Panjab: Sikh Soldiers receiving their pay at the Royal Durbar, Lahore, 1847 (litho)

Plate 12 from "Recollections of India. Part 1. British India and the Punjab" by James Duffield Harding (1797-1863) after Charles Stewart Hardinge (1822-1894), the eldest son of the first Viscount Hardinge, the Governor General. This depicts Sikh soldiers receiving their pay at the Royal Durbar in Lahore. Following the first Anglo-Sikh War, the British prescribed that a large part of the Sikh army be disbanded with a diminution of pay to the remainder. The soldiers upon each successive overthrow of government had demanded large gratuities, an increase in pay and more expensive uniforms - amongst other things two golden arm bangles. When the regiments were paid off these bangles were deducted from their pay. Hardinge wrote, "It was the custom with Runjit Sing to reward with these bangles any attendant or officer whose peculiar skill or prowess in military exercises excited his admiration."