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<p class="C1">&#65279HONIGBERGER, DOCTOR JOHN MARTIN (1795-1865), physician to the court of Lahore from 1829 to 1849 and known to his Sikh contemporaries as Martin S&#257hib, was a Transylvanian born at Kronstadt in 1795. He combined with his medical knowledge an ardent spirit of enquiry and adventure. He had a great fascination for the East. He left his home in 1815, and wandering through Europe, Russia, Turkey, Syria and Jerusalem, reached Cairo, where he joined the Turkish military medical service. In 1822, he heard about an outbreak of plague in Syria and resigned his post to study the disease in which he became a specialist. He set up practice in Damascus, but moved on again after a few years and arrived at Baghdad where he was employed by the Pasha as his personal physician, with the additional charge of a local hospital. Having heard, from a travelling merchant, of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh's generosity and the welcome the Europeans met with at his court, Honigberger decided to proceed to the Sikh capital. He set, out in the winter of 1829 and reached Lahore in four months' time.</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh was out on a military expedition when Honigberger arrived at Lahore and did not return until the rainy season. During the interval, Honigberger established his reputation as a physician. The first patient he attended, and successfully treated, was Achilles, adopted son of General Allard, who had long been suffering from a fistula on the spine. He also journeyed to Kashm&#299r, where he cured R&#257j&#257 Suchet Si&#7749gh of a chronic disease.</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	In 1833, Honigberger suddenly became homesick and made up his mind to go back to Transylvania. Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh had developed such a liking for him that he was loath to let him go. He raised his salary and even offered him governorship of a province. "But such was my longing to depart, " writes Honigberger in his book, <i>Thirty-five Years in the East</i>, "that not even the R&#257j&#257's Koh-i-Noor, valued at Rs 5,00,000 would have tempted me to remain."</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	Travelling overland, he passed through Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia, and finally reached his home in 1834, after an absence abroad of almost twenty years. But he stayed there only for six months before embarking on his travels again. After visiting several European countries, he arrived at Constantinople. During this journey, he had met in Paris Dr Hahnemann, the father of homoeopathy. He became deeply interested in the new system of medicine, and practised it at Constantinople from 1836 to 1838.</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	In 1838, on hearing, from Ventura, that Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh was critically ill and desired him to return to Lahore, Honigberger abandoned his practice, went to meet Ventura at Alexandria, and returned with him to Lahore via Bombay. Here his old offices were restored to him. His immediate concern was the fast failing health of the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257, who was almost paralyzed and had lost his speech. A mixture prepared by Honigberger enabled the ailing monarch to sit up and speak, and he continued to attend on him. A newsletter, <i>Punjab A<u>kh</u>b&#257r</i>, dated 6 June 1939, states: "He (Ra&#7749j&#299t Si&#7749gh) complained to the physicians that he felt very weak and uncomfortable in consequence of his using the talc powder but that he liked the drug brought to him by Ruttun Si&#7749gh <i>Gudvaee</i> last night from Doctor Martin.... Doctor Martin was ordered to give some effectual medicine like the drug he had given..." But no medicine could save the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 who died on 27 June 1839.</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	Honigberger had since married a Kashm&#299r&#299 woman. He continued to stay in Lahore and witnessed many of the tragic scenes such as the death of Ka&#7749var Nau Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh and the assassination of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Sher Si&#7749gh. He was dismissed by Pa&#7751&#7693it Jall&#257 but was re-employed after the latter's death. He continued in service even after the lapse of Sikh sovereignty and was in charge of gaol and the asylum for lunatics which he had himself founded. But he soon fell out with his British superior, Dr McGregor, and resigned. The British government, however, granted him a pension of Rs 500 per month, payable in Europe, and he retired to Hungary with his two children, who during his service in Lahore were sent to school at Mussoorie. He died in 1865.</p>

<p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;	Honigberger's memoirs, published in London in 1852 under the title <i>Thirty-five Years in the East</i>, contain in addition to a record of his life, adventures and experiences, much valuable information about historical events as well as about life, manners and customs in the Punjab of his days. His primary interest, however, was his profession. He gives in his memoirs a comprehensive medical vocabulary, profusely illustrated by drawings of medical plants, and details of diseases and their remedies in homoeopathic, allopathic, &#256yurvedic and &#362n&#257n&#299 systems of medicine. Homaeopathy claimed his first love.</p>

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BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> S&#363r&#299, Sohan L&#257I, <i>'Umd&#257t-ut-Tw&#257r&#299<u>kh</u></i>, Lahore, 1885-1889<BR>

<li class="C1"> Honigberger, John Martin, <i>Thirty-five Years in the East</i>. London, 1852<BR>

<li class="C1"> Waheeduddin, Faqir Syed, <i>The Real Ranjit Singh</i>. Delhi, 1976<BR>

<li class="C1"> Griffin, Lepel, <i>Ranjit Si&#7749gh</i>. Delhi, 1957<BR>

<li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1983<BR>

<li class="C1"> Prem Si&#7749gh, B&#257b&#257, <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 R&#257j de Bades&#299 Karinde</i>. Amritsar, 1945<BR>

</ol><p class="CONT">Sard&#257r Si&#7749gh Bh&#257&#7789&#299&#257<br></p><BR>

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