Biographical

BHAGAT RAM, BAKHSHI (1799-1865), son of Baisakhi Ram, a small moneychanger in the city of Lahore, joined the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1818 at the age of nineteen as a writer in the treasury office under Misr Belt Ram, the chief to shakhama or keeper of the State treasury. In 1824, he was appointed assistant writer of the accounts of the privy purse. In 1831, he was deputed to accompany Kanvar Sher Singh to the hills of Jalandhar Doab to collect revenue from the defaulting states of Mandi, Suket and Kullu. He came back to Lahore in 1832 and was appointed paymaster of fifty battalions of infantry, eight regiments of cavlary and twenty batteries of artillery.

CHHAJJU MALL (d. 1822), son of Keval Narain, belonged to a Brahman family. He and his ancestors had been in the service of the emperors of Delhi. His father, who had shifted to Lahore in Sikh times, died young. Chhajju Mall, entered the service of Sardar Jai Singh of the Kanhaiya misl. He received a command in the chief`s force, and participated in most of the warfare against the neighbouring chiefs. He was present at the battle of Achal in 1783 when Gurbakhsh Singh, the only son of Sardar Jai Singh, was killed fighting against Jassa Singh and Mahari Singh Sukkarchakkla.

DASU, BABA (b. 1524), eldest son of Guru Arigad and Mata Khivi, was born on 9 Bhadon 1581 Bk / 7 August 1524 at Khadur Sahib in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. He was ambitious to succeed his father in the spiritual line, but the latter, as records Kesar Singh Chhibbar, Bansavalinama, spoke: "He [Amar Das] is my brother and to him I am entrusting the responsibility .... Him I have reckoned as capable of bearing the burden." Dasu kept quiet at the time, but, after the passing away of Guru Angad, as his duly anointed successor, Guru Amar Das shifted to Goindval, he proclaimed himself Guru at Khadur even against the remonstrances of his mother. Later he recanted and apologized to his mother who took him to Goindval. He made obeisance to Guru Amar Das whose true disciple he remained thereafter.

HARKISHAN DAS, a purohit or family priest of Maharaja Dulcep Singh, who in 1883 went on a visit to the Maharaja in England and stayed there as his guest for nearly two years. When he returned to India in 1885, he brought with him offerings from the Maharaja for the Golden Temple at Amritsar and for the samddh of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore and that of Sardar Mahari Singh (Duleep Singh`s grandfather) at Gujrariwala.

KALU NATH, son of Jaimal, also called Data, a Dhalival Jatt of the Malva region, became a Vaisnav sddhu while still very young and, according to his biographer, Balmukand Das, roamed the countryside accompanied by his mother, Mohini, and young brother, Chikha. Later, he settled down under a jand tree near Nalhana, a village in Bathinda district, and practised severe austerities. During the battle of Mehraj in 1634, he served Guru Hargobind and his Sikhs with milk and food. As Guru Hargobind visited Nathana after the battle, Kalu Nath offered obeisance and received the Guru`s blessing. Kalu Nath is still remembered with reverence in that part of the Punjab, and an annual fair is held in April at his shrine at Nathana.

K1SHAN CHAND, RAI (d. 1873), news writer and vakil or agent of the Sikh court at Ludhiana, the British post on the Anglo Sikh frontier, was son of Bakhshi Anand Singh. Well versed in diplomacy, he accompanied Colonel Claude Wade on a political mission to Peshawar in 1839. In 1840, Karivar Nan Nihal Singh conferred on him the title of Rai. After the death of Maharaja Sher Singh, he began exercising civil and criminal powers over territories under the protection of the Lahore Darbar, and amassed great wealth. When Raja Hira Singh became the prime minister, he grew jealous of Rai Kishan Chand`s increasing influence and his pro Gulab Singh leanings.

MOTI RAM, DIWAN (1770-1837), was the only son of Diwan Muhkam Chand, one of Maharaja Ranjil Singh`s most trusted army generals. Moll Ram officiated as the governor of the Jalandhar Doab during the absence of bis father on military expeditions. After the death of his father in 1814, he was confirmed as governor of the Jalandhar Doab. In 1818, Moti Ram participated in the successful Multan campaign. He became the first governor of Kashmir when in 1819 the territory was conquered and annexed to the Sikh kingdom, but he became so heartbroken after the death of his son, Ram Dial, killed in the battle of Hazara in 1820, that he resigned his post and retired to Banaras to live the life of a recluse.

All that is known about Pilu is that he was a contemporary of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru. Two compositions of a very different kind are attributed to him: one, a collection of songs in a melancholy tone like that of a recluse or a hermit; and the other, the \'var\' or the lay, of the love of Mirza and Sahiban which has no overtones of Platonic intent. Perhaps, Bawa Budh Singh is not altogether wrong in suggesting that there might be two different persons of the name of Pilu. Pilu, the hermit, is said to have gone to Arjan Dev to get his compositions included in the holy Grunth, but Guru Arjan Dev did not oblige him because of his cynical attitude towards this world.

SAIN or SAIN, whose one hymn has been included in the Guru Granth Sahib, is counted among the disciples of Ramanand (1300-1411). Guru Arjan, Nanak V, says in one of his hymns in the Holy Book that the name of Sain was a household word as a bhakta of rare devotion (GC,487). In another, hymn, he refers to him as an example of dedication to the service of holymen. Bhakta Ravidas in a sabda in the Guru Granth Sahib ranks Sain with Namdev, Kabir, Trilochan and Sadhna in piety (GG. 1106). According to Bhai Gurdas, Sain was the disciple of Ramanand and he had adopted him as his preceptor on hearing of the fame of Kabir (1398-1518) who, too, was Ramanand`s disciple.

SUCHET SINGH, RAJA (1801-1844.), the youngest of the Dogra trinity who rose to high positions at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on 18 January 1801, the son of MIari Kishora Singh. He started his career a^ a young age, appointed to the duty of laying public petitions before the Maharaja in the wake of his elder brother, Dhian Singh, assuming, in 1818, the important office of deorhidar or chamberlain to the royal household. He lacked the political and administrative ability of his brothers, Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh, yet he won the favour of the Maharaja by his handsome bearing and engaging manner. In 1822, he was created Raja of Bandralta and Samba.