the lion of Lahore." *
31 No political business of any importance was trans-
32 1 Court and Camj) of Ravjeet Singh, by Hon. W, Gr. Osborne,
33 pp. 71-2.