page_title: Nau Nihal Singh
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Nau Nihal Singh / Death
caption_attribution_description: Grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Nau Nihal Singh's haveli, now Victoria Girls High School, Lahore.
context_page_description: Maharaja Nau Nihal Singh was a ruler of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent.
context_section_description: Nau Nihal was popular with the royal courtiers and the general public, and was seen as a worthy successor to his father during the latter's sickness. After Kharak Singh died on 5 November 1840, Nau Nihal performed his last rites beside the Ravi River in Lahore. After the ceremony, he started returning to the palace via the Hazuri Bagh, where a massive block of stone from a gate fell upon him and two of his companions. One of the companions - who was a nephew of the prime minister Dhian Singh - died instantly.
  According to Alexander Gardner, who was just steps behind Nau Nihal when the incident took place, the prince had sustained only minor injuries during this episode: he was well enough to walk on his own, and agreed to be taken on a stretcher only because of Gardner's insistence. However, when the court physician Johann Martin Honigberger came to attend Nau Nihal in a tent, he observed that the prince's skull had been crushed, and the bedsheet was covered with blood and brain tissue. Dhian Singh insisted that the prince had suffered these injuries during the alleged accident in Hazuri Bagh. Nau Nihal died hours later, although the courtiers did not make this news public until three days later in an attempt to avoid panic. According to Gardner, five artillery men had carried Nau Nihal from Hazuri Bagh to the tent: two of these men died under mysterious circumstances, two went on leave and never re-joined the service, and one disappeared without explanation.
  Nau Nihal was cremated on 9 November 1840, and two of his teenage wives died on his funeral pyre as per the sati custom. His eldest wife, who was pregnant, was spared from sati. Another 12-year old wife was spared from sati because of her young age, after the intervention of Nau Nihal's uncle Sher Singh.
caption: The Haveli of Nau Nihal Singh is located in Lahore, Pakistan.
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