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Maharani Jindan’s headstone finds
place in museum
many Sikhs visit
WSN Network
 LONDON:
A broken headstone that marked the temporary grave like structure
raised to the memory of Maharani Jindan has found a permanent place
at the Ancient House Museum, Thetford, and will now be a part of the
showcased Anglo-Sikh heritage.
Maharani Jindan
was mother of Maharajah Duleep Singh. Many tourists throng the west
Suffolk
and the south Norfolk town every year to pay homage to the last
Maharajah of the
Punjab
and
Britain's first Sikh settler, who lived at Elveden Hall. Duleep
Singh was buried at the village church and has a statue in nearby
Thetford.
Harbinder Singh,
director of the Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail, has said the gravestone
of the Maharajah's mother, who died in
London in 1863,
would add to the town's popularity among the UK's Sikh community.
The stone was a chance discovery of
Lahore's
headstone in the catacombs at Kensal Green Dissenters Chapel,
northwest London, during a restoration project in 2006 had stunned
historians and was "highly significant" for Anglo-Sikh heritage.
Oliver Bone,
curator of Ancient House, said the 2ftx2ft stone was a fitting
addition to the museum because the building owed its existence to
the Maharani's grandson, Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, who gave the
Tudor townhouse to the people of Thetford in the 1920s.
Maharani Jindan
Kaur was the beautiful wife of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. She gave
birth to Duleep Singh in 1838, who at the age of six became
Maharajah of the
Punjab.
But when the
British annexed the region in 1849, the most powerful woman in
northern
India was sent into exile and her son was shipped off to
England
to live the life of a British aristocrat.
The Maharani was
eventually reunited with Duleep Singh in 1861 and was permitted to
enter
England. She died two years later in Kensington,
London.
She was entombed at the old chapel at Kensal Green until her son
arranged for her body to return home in the spring of 1864 and was
cremated at Nasik in Bombay.
The Maharajah
Duleep Singh, who was a favourite of Queen Victoria, bought Elveden
Hall, near Thetford, in 1863. He died 30 years later in Paris.
19
March 2008
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