Gulabnama is the biography of Maharaja Gulab Singh, the founder of the Dogra dynasty of Jammu and Kashmir. Originally written in Persian by Diwan Kirpa Ram, the work chronicles the establishment of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1846 and traces the life and political career of Maharaja Gulab Singh. It offers valuable insights into his statecraft, administrative policies, and the strategies he employed to consolidate and safeguard the frontiers of his kingdom during a turbulent period.

Initially, Maharaja Gulab Singh was reluctant to have his life documented, fearing that sensitive family matters and personal details might be made public. For this reason, he was unwilling to entrust the task to the court historian, Ganesh Das Badhera. Instead, the responsibility was later assigned to Diwan Kirpa Ram, the son of Dewan Jawala Sahai, who served as Gulab Singh’s Prime Minister. The book faced significant hurdles in reaching the public. It took over a century for it to be accessible to common readers. Diwan Kirpa Ram completed the draft by roughly 1865-1866, but it was not printed until 1875 in Srinagar. It was finally published in 1875 at the Tofa Printing Press........

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