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Maharani Chand Kaur (1802 – 11 June 1842) was briefly regent of the Sikh Empire. She was the wife of Maharaja Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, her only son.

In 1840 Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh were assassinated and, on the grounds that Nau Nihal Singh's widow Sahib Kaur was pregnant, Chand Kaur staked her claim as regent for the unborn successor to the throne.

She remained regent for approximately two-and-a-half months, from 5 November 1840 to 18 January 1841, but abandoned her claim when Sahib Kaur delivered a stillborn son.

She was awarded a pension of 900,000 rupees and for a while lived in her late son's palace in Lahore. However her enemies still saw her as a threat and she was battered to death by her servants on 11 June 1842.

Maharani Chand Kaur (1802 – 11 June 1842) was briefly regent of the Sikh Empire. She was the wife of Maharaja Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, her only son.

In 1840 Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh were assassinated and, on the grounds that Nau Nihal Singh's widow Sahib Kaur was pregnant, Chand Kaur staked her claim as regent for the unborn successor to the throne.[1] She remained regent for approximately two-and-a-half months, from 5 November 1840 to 18 January 1841, but abandoned her claim when Sahib Kaur delivered a stillborn son.

She was awarded a pension of 900,000 rupees and for a while lived in her late son's palace in Lahore. However her enemies still saw her as a threat and she was battered to death by her servants on 11 June 1842.

After the deaths of Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh, Dhian Singh supported the claim of Sher Singh, the son of Ranjit Singh's estranged first wife, Mehtab Kaur. Chand Kaur turned to Gulab Singh for support. A compromise was proposed that Chand Kaur should adopt Sher Singh's son Pratap Singh.

However, she pointed out that Nau Nihal's widow, Sahib Kaur, was pregnant and might give birth to a rightful successor. The arrival in Lahore of two powerful opponents of Sher Singh, Sardar Atar Singh Sandhanvalia and Sardar Ajit Singh Sandhanvalia, settled the matter. On 2 December 1840 Chand Kaur was proclaimed Maharani of the Punjab, with the title Malika Muqaddasa, Empress Immaculate.

On 13 January, Sher Singh arrived in Lahore. The regiments outside the city walls went over to his side, leaving Chand Kaur with 5,000 men and a limited quantity of gunpowder against a force of 26,000 infantry, 8,000 horse and 45 guns. Chand Kaur's troops in the fort fought for two days, but Dhian Singh arrived on the evening of 17 January and arranged a ceasefire. Chand Kaur was persuaded to accept a pension and relinquish her claim to the throne, and on 27 January Sher Singh was formally anointed as Maharaja.


The dowager Maharani retired to her late son's palace in Lahore and received a pension of 900,000 rupees. In July 1841 Sahib Kaur's son was stillborn, ending any justification for a renewed claim to the regency. However she had made an enemy of Dhian Singh, who replaced her servants, who killed her on 11 June 1842 by smashing her head in with wooden pikes.

The samadhi of Maharani Chand Kaur is in the grounds of Islamia College at Civil Lines in Lahore, on the same platform as, and to the south of, the samadhi of Kharak Singh's mother Maharani Datar Kaur, lovingly called Mai Nakain by Ranjit Singh. In between the samadhis of the two maharanis is the smaller samadhi of Sahib Kaur.