Raja Dhian Singh (22 August 1796 – 15 September 1843) was the longest serving wazir of the Sikh Empire, during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, and four of his successors. He held the office for twenty five years, from 1818 up till his death. Dhian Singh was a brother of Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu, who later founded the Dogra dynasty when he became Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under the British Raj. Another brother Suchet Singh also served the empire. The three brothers were collectively known as the "Dogra brothers" in the Sikh empire, based on their ethnicity. In the turbulent four years following the emperor's death on 27 June 1839, Dhian remained at the helm, grappling with a power struggle in which three successive emperors and one empress died suddenly, in the build-up to the First Anglo-Sikh War.Following the coronation of Kharak Singh on 1 September 1839, Dhian launched a palace coup on 8 October 1839, and assassinated Chet Singh Bajwa, the favourite courtier of the emperor. He imprisoned emperor Kharak, who later died of slow poisoning by lead and mercury. Dhian had spread rumor that the hedonistic emperor intended to sell out the sovereignty of the Sikh empire to the British East India Company. Dhian then installed the emperor's son Nau Nihal Singh, aged eighteen, to the throne. Thirteen months later, emperor Nau Nihal, died suddenly on 5 November 1840, on the day of his father's funeral. After leaving the funeral pyre, Nau Nihal was knocked unconscious when a stone gate at Lahore Fort collapsed upon him. Udham Singh, son of Dhian's brother Gulab Singh was killed in the same incident. Dhian had the teenage emperor carried indoors, and barred any visitors, including the emperor's mother Chand Kaur. Eyewitness accounts had initially reported the emperor had minor injuries from the accident, however later the emperor was pronounced dead when Dhian presented the corpse with its head smashed. American colonel Alexander Gardner, who was with Nau Nihal when he was injured, noted that five artillery men carried the emperor into the fort under the orders of Dhian. Two of these men died mysteriously, two asked for leave and never returned, and one inexplicably disappeared. On 13 January 1841, Sher Singh led a coup against empress Chand Kaur, and after two days of siege and battle, Dhian negotiated a ceasefire, which led to empress