KARTAR SINGH DAKHA, PANDIT

KARTAR SINGH DAKHA, PANDIT (1888-1958), scholar, grammarian and theologian, was born the son of Ram Singh on 13 September 1888 at Dakha, a village 16 km southwest of Ludhiana along the Ludhiana Firozpur highway. After receiving elementary education in his village, lie was admitted to Khalsa Collegiate School, Amritsar, but owing to his father`s death in 1907, he left off without taking the matriculation examination and joined the Nirmala Dora at Thikrivala, in the former princely state of Patiala, to learn Sanskrit from Pandit Basant Singh. Besides Sanskrit, lie was nurtured at the Dera in Sikh scriptures and he passed out as a learned scholar and practised debater. He worked for a time as a teacher in Khalsa Pracharak Vidyala, Tarn Taran.

Later, when Sikh Missionary College was opened at Amritsar in 1923, Pandit Kartar Singh joined the faculty as a lecturer. Returning to his native village, Dakha, he took to preaching, travelling extensively in the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In 1933-38 he taught at Gunnat Updcshak College, Damdama Sahib, Talvandl Sabo in Balhinda district, also known as Guru Kashi. There he brought out a missionary journal, Guru Kashi Paiiar, which was later shifted to Ludhiana and ultimately to Dakha itself.

During 1938-39, Pandit Kariar Singh, accompanied by Giani Gurcharan Singh of Muktsar, took out a tour to Singapore and Malaya at the invitation of the Sikhs living in those countries.On return from there, he served for some lime as a lecturer in divinity at Guru Hargobind Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, 10 km south of Dakha. He also served in the Punjab Languages Department at Patiala from 1951-53. He died of heart attack on 25 November 1958 at Qila Raipur, a village 18 km south of Ludhiana.

Pandit Kartar Singh Dakha was a prolific writer. His published works included books on linguistics, philosophy, prosody, grammar, commentaries on sacred texts, some of the titles being Hindi ate Gurmukhi Lipi Ie Vichdr (1931), Gurmukhi ale Hindi da Tdkrd (1949), Nydi Paribhdshd (1929), Guru Kdvya Darshan Arthdt Pingal (1913), Alankdr Nimaya (n.d.), Navin Punjabi Pingal (n.d.), Sri Guru Vyakaran Panchdin (1945), Mdlve da Political I tihds (n.d.) SnJapu Nisdn (1951), Das Dohare te Vih Savaiyye Satik (n.d.), Guru Pad Nimaya (n.d.), Bhagauti Mandan (1963), and two pamphlets on Ragmala controversy (1946). Besides, his articles and serialized Punjabi translation of the Rg Veda appeared in Guru Kdshi Pattar.

References :

1. AsR QaumiDard. 2 April 1930
2. The Khnlsa Advocate. 9 February 1969
3. Padam, Piara Singh, Kalam de Dhnni. Patiala, 1966
4. Vasakha Singh, Sant, Meilvd Itihds. Kishanpura, 195-1 S.S.S.