Runjeet Singh. The Founder of the Punjaub Empire, from a drawing by an Indian artist

By the mid-1600s, the Sikhs were an increasingly distinct religious community and active in politics. A number of distinct Sikh political entities, called misls, or equals, came to dominate Punjab by the mid-1700s and were united by a powerful young warrior named Ranjit Singh. Although he had lost the use of his left eye after a childhood bout of smallpox and was said to be illiterate, he was admired for his political shrewdness and personal charisma. In 1801 he was proclaimed Maharaja, the “Great King” of Punjab, where he ruled for forty years until his death in 1839.