1 CHAPTER V.
2 RISE TO POWER OF RANJIT SINGH.
3 MahakXja RanjIt Singh was born at Gujranwala
4 on November 2, 1780. In his early infancy he was
5 attacked by smallpox in its most virulent form.
6 Huge sums of money were distributed in charity and
7 in gifts to temples and holy men in the hope of
8 averting the doom which threatened him. For many
9 days his life was despaired of, but at length the
10 fever abated, and the iron constitution which in
11 later life stood him in such good stead enabled him
12 to triumph over the disease, though he was left
13 permanently disfigured, and with the loss of his left
14 eye. When Mahan Singh died, the future Lion of
15 the Punjab was but twelve years old, and the affairs
16 of the mist were conducted by his mother, Raj Kour,
17 a woman of weak character and dissolute habits.
18 Ranjit Singh owed little of his future greatness to
19 his early training. His education was utterly
20 neglected, and he grew to manhood without learning
21 either to read or write. All the knowledge he
22 gained in his childhood related to field sports and the
23 art of war, in both of which he displayed the daring
24 and ability which marked his subsequent career.