- Ranjit “I’m a Sikh king but this isn’t a Sikh kingdom. I rule over mostly Muslims and Hindus. So they can’t see me as an unknown, they need to see me as a flavour”
- Read about the current rulers of England, France, and Austria-Hungary
- Did Ranjit Singh have a throne he reserved for Nanak? Did he dress in all white except for the diamond?
- Prologue: An empty throne sits in the Victora and Albert Museum
- Once we get to Punjab, the 4 corner opposition is John, Burnes, Ranjit and Dhyan
- Burnes book - Stud of Horses at Puttee - for description of Ranjits horses
- the ranjit hunting is tiger hunting as mentioned by burnes
Premise:
- An amateur doctor abandons his family and travels to pre-colonial India for adventure and fortune.
Plotlines:
-
P1: The Journey East
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P2: The Maharaja’s Favour
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P3: Escape
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Antun’s Education (P1) - less important
-
Euro/Orient Supremacy/Cooperation
- John: Euro Supremacy
- Isaac: Euro Cooperation
- Agha: Orient Supremacy
- Antun: Orient Cooperation
-
Adventurer Phases:
- Burnes: at his peak
- John: at his rising arc
- Isaac: at his falling arc
- Antun: the outsider
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2nd Sphere of Euro/Orient
- John: Euro Supremacy turned Cooperation
- Burnes: Euro Cooperation turned Supremacy
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In Search of Fame and Fortune
- Perfecting His Practice (Homeo vs Allo)
- Running The Factory (P2)
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What lies beyond Death
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Art and Vice
- Kurruck: High Art and Low Vice
- Chet: Low Art and Low Vice
- Schofft: High Art and High Vice
- Mirza: Low Art and High Vice
Characters:
- John Honigberger: The Opportunistic Outlander
- Transformation: A neglectful striver abandons his family to sell his medical skills to the highest bidder before finding a higher calling
- Sold a big dream of Ranjit by Burnes but is disappointed himself
- Alexander Burnes: The Dreamer Awakened
- Transformation: From curious adventurer to servant of the state
- Naive and too-trusting of Britain
- Dreams of anglo-sikh cooperation but ends up having to sell Ranjit on a doomed invasion of Afghanistan
- Antun: The Melancholic Dreamer
- Christian from a muslim country, so more versed in customs
- Gives them the idea to hide in the mosque
- Helps leach him and cries for him in his health
- Is a servant but has a lot to prove
- Once in Punjab, he simply makes plans to go home. He had a job to do and decides to return to family - juxtaposing with John
- Isaac Torbei: Charismatic
- Is he useful? Only so far as I can use him to advance John’s character
- He could be useful so John treats him pro-bono? 1st step before he gets more altruistic
- He writes on paper to communicate while mute. Foreshadowing to Ranjit not being able to
- The Agha of Hit: The Fallen Hero
- Ranjit Singh: The Aging Warrior
- General Allard: The Gentle Giant
- On 23 January 1839, he died at Peshawar, having suffered for some time from a diseased heart. His body was, as he had wished, brought to Lahore and buried with full military honours between the tombs of his two daughters in Kuri Bagh on 19 February.
- General Avitable:
- Ruthless
- He retired peacefully - sense of unfairness
- Goolbegum: The Scheming Artisan
- Indian Wife
- He has an affair and second wife, which makes it even more awkward when his daughter arrive
- Dhyan Singh: The Puppet Master
- Sly but undyingly loyal
- Kurruck Singh: The Ill-Equipped Heir
- blockhead and opium-eater
- Chet Singh: The Seeker of Vengeance
- Kurruck’s tutor and Dhyan’s would-be ouster
- Haridas: The Ethereal Mystic
- The fakeer who lives in between life and death
- Alexander Gardner: Tartan Turban
- He served in this position for many years before he was transferred to the service of Maharaja. He was later promoted to the rank of colonel by Maharaja Ranjit Singh
- He remained in the army after Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839, until the First Anglo-Sikh war
- Gardner was involved in numerous gun and sword fights during his career. He was described as being six-foot, with a long beard, an all around warrior and fighter.
- “The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass, a wilful stranger: My mistress still the open road And the bright eyes of danger.
- Epigraph of Alexander Gardner’s Autobiography
- Sher Singh:
- adopted son and later ruler
- Achilles: Allard’s adopted son
- Ioana Honigberger:
- John’s daughter
