On the 180th death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the\nlegendary ruler of Punjab, a statue was unveiled at the Lahore Fort on\nThursday. Around 500 people crossed the Wagah border to attend the unveiling\nevent. The main ceremony will take place on Saturday at Gurdwara Dera Sahib.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sculpture is the result of collaboration between Fakir\nKhana Museum and Sarkar Khalsa Foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fakir Syed Saifuddin, whose ancestors were emissaries of the\nMaharaja, runs the prestigious museum. He said the idea was mooted about 15\nyears ago when U.K.-based Bobby Singh Bansal, chairperson of the S.K.\nFoundation, came to Pakistan and agreed to sponsor the sculpture. But many\nyears passed before the idea became a reality. \u201cIt was a very lengthy and\ntiring process \u2014 from getting permission from the government to commissioning\nthe sculpture \u2014 but it was worth it,\u201d Mr. Saifuddin told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that while India has many statues of the famous\nMaharaja and this will be his first sculpture in Pakistan\u201cthis is by far the\nbest sculpture when it comes to expressions, anatomy and overall look.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMr. Saifuddin asked three artistes \u2014 Salman, Burhan and Zark \u2014 to design it.\nTwo of them are students of the National College of Arts in Lahore and\nRawalpindi, while Mr. Zark works with Mr. Saifuddin and has studied from Naqsh\nSchool of Arts. \u201cThis took eight months to make,\u201d said Mr. Saifuddin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Saifuddin spoke of how they selected the horse. A model\nof Ashq-e-Laila, the Maharaja\u2019s famous horse, would have overshadowed the\npersonality of the Maharaja himself, who was just 5-feet, 5-inches tall. So the\nsculptors chose a horse called Kahir Bahar, gifted to the Maharaja by Dost\nMohammad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that our people don\u2019t know anything about\nMaharaja Ranjit Singh who made the Punjab State \u2014 from Lahore to Kabul, Punjab\nunder Maharaja Ranjit Singh was an extremely prosperous and developed State,\u201d\nlamented Mr. Saifuddin, who said Mr. Bansal wants to now commission the\nsculptures of other icons like Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala and Hari Singh Nalwa\nthrough the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kamran Lashari, Director General Walled City of Lahore\nAuthority, said that their basic objective is to promote religious tourism,\nwhich is in line with the present government\u2019s policy as well. Kartarpur\nCorridor is one such initiative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaharaja Ranjit Singh\u2019s sculpture is a small step in that\ndirection. Lahore Fort and its vicinity have his footprints all around… He\nfigures very prominently in the history and culture of Punjab,\u201d Mr. Lashari\ntold.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, an admirer of the Maharaja, said Ranjit Singh\u2019s governance reforms, especially land reforms, were \u201cthe most practical reforms made by any ruler… He was also extremely wise to call French Generals to train his army \u2014 which was a very progressive decision,\u201dhe told<\/p>\n\n\n\n About Lahore<\/strong> On the 180th death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the legendary ruler of Punjab, a statue was unveiled at the Lahore Fort on Thursday. Around 500 people crossed the Wagah border to attend the unveiling event. The main ceremony will take place on Saturday at Gurdwara Dera Sahib. The sculpture is the result of collaboration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-2902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-punjab-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2904,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions\/2904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lahore has rich cultural and religious diversity for centuries and Ranjit Singh was one important part of it.
Around 465 Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit Lahore at Gurudwara Dera Sahib the funerary urns of Ranjit Singh.
It commemorates the 180th death anniversary of the Sikh ruler.
Fakir Khana Museum launched 180 limited edition bust sculptures of the Maharaja.
It is done for art connoisseurs in the history of Punjab. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"