Search for Guru Gobind Singh's crest plume

SIKHS remember Guru Gobind Singh as the great spiritual light. At the same time, the royal symbolism of the Guru also pervades the Sikh psyche. Dasam Guru is remembered as ‘Kalgianwala’ (for wearing a plume), and for keeping falcons and other regal symbols.

The first historical account of the kalgi or crest plume of Guru Gobind Singh is found in the records of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was kept in his toshakhana. The Maharaja, it was said, would daily pay his obeisance to Guru Sahib’s plume kept in his protection. In 1849, the British annexed Punjab. A frantic search for all valuable items was made by British officials when they took the keys of the Lahore fort.

John Spencer Login was appointed Governor of the Lahore fort. He invited Misr Beli Ram, the erstwhile custodian of the toshakhana, and prepared an inventory. Sacred relics of all religions and royal relics of major kingdoms had been carefully kept in the toshakhana.

Of these items, the thing of utmost sanctity and historical importance was Guru Gobind Singh’s crest plume. This has been recorded as ‘Kalgi-e-kuchh’ in the museum documents. All items procured from the treasury were sent to the British capital of Calcutta. These items were at the disposal of the then Viceroy, Lord Dalhousie.

As per historical records, many of the furnished items were kept by Lord Dalhousie as his private property. The riches and gems were sent to London to Queen Victoria on a special ship. The validity of this record is proven by an eventful find that occurred in 1965. WC Archer, a British art historian and curator, found various weapons belonging to Guru Gobind Singh from the residence of Lord Dalhousie’s family. These weapons were purchased by the Indian High Commissioner and brought to Delhi on the orders of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. The weapons are now securely kept in Gurdwara Kesgarh Sahib, Anandpur.

Amidst all the loot of the Lahore Durbar toshakhana, the question about the whereabouts of Guru Gobind Singh’s kalgi remains rather intriguing. The kalgi that had been taken from the toshakhana to Calcutta has been missing ever since.

I went to London in 1965 and met K Natwar Singh, the then Deputy High Commissioner there. I sought to know the whereabouts of Guru Sahib’s kalgi. He arranged a meeting with the Victoria and Albert (VA) Museum curator, who furnished a list of all Sikh historical weapons and other relics kept in the museum. I gave this list to the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Giani Zail Singh, and the then Chief Secretary. In 1980, select items from that list were brought to Punjab and exhibited in Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum, Amritsar.

Darbara Singh was serving as the Chief Minister. I was heading the Department of Tourism, Culture, Museum and Archaeology, Government of Punjab; the museum was built by our department in Ram Bagh, Amritsar.

The curator of Victoria and Albert Museum could not provide any details about Guru Sahib’s crest plume, as the museum lists had no record of it. On my request, he shared the records of the Mughal plumes in the museum. These had jade and diamonds set in them. There was one plume about which the museum did not have any information. This crest plume, kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum, with no documented record, was purchased by a British officer in 1853 from Calcutta and was exhibited in Paris. It was taken to London for an exhibition where it is still housed.

Researchers and scholars should pay attention to this unnamed crest plume kept in the VA museum while keeping in mind that a crest plume was gifted to Guru Gobind Singh by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah during a meeting at Agra in July 1707. Could there be any possible link between this unnamed crest plume in the Mughal collection at VA, which was purchased in Calcutta, and Guru Goibind Singh crest plume in Login’s toshakhana inventory which had gone missing in Calcutta? This intriguing question needs further research.

— The writer is a former Rajya Sabha MP