Name: Harjit
City/Village: -
Immigrated to: New Delhi
Message: In early 1837, there was a celebratory atmosphere in the Sikh Kingdom, the Maharaja’s grandson, Nau Nihal Singh, was getting married. His bride-to-be was from the Attariwala family—an old established family in the Punjab. The family inherited its name from the village they inhabited—Attari—situated at a distance of about nine miles from Amritsar.
On 26 February 1837, the royal standards departed from Lahore for Amritsar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh had made Lahore his capital city after he had taken possession of it in 1799. Before this, Gujranwala was Ranjit Singh’s headquarters. Amritsar, about thirty miles eastward of Lahore, was said to be the largest city in the Punjab. Its shrine, the Harmandir Sahib covered in gold by the Maharaja, now known more popularly as the Golden Temple, was a place of pilgrimage for every Sikh. A Frenchman visiting the Sikh Kingdom had referred to the city of Amritsar as the ‘Rome of Punjab’ (Jacquemont?).
