Ratan Singh Bhangu was a Sikh historian and Nihang who wrote about the Sikhs' struggles and rise to power in North India, in his book Prachin Panth Prakash.[1][2] This work describes how the Sikh people came to dominate Punjab in the 1700s and remains one of the few historical accounts of the era.[3][4]
Rattan Singh was likely born in 1785 and passed in 1846.[5] His grandfather, Mehtab Singh Bhangu, was a famous Sikh warrior who assassinated Massa Ranghar for defiling Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple.[6][7] He began his work as a historian in 1809, and died in 1846 at the Battle of Sobraon[citation needed].[5] Rattan Singh's father, Rai Singh (d. 1810), would become the founder of Karor Singhnia Misal.[5]
Bhangu is primarily known for his historical text, (Pracheen) Panth Prakash (Gurmukhi: ਪ੍ਰਾਚੀਨ ਪੰਥ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼).[note 1][8] He was approached by the British East India Company who wished to know how the Sikhs rose to power in the Punjab Region. Vir Singh believes the text was completed in 1841.[9] However, Gurinder Mann suggests the work was completed in the early 1810's.[10]Vir Singh is believed to the first to publish the text in 1914.[11] In 2004, Balwant Singh Dhillon published a revised larger version of the text utilizing manuscripts, including the material that was excised in Vir Singh's version.[12] Scholars like Fenech and Harinder Singh have documented the various edits by Vir Singh (writer) in their scholarship, see Bhai Vir Singh’s Editing of Panth Prakāsh by Rattan Singh Bhangu.[13][14]
Bhangu was a member of the ruling Sikh aristocracy and had first-hand knowledge of the struggle and success of the Khalsa. Due to lack of written records at the time, the work was primarily compiled from oral histories, including interviews, family history, and information collected from British and French officers in Punjab. The work describes how the Sikh people successfully came to rule over Punjab. This work remains to this day one of the only historical accounts of the Sikh people during this era.[6] Dhavan writes that Rattan Singh's account "has become one of the foundational sources for Sikh history."[15]
^The original title of the work was 'Panth Prakash', it is not to be confused with a later work with a similar name by Giani Gian Singh, in-which it is differentiated from it by the addition of the word 'Prachin' meaning "old" before the title.
^ abcMann, Gurinder Singh. 2016. 'Sri Guru Panth Prakash: Its text, Context and Significance'. In Journal of Sikh & Punjabi Studies. Volume 23, page 17.
^Mann, Gurinder Singh. 2016. 'Sri Guru Panth Prakash: Its text, Context and Significance'. In Journal of Sikh & Punjabi Studies. Volume 23, page 18.
^Mann, Gurinder Singh. 2016. 'Sri Guru Panth Prakash: Its text, Context and Significance'. In Journal of Sikh & Punjabi Studies. Volume 23, page 15.
^Mann, Gurinder Singh. 2016. 'Sri Guru Panth Prakash: Its text, Context and Significance'. In Journal of Sikh & Punjabi Studies. Volume 23, page 16.
^Balwant Singh Dhillion, Sri Guru Panth Prakāsh. (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 2004).
^Harinder Singh. 1990. “Bhai Vir Singh’s Editing of Panth Prakāsh by Rattan Singh Bhangu.” Ph.D. Thesis. Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University. Page 188.
^Lou Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the “Game of Love.” (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).
^Dhavan, Purnima. 2011. When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799. New York: Oxford University Press. Page 120
