Philanthropy and Institutional Patronage in Multan Province during Late 18th and Early 19th Century

Abstract

The word Philanthropy means charity and Patronage implies support, assurance or consolation of a benefactor, given to a man, penniless, religious celebrities, religious institutions such as Khanqahs, Gurdawara, Dharmsala, tomb or different foundations running under the support or help of the State. Patronage or Philanthropy amid the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth century, to a great extent implied the favour or support gave by the rulers to the individuals who commanded impact with the subject individuals and facilitated them in one way or the other to hold their well-known support. The Dharmarth gifts constituted a noteworthy segment of the State support under the rulers of the Multan Dharmarth. This research covers a time of almost one hundred years from around 1752 to 1849. In its recorded context, this period was isolated into three extensive parts. The initial segment from 1752 to 1818 was set apart from the foundation of an extensive number of realms under the Rajput, Muslim and Sikh rulers who ousted the Mughal and the Afghan control from the Multan and set up themselves as autonomous rulers. The second phase from 1818 to 1839, began with the victory of Multan by Ranjit Singh in 1818 and ended with his death in 1839, who possessed territories of Multan and appointed his governors. The third phase began after Ranjit Singh’s demise in 1839, amid which the successors attempted to keep up the trustworthiness of the kingdom set up by him for a few years, yet inner strife among them prompted to the seizure of Multan by the British in 1849. Hence, one can realize that three unique sets of rulers governed over Multan during the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth century. In the present work, the patronage and philanthropy gave by them to every sector of religious as well as nonreligious and society has been examined.