Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Baradari (Summer Palace), Dinanagar

Dinanagar was founded in 1730 by Adina Beg as his residence and cantonment on the Hansli canal. After his death in 1758 it passed to the Sikh Bagga sardars of the Kanhaya Misl, and then came under the Lahore Darbar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh built a baradari close to the Hansli canal, in the middle of a garden among mango groves. The two-storeyed building takes its name from its 12 (bara) gates (dar). He made Dinanagar his summer capital, spending May and June here each year to escape the heat of Lahore, holding his durbar and drilling his troops. He also made the town a cantonment, and the baradari housed a 200-man infantry unit and artillery. The baradari was also a place of diplomacy. In 1838 Ranjit Singh received Sir William Macnaghten here, sent from Shimla by the British to settle the plan to place Shah Shuja ul-Mulk on the throne of Kabul. The Sikh support finalized at these meetings led to the British campaign in Afghanistan that year. After the annexation of Punjab in 1849, Dinanagar became the headquarters of the new Adinanagar district. Within months the civil officers moved to Batala, because Dinanagar was thought unhealthy, and by 1852 the town was part of Gurdaspur district.