Thread by @meemainseen

*City Secret*
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Maharaja's Bloodline
A Queen's Grave on Jail Road
A Princess' Collection
and other stories

Where Jail Road meets Zafar Ali road, there in Gulberg Christian Graveyard is a tombstone in three languages
English, Urdu and Persian
A princess rests here in peace

Bamba Sofia Jindan, later Bamba Sutherland was the eldest daughter of Duleep Singh, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sher e Punjab
Outliving all her siblings, she died on Mar 10, 1957 at Lahore and was buried in Gulberg Christian Graveyard

We have more to our story

A little south west of Thetford on the fringes of County of Suffolk, in the cemetery of Elveden Estate once owned by Duleep Singh C.C.S.I. our exiled Maharaja of Lahore now rests in peace with his wife Maharanee Bamba and younger son Edward
He breathed his last on Oct 22, 1893

The year was 1843 when Prince Duleep Singh ascended the Sikh throne at the age of six
He was Ranjit Singh's son from Rani Jind Kaur
In 1849 British annexed Punjab and Duleep Singh removed from throne separated from his mother was sent to U.P. under guardianship of Sir John Login

Baptized a Christian, granted a pension he was sent to England
Brought up under the patronage of Queen Victoria he raised Elveden Estate in Suffolk
Towards last days he desperately maneuvered to reclaim the lost kingdom but that's a different story
A broken man, he died in Paris

His marriage to Bamba Muller, daughter of a European Merchant bore him 6 children
The first died in infancy in 1865, Frederick Victor (1868 - 1926), Bamba Jindan (1869 -1957), Catherine Hilda (1871-1942), Sophia Alexandrovna (1876 -1948) and Albert Edward (1879-1893)

Princess Bamba was born in London and grew up at Elveden Estate
A graduate of Somerville College at Oxford, socially active in Victorian England she advocated and backed women's right to vote
Conscious of of her royal lineage she inherited love of Lahore from her father

Bamba eventually settled at Lahore in Model Town (so they say), married Dr. David Walters Sutherland (principal King Edward)
She died a widow, issue-less like her other siblings
Bloodline of the Last Maharaja of Lahore ended that March morning of 1957
Our story does not end here

One of the languages on Princess Bamba's gravestone is Persian, the court language in Ranjit Singh's darbar
On her gravestone where the couplets end, finely etched in marble is a name Munshi Karim Bakhsh Supra
A learned man fluent in Persian hired by the Princess, so we are told

Princess Bamba did not inherit Kingdom of Punjab but she kept a treasure trove of priceless collectibles
Paintings, artifacts, documents and illustrations from Sikh darbar
These upon her death went to Mr Supra, a man worthy of our gratitude who sold these to Govt of Pakistan

Dr F. A. Khan of Dept of Archaeology in his 1961 booklet “The Princess Bamba Collection" gives us a rundown of these collectibles
"The collection consists of 18 oil paintings, 14 water colors, 22 ivory paintings, 17 photographs, 10 metallic objects & 7 miscellaneous articles"

Majority of paintings in the collection were the work of European artists, particularly August Schoefft
These collectibles with a direct bearing on the house of Ranjit Singh are a precious chapter of our Sikh heritage
Princess Bamba's Collection is on display at Lahore Fort

Another priceless gem in this collection is a portrait of Emperor Bahadur Shah, The Last King of Delhi
Oil on Canvas 5' x 3'6" by August Schoefft
The same painting, dear reader, that was revived by @DalrympleWill as the cover to his magnificent book 'The Last Mughal'

Coming back to our Jail Road grave
Princess Bamba moved by Persian later in her life had chosen a couplet as her epitaph
Munshi Karim Bakhsh Supra got it inscribed on her tombstone

فرق شاہی وبندگی برخاست
چوں قضائے نوشتہ آید پیش
گر کسے خاک مردہ باز کند
نہ شناسد تونگر از درویش

The difference of royalty and servility vanishes
As the decree of death is dispatched
If one digs open the dead from dirt
Who will be able to discern rich from poor!