Maharani Mehtab Kaur (c. 1782 – 1813)[3][4][5] was the first wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,[5][6] the founder of the Sikh Empire.

[1] As a teenager, Ranjit Singh took hardly any interest in the affairs of the state, making his mother, Raj Kaur, anxious for his future.

[21] She approached Sada Kaur to fix the muklawa (tradition where the wife goes back to her maternal home) date.

Ranjit was fifteen years old when he left Gujranwala for Batala, the chief town of the Kanhaiyas, to perform the after marriage rituals with Mehtab Kaur in 1796.

[22] Plus she was haughty and self-willed, a proud woman born to rich parents[12][23] while Ranjit Singh was a typically simple Punjabi man, rustic in his habits.

[33] Ranjit was near Jawalamukhi when he received the news of their birth, he rushed to Amritsar to pay a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple there.

There was cheering in the illustrious camp and when Ranjit returned to Lahore, he gave away vast entire-ties in philanthropy and the city was enlightened for a few nights.