well as the Kanhaiya Misl. Ranjit Singh's second wife, Datar Kaur bore him his first son and heir, Kharak Singh in 1801. With this Sada Kaur left Ranjit Singh's side and returned to her home in Batala, taking her daughter with her, her plans to secure the future of her daughter and the Kanhaiyas in tatters. Issue Sada Kaur kept on trying to bring Ranjit Singh closer to her daughter and felt happy when Mehtab bore Ranjit his second son (and her first child) in 1804. Thanking God (Ishwar) the child was named Ishar Singh. The prince died in infancy - at the age of one and a half years. Mehtab Kaur was pregnant again in 1807 and gave birth to twin sons, Sher Singh and Tara Singh in Batala. 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. The birth of his sons was celebrated greatly. 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. Historians differ over whether Sher Singh and Tara Singh were Ranjit Singh's biological sons. During March 1837, on the occasion of the marriage of Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, Henry Edward Fane, the nephew and aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, India, General Sir Henry Fane, who spent several days in Ranjit Singh's company, reported that the Maharaja never thoroughly acknowledged Sher Singh. The contemporary historian, Joseph Davey Cunningham, who attended the 1838 conversations between Ranjita Singh and Lord Auckland, also recorded that the Maharaja had doubts. However, Khushwant Singh, writing in 1962, considered that the rumours regarding the parentage of Sher Singh and Tara Singh were inaccurate and had been spread by Kharak Singh and his mother, Datar Kaur, in order to reduce the possibility of Ranjit Singh preferring Sher Singh, who was fast becoming his father's favourite. Sohan Lal Suri, the official court biographer too notes that Sher Singh and Tara Singh were not the biological sons of Ranjit Singh in his Umdat ut-tawarikh. Despite his doubts, Ranjit Singh gave Sher Singh commands in the army and conferred honours on him, although Kharak Singh remained his favourite. However, no honours were bestowed on Tara Singh and he was not permitted to appear in court. Death After suffering from