with the English over the Cis-Sutlej question, he thought it necessary to conciliate his terrible mother-in-law who had the Rámgarhia barons at her back, and acknowledged the boys, treating them as his own and allowing them the title of Prince. One of them, Tara Singh, was an idiot; the other, Sher Singh, grew up an exceedingly handsome, brave and stupid man, and succeeded to the throne after the death of Nao Nihál Singh, but was assassinated in 1843 by the Sindhanwalia chiefs.
The second wife of the Mahárájá was Ráj Kour, the daughter of Rám Singh, a Nakkai chief. She was married in 1798, and four years later gave birth to Kharak Singh, who was the only child, legitimate or illegitimate, by a wife or a slave-girl, ever born to Ranjít Singh. Kharak Singh succeeded his father without opposition, but was a man of weak intellect and was no more than a puppet in the hands of his ambitious son, Nao Nihál Singh, and the intriguing Rájás of Jammu, who poisoned him when they had had enough of him. Nao Nihál Singh, in his turn, was assassinated as he was returning from his father's cremation.
The other wives were of less importance. One, whom the Mahárájá married in 1833, in orthodox fashion and with great splendour, was a courtesan named Gul Begam of Amritsar city. When still a young man, in 1806, a yet more famous woman of the same professional courtesan class, named Morán, obtained great influence over him, and Ranjít Singh
