GAṄGĀ RĀM, DĪWĀN (1775-1826) was a Kashmīrī Brāhmaṇ whose father, Kishan Dās, was a government employee. During the oppressive days of the governors of Kashmīr, Kishan Dās migrated to Delhi, and later settled in the village of Rāmpur, near Banāras, where Gaṅgā Rām was born about the year 1775. Gaṅgā Rām received a good education and, at the age of 20, entered the service of Mahārājā Daulat Rāo Scindia of Gwālīor, serving under his French officers, Louis Bourquin and General Perron. He was entrusted with duties in the political and military departments. When in September 1803, Lord Lake defeated Daulat Rāo Scindia, Gaṅgā Rām returned to Delhi where he lived from 1803-13. In 1809, he was employed by the East India Company to serve under Colonel David Ochterlony, then engaged in the settlement of British relations with the cis-Sutlej states.

         In 1813, Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh invited him to Lahore and gave him appointment as the head of military accounts and keeper of the privy seal. In 1821, Gaṅgā Rām was given charge of the civil administration of Gujrāt. Two years later he was recalled to Lahore to reorganize the department of ābkārī or excise.

        Gaṅgā Rām died at Lahore in 1826.