Gujjar Singh Bhangi

Sardar Gujjar Singh Bhangi was a Sikh warrior of the Bhangi Misl, and one of the triumvirates who ruled over Lahore prior to the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Biography

Bhangi hailed from a village near Khemkaran, India. His father Natha Singh chechi was a Gujjar Sikh farmer. He, along with his three brothers, was baptised to Sikhism in his teenage by his maternal grandfather Gurbakhsh Singh. He established a fortress, Qila Gujar Singh, just east of present-day Lahore, and also completed the construction of a mosque.
Gujjar Singh's maternal grandfather was Sardar Gurbaksh Singh of village Roranwala in Amritsar and his mother daughter of Gurbaksh, one of the known Sikh warriors under the Bhangi Misl then led by Sardar Hari Singh Bhangi.
Sardar Gurbaksh Singh had adopted as his son a young runaway, Sardar Lehna Singh Kahlon of village Mustfapur, near Kartarpur, Jalandhar. The young man grew up to be a great fighter and military commander of the Bhangi Misl.
Gujjar and his adopted uncle split Gurbaksh Singh's inheritance of 40 villages taking half each, with Lehna keeping Roranwala and Gujjar founding a new village Rangarh in Amritsar where his descendants may be found.
The two sardars took Lahore on April 16, 1765, with Lehna taking Lahore Fort and Gujjar building his own fort Qila Gujjar Singh in his part of the city – a third share was given to Sardar Soba Singh Sandhu of village Kanha, known as Kanhaiya.
Gujjar made Gujrat his capital in 1765 after defeating its chief Muqarrab Khan Gakhar and in 1766 marched and conquered Jammu.
Lehna Singh Kahlon was to take Multan in 1772, but Gujjar being much more restless and a great warrior embarked on conquest of north west Punjab taking towns such as Gujrat as well as Rawalpindi and many towns to Attock, some places he conquered with help of his best friend Sardar Charat Singh Sukarchakia, grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, with whom he contracted a marriage alliance with his second son Sahib marrying Charat's daughter, Raj Kaur.