"On the 1st of Baisakh (April 12) 1801, Sahib Singh Bedi daubed Ranjit Singh’s forehead with saffron paste and proclaimed him Maharajah of the Punjab. A royal salute was fired from the fort. In the afternoon the young Maharajah rode on his elephant, showering gold and silver coins on jubilant crowds of his subjects. In the evening, all the homes of the city were illumined. Ranjit Singh’s political acumen is well illustrated in the compromise that he made between becoming a Maharajah and remaining a peasant leader. Although crowned King of the Punjab, he refused to wear the emblem of royalty in his simple turban. He refused to sit on a throne......

The most important consequence of taking on the title of "Maharajah of the Punjab" was that thereby Ranjit Singh assumed the rights of sovereignity not only over all Sikhs (the government itself being Sarkar Khalsaji) but over all people who lived within the ill-defined geographical limits of the Punjab....."

-Taken from A History of the Sikhs by Kushwant Singh

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