India & Punjab – Ranjit Singh by Lepel Griffin Book An early 1893 edition of Rulers of India: Ranjit Singh by Sir Lepel Griffin, Clarendon Press, Original blue cloth with gilt tiles. Ex-libris. Oxford. Sir Lepel Henry Griffin was a British administrator and diplomat during the British Raj period in India. He was also a prolific writer especially on the history and records of the Punjab and its chieftains. His preface to this volume states: In writing this sketch of the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh I have made large and frequent use of my former works on the cognate subjects; The Punjab Chiefs, The Rajas of the Punjab and On these books several years of my official life, and several subsequent years of such leisure as belongs to Indian officials, were employed. They contain in full detail the histories of all the great Sikh families in the Punjab proper and the cis-sutlej territories, of the men who were the courtiers the advisers, and generals of the great Maharaja. There was no noble family in the province with which I was not personally acquainted, and from their records and information, as much as from official manuscripts and documents, the history of the time was compiled