KHARAK SINGH, RAJA (1850-1877), son of Raja Randhir Singh, ascended the s.add1 of Kapurthala stale on 12 May 1870. He suffered from a permanent ailment for which reason the administration was entrusted to a council. Kharak Singh died in 1877 at the early age of 27, and was succeeded by his fivcveai`old son.Jagatji`t Singh.
LAL SINGH, BHAI, ruler of the Sikh state of Kaithal, was the younger son of Bhai Desu Singh, founder of the principality. Unlike other rulers of the cis Sutlej states, the Kaithal chiefs did not assume the title of rajah (king), but preferred to use the family epithet of Bhai (lit. brother). Bhai Desu Singh, who fell out with Raja Amar Singh of Patiala in 1778, sought the patronage of the Delhi Wazir, Nawab Majd ud Daulah `Abd ulAhad. The latter claimed from him arrears in payment of revenue plus a fine of four lakh rupees. Of this amount Desu Singh arranged to pay three lakh rupees and in lieu of the balance payable he left his son, Lal Singh, as a hostage.
MATHRA SINGH, DOCTOR (1883-1917), patriot and revolutionary, was born the son of Hari Singh, a Kohli Khatri, and Bhag Sudhi, at Dhudial in Pakistan. He attended the village primary school and passed his Matriculation examination from the Khalsa High School at Chakval. In 1901, he joined a pharmaceutical firm at Rawalpindi, Messrs Jagat Singh and Brothers, and in 1906 shifted to Now shera cantonment as a partner in another firm of chemists, H.D. Thakar Das and Company. He married in 1908 and had a daughter, but both his wife and the little child died in 1913. Mathra Singh decided to leave the country and seek his fortune in Canada.
MOTA SINGH, MASTER (1888-1960), patriot and revolutionary, was born the son of Gopal Singh on 28 February 1888 at Patara, a village 7 km east of Jalandhar. His grandfather, Sahib Singh, was a soldier in the Sikh army and had fought against the British. After passing the matriculation examination, Mota Singh trained as a junior anglovernacular teacher and served in different schools in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts. He also passed Giani (Honours in Punjabi) and Munshi Fazil (Honours in Persian) examinations of the University of the Panjab and took his B.A. in English at the same University.
NIHAL SINGH KAIRON (1863-1928), a pioneer of women`s education in the Punjab, was born on 22 December 1863 at Kairori, a village in Amritsar district. His father, Gulab Singh, a deeply religious person, had three sons, Nihal Singh being the youngest of them. Nihal Singh had no formal schooling, and travelled with his brother, Tarlok Singh, to Malaya (Malaysia) while still very young. He joined the Royal Artillery at Hong Kong, but soon secured his release and returned to his village in the Punjab to work for community welfare and reform. He lectured at Singh Sabha divans.
PRATAP SINGH, MAHARAJA (1919-1995). Tall and handsome, His Highness Maharaja Sir Pratap Singh, Malvendra Bahadur, was the ruler of the princely state of Nabha. The state ceased to be in 1948 when a new and larger political unit called Patiala and East Punjab States Union, short PEPSU, came into existence. This new union comprised all of the Sikh states of the Punjab Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Kapurthala, Faridkot and KalsTa, and two others. Pratap Singh was born on 21 September 1919, the son of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh. He began his education in Mussoorie, close to Dehra Dun, the summer home of the family.
RANJIT SINGH (1780-1839), Maharaja of the Punjab, popularly called Sheri Punjab, i.e. the Lion of the Punjab, was the most colourful, the most powerful and yet the most endearing figure in the history of the Sikhs. He ruled over a domain extending from the Khaibar Pass in the west to the River Sutlej in the east, from the northern extremity of Kashmir to the deserts ofSindh in the South, comprising the subds (provinces) of Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Kashmir, and their dependencies. It covered an area of 1,00,436 square miles with an estimated population of 53,50,000.
SAHIB SINGH, RAJA (1773-1813), born on 18 August 1773 to Raja Amar Singh and Rani Raj Kaur, ascended the throne of Patiala after his father`s death in February 1781. In 1787 he was married, at Amritsar, to Ratan Kaur, daughter of Ganda Singh, the Bhangi chief. Five years later, he contracted a second marriage, with As Kaur, daughter of Gurdas Singh Chattha. During his minority, Diwan Nanu Mall, first with the advice and counsel of Mat Hukman, grandmother of Sahib Singh, and after her death with the help of BibI Rajindar Kaur, the aunt of the Raja, managed the affairs of the state.
SHER SINGH, leader of a group of Sikh warriors who was rewarded by Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) for his initiative and alacrity in one of the battles of Anandpur. He fell upon a contingent of the Mughal force fatigued after a quick day`s action. This sudden attack took the enemy by surprise. The Sikhs overpowered the Mughal troop and robbed it of much of its loot.
TAHL SINGH CHHACHHI (d. 1785), a Kohli Khatri, first entered the service of the Khattar sardars but later joined Sardar Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia and received from him, in 1741, jagirs comprising several villages, including Miari Daud Khel. Tahl Singh also made conquests on his own account and captured territories from the Pathans of Makhad. He died in 1785 and was succeeded in his jagirs by his sons Jassa Singh, Fateh Singh and Sher Singh. Jassa Singh died in 1790, but his brothers, Fateh Singh and Sher Singh, served Maharaja Ranjit Singh through his early campaigns and received large additions to their estates at Sahival and Kuhjah.
