RAI SINGH

RAI SINGH (d. 1809), one of the leaders of the Karorsinghia misi, was the son of Matab Singh of Mirarikot in Amritsar district, the avenger of the sacrilege perpetrated by Masse Khan, the Muslim chieftain, who had occupied the holy Harimandar and converted it into a place of revelry. Rai Singh was nursed back to health by the village elder, Nattha Khaihra, when he as a small child was grievously wounded and left as dead by an imperial force that had come in search of his father.

As Rai Singh grew up, he joined the jathd or band of Shiam Singh of NariT, a commander of the Karor Singhias, who gave him his daughter in marriage. At the conquest of Sirhind by the Sikhs in January 1764, Rai Singh occupied a number of villages in Samrala /aA^/of Ludhiana district. Rai Singh built a mud fort at Mirarikot where he lived until his death in 1809. His son, Ratan Singh Bharigu, is the author of the famed Prachm Panth Prakash, which delineates in verse the history of the Sikhs during that stirring period.

References :

1. Bharigu, Ratan Singh, Prachm Panth Prakash. Amritsar, 1914
2. Gandhi, Surjit Singh, Struggle of the Sikhs for Sovereignty. Delhi, 1980
3. Gupta, Hari Ram, History of the Sikhs, vol. IV. Delhi, 1978