Tarikh-i-Panjab

Tarikh-i-Panjab , by Pandit Debt Prasad, is a book in Urdu delineating the history of the Punjab in two parts:

• Part one covering the period from the time of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to the British conquest of the Punjab in 1849.
• Part two containing a detailed account of the two decades from 1849 to 1870, which was added in the second edition.

In fact the first part had been completed in 1850 while the author was still a student at Bareilly College, Bareilly, and the first edition of the book was published in the same year.

The author, who joined government service, later revised and supplemented the work adding the second part. This second edition was published by Nawal Kishore Press, Lucknow, in 1872. Original copies of the book are preserved in the Panjab University Library, Lahore, Punjab State Archives, Patiala, Central Library, Varanasi and the British Library, London. The Punjabi translation of the text was published by Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1979, under the title, GulshaniPanjab.

The author has made a comprehensive study of the Punjab at the beginning of the twentieth century. The book offers much useful information on many aspects of the history of the Sikhs as well as of the early years of British rule in the Punjab.

References

1. Fauja Singh, ed., Gulshan-i-Panjab. Patiala, 1979

2. Madanjit Kaur, "Some Sidelights on the Personality Traits and the Internal Government of Maharaja Ranjit Singh", The Panjab Past and Present. Patiala, April 1981