It was Maharaja Ranjit Singh who established the secular Sikh kingdom in Punjab. It emerged as a dominant kingdom in 1799, when Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, and remained powerful till 1849. The Sikh kingdom reached its pinnacle in the 19th century; and the Empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west to western Tibet in the east.
The foundations of the Sikh Kingdom can be traced to as early as 1707; that’s when Aurangzeb died and the Mughal Empire began disintegrating. With the Mughal power significantly weakened, the Sikh army, known as the Dal Khalsa, led expeditions against them and the Afghans in the west.
The Sikh army grew and split into different confederacies or semi-independent misls. Each of these component armies exercised control over different areas and cities. However, the period between 1762 and 1799 saw the rise of Sikh commanders of the misls as warlords.
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Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan invaded India many times. He had the support of many nobles as well. But, the Marathas fought a battle with Abdali at Panipat in 1761. However, they could not get the support of any other ruling groups as they all felt threatened by the Marathas. The Maratha chiefs were not united as well. This made it easy for Abdali to defeat them in what came to be known as the Third Battle of Panipat.
This battle led to a significant reduction in the Maratha power that helped in the rise of the British.
In 1775, the East India Company intervened in a Peshwa family succession struggle in Pune. This led to the First Anglo-Maratha War. The Marathas emerged victorious in this war and remained a pre-eminent power in India until their defeat in the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars. Their defeat resulted in the emergence of the East India Company as a dominant power that controlled most of India.
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