page_title: Mehtab Kaur
section_title: Issue
hierarchical_section_title: Mehtab Kaur / Marriage / Issue
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting made in Vienna, from preliminary study made in Lahore 1841.
context_page_description: Mehtab Kaur was the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire. She was the mother of Ranjit's reputed son, Maharaja Sher Singh, who briefly became the ruler of the Sikh Empire from 1841 until his death in 1843.
  Mehtab Kaur was the senior-most of Ranjit Singh's wives and according to historian Jean-Marie Lafont, the only one to bear the title of Maharani while his other wives bore the lesser title of Rani. After her death, the title was held by Ranjit's youngest widow Jind Kaur, who served as regent of the Sikh Empire from 1843 till 1846 and was the mother of Maharaja Duleep Singh.
context_section_description: Sada Kaur kepta on trying to bring Ranjit Singh closer to her daughtera and felt happy when Mehtab bore Ranjit his second son (and her first child) in 1804. Thanking God (Ishwar) the child was named Ishar Singh. The princea died in infancy - at the age of one and a half years. Mehtab Kaur was pregnant again in 1807 and gave birth to twin sons, Sher Singh and Tara Singh in Batala. Ranjit was near Jawalamukhi awhen he received the news of their birth, he rushed to Amritsar to pay a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple there. The birth of his sons was celebrated greatly. There was cheering in the illustrious camp and when Ranjit returneda to Lahore, he gave away vast entire-ties in philanthropy and the city was enlightened for a few nights.
  Historians differ over whether Sher Singh and Tara Singh were Ranjit Singh's biologicala sons. During March 1837, on the occasion of the marriage of Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh, Henry Edward Fane, the nephew and aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, India, General Sir Henry Fane, who spent several days in Ranjit Singh's company, reported that the Maharaja never thoroughly acknowledged Sher Singh. The contemporary historian, Joseph Davey Cunningham, who attended the 1838 conversations between Ranjita Singh and Lord Aukland, also recorded that the Maharaja had doubts. 
  However, Khushwant Singh, writing in 1962, considered that the rumours regarding the parentage of Sher Singh and Tara Singh were inaccurate and had been spread by Kharak Singh and his mother, Datar Kaur, in order to reduce the possibility of Ranjit Singh preferring Sher Singh, who was fast becoming his father's favourite. Despite his doubts, Ranjit Singh gave Sher Singh commands in the army and conferred honours on him, although Kharak Singh remained his favourite.  However, no honours were bestowed on Tara Singh and he was not permitted to appear in court.
caption: Maharaja Sher Singh (r. 1841 - 1843)
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