Chand Kaur

Maharani Chand Kaur
Maharani Chand Kaur of the Sikh Empire.
Reign	5 November 1840– 18 January 1841 (2 months & 13 days)
Coronation	2 December 1840 Lahore Fort, Lahore
Born	1802 Fatehgarh Churian,Sikh Empire, now Gurdaspur district, Punjab, India
Died	11 June 1842 (aged 40) Lahore, Sikh Empire, now Punjab, Pakistan
Spouse	Kharak Singh
Issue	Nau Nihal Singh
Father	Sardar Jaimal Singh
Religion	Sikhism

Maharani Chand Kaur (1802 – 11 June 1842) was briefly regent of the Sikh Empire. She was the wife of Maharaja Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, her only son.

In 1840 Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh were assassinated and, on the grounds that Nau Nihal Singh's widow Sahib Kaur was pregnant, Chand Kaur staked her claim as regent for the unborn successor to the throne. She remained regent for approximately two-and-a-half months, from 5 November 1840 to 18 January 1841, but abandoned her claim when Sahib Kaur delivered a stillborn son.

She was awarded a pension of 900,000 rupees and for a while lived in her late son's palace in Lahore. However her enemies still saw her as a threat and she was battered to death by her servants on 11 June 1842.

Chand Kaur was born in 1802 in Fatehgarh Churian in the Gurdaspur District of Punjab. Her father was Sardar Jaimal Singh, chief of the Kanhaiya Misl. In February 1812, at the age of ten, she married Raja Kharak Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Their son, Nau Nihal Singh, was born on 23 February 1821 and in March 1837 he married Sahib Kaur, daughter of Sham Singh Atarivala.

After the death of Ranjit Singh on 27 June 1839, Kharak Singh was appointed as his successor and Raja Dhian Singh Dogra as his wazir (vizier). The new Maharaja only ruled for a few months until October 1839, when he was overthrown in a coup by his son, Nau Nihal Singh, and Dhian Singh. He was imprisoned at Lahore until his death in November 1840 from slow poisoning. Contemporary chroniclers suggest that the poison had been administered under Dhiān Siṅgh's orders.

Returning from the cremation of his father on 5 November, Nau Nihal Singh went through the gate of the Hazuri Bagh with his companion Udam Singh, son of Gulab Singh, and Dhian Singh's nephew. As they passed through the gate stones fell from above, killing Udam Singh and injuring the prince. Dhian Singh, who was a few steps behind, immediately arranged for the prince to be taken into the fort. Nobody else was allowed into the fort, not even his mother, Chand Kaur, who beat on the fort gates with her bare hands in a fever of anxiety. Eyewitnesses stated that before he was taken into the fort the prince appeared to be only slightly injured, was conscious and asked for water. However, when his mother and friends were allowed in to see him, he was dead with severe injuries to his head.