As Patron of The Arts and Builder
He founded the Khalsa Press Lahore as well as the "Khalsa Akhbar", the first journal for the Sikhs.
He was well versed in Persian, Sanskrit, and Punjabi and a very eminent musicologist a great proponent of Modern Learning and of women's education, he was the Author of "Upma Sar Granth".
He was instrumental in saving the lives of the royal musicians at the Mughal Court of Delhi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857; he gave them shelter at his court in Kapurthala, thus laying the foundation of the Kapurthala Gharana of Hindustani Classical Music.
Bikrama Singh had constructed, as his personal residence, the first French inspired building in Kapurthala, the Elysee Palace. (His example was later followed by the francophile Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, who constructed the famous French inspired Jagatjit Palace at Kapurthala). When he relocated to Jullunder, he built for himself another residence, Bikram Hall; it has since been demolished, though the grounds, now referred to as Bikrampura, still bear his name.
Read more about this topic: Bikrama Singh
Famous quotes containing the words patron, arts and/or builder:
“As polishing expresses the vein in marble, and grain in wood, so music brings out what of heroic lurks anywhere. The hero is the sole patron of music.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.”
—Unknown. Pangur Ban (l. 25–28)
“Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to create a machine, and it was by learning the inner working of nature that man became a builder of machines.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)