Jean-Baptiste Ventura
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Oil painting of Jean-Baptiste Ventura
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Birth name
| Rubino Ventura
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Born
| 25 May 1794
Finale di Modena,
Duchy of Modena
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Died
| 3 April 1858
Lardenne, France
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Allegiance
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Rank
| Governor of Lahore
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Awards
| Legion of Honour
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Spouse(s)
| Anna Moses
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Children
| Victorine Ventura (daughter)
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Jean-Baptiste
(
Giovanni Battista
)
Ventura
, born
Rubino
(25 May 1794 ? 3 April 1858), was an Italian soldier,
mercenary in India
, general in Maharaja
Ranjit Singh
's Sarkar-i-Khalsa, and early archaeologist of the
Punjab region
of the
Sikh Empire
.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Ventura was born in
Finale di Modena
(now Finale Emilia) in the
Duchy of Modena
to Gavriel Massarani, a
Jewish
merchant and Vittoria Massarani, a
Catholic
. The surname Ventura derives from Buonaventura, Italian for "
Mazal Tov
", a
Hebrew
-
Sephardic
surname originating in
Iberia
following the
expulsion of the Jews
in 1492. Ventura received a conventional
Jewish education
and at the age of seventeen, enrolled as a volunteer in the militia of the
Kingdom of Italy
, later serving with
Napoleon
's
imperial army
in the Queens's Dragons. After the
abdication of Napoleon
and the dissolution of the
Army of Italy
in April 1814 he returned to Finale. In 1817, his
revolutionary
and Napoleonic sympathies became known to the local authorities following a dispute between him and a member of the reactionary Ducal police. As such, he was obliged to leave the country.
In 1817, persecuted by the local authorities for his revolutionary ideas and his sympathies for Napoleon, he had to flee from Finale because of an argument between him and a member of the reactionary police of the
Duke of Modena
Francesco IV
. He went first to
Trieste
, and then to
Constantinople
, where he was for a time a ship-broker. He changed his name in Jean-Baptiste to hide his Jewish origins.
Having learned that
Persia
was seeking the services of European soldiers, he obtained a commission as an officer and helped train the
Shah
's army with European military methods. He soon obtained the rank of colonel in the army of Prince
Mohammad Ali Mirza
, the Shah's son. Upon the death of the Shah in 1822, Ventura offered his services to his successor,
Abbas Mirza
. In the latter's service, however, were a number of English officers who were decidedly hostile to the French; they considered Ventura to be French because he had fought under Napoleon. As a result of their political intrigues, Ventura was dismissed.
Serving the King of Punjab
[
edit
]
He traveled east, ending up in
Lahore
alongside
Jean-Francois Allard
in 1822. They took service with Maharaja
Ranjit Singh
, King of Punjab, as the Maharaja was encouraging veterans from erstwhile Napoleon's army in his ongoing bid to modernize his
Sikh Khalsa Army
in European warfare.
In March of the following year both Allard and Ventura commanded the Maharaja's troops in the
Battle of Nowshera
, where they defeated the Afghan army and
captured
Peshawar
. Following a rebellion in Afghanistan, Ventura commanded several difficult campaigns and greatly expanded the boundaries of the
kingdom of Punjab
.
Along with Jean-Francois Allard,
Paolo Avitabile
, and
Claude Auguste Court
, Ventura formed a group of European officers responsible for modernizing the Sikh army and training and commanding the
Fauj-i-Khas
, the European-model brigade of which Ventura was the commander. Ventura was highly esteemed by the Maharaja, and in addition to the rank of General he was appointed
Kazi
(i.e., Supreme Judge), and Governor of Lahore. He quickly rose through the ranks of the court and became the de facto Commander in Chief of the Darbar forces.
Ventura married Anna Moses in
Ludhiana
, a lady of Armenian origin by whom he had a daughter named Victorine, but he always wanted to return to his country of origin. In 1838 he went on a diplomatic mission to Paris and London, but was called back to Lahore before he had time to visit his family in Italy. An educated and eclectic man, he devoted himself to archeology, and in 1830 he was the first ever to explore a
stupa
, that of
Manikyala
, where he recovered numerous coins and relics, some of which are now on display at the
British Museum
in the King Edward the 7th Gallery. He spent his spare time in Peshawar exhuming
Bactrian
,
Greek
and
Kushan
coins from Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas in the
Khyber Pass
, making numerous excavations then sending the findings on to the
Asiatic Society of Bengal
in
Calcutta
.
He served faithfully under Ranjit Singh and his successors
Kharak Singh
,
Nau Nihal Singh
, and
Sher Singh
. Upon Maharaja Sher Si?gh's assassination in September 1843, he left the Punjab.
Later life
[
edit
]
In France, he presented
King Louis Philippe
with a set of ancient Greek coins which he had unearthed. These coins were taken as evidence of
Alexander the Great
's march through
Afghanistan
and the
Sindh
-Punjab region of ancient India.
In his later years he lost a part of his large fortune in unsuccessful commercial enterprises. According to
Flaminio Servi
, Ventura was
baptized
toward the end of his life.
[2]
He died on 3 April 1858 in Lardenne, near
Toulouse, France
.
Awards
[
edit
]
He received the French
Legion of Honour
from the King Louis Philippe I in 1835.
Monuments
[
edit
]
A monument donated by the
Sikh
community was inaugurated on May 26, 2019. It was placed in Via Ventura in
Finale Emilia
opposite the house in which the General was born. It is a
bas-relief
which represents Ventura with Maharaja Ranjit Singh with dimensions 160x120 cm, sculpted in India.
Notes
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Balboni, Maria Pia; “Ventura. Dal ghetto del Finale alla corte di Lahore”, Biblioteca Nuova serie, Pagine VIII-212, Aedes Muratoriana, Modena, 1993;
- Balboni, Maria Pia, “Il generale Rubino Ventura. La straordinaria vita di un ebreo del Finale al servizio del maharaja Ranjit Singh”, Baraldini editore, Finale Emilia, 2019;
- Notizie Storiche e Biografiche del Generale Rubino Ventura, Finalese, Esposte da un Suo Concittadino, Finale (Emilia), 1882;
- F. Servi, in Corriere Israelitico, x. 47 et seq.;
- idem, in
Vessillo Israelitico
, xxxi. 308 et seq.;
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