GIRDHAR LAL or Girdhari Lal, a poet in Guru Gobind Singh`s retinue at Paonta, was the author of Pingal Sdr, a treatise in verse on Hindi prosody. According to its autobiographical stanzas 716, Girdhar Lal was the son of Gaj Mall, a Khatri of Gadiyal clan. The family came originally from Multan but after a stay at Sadhaura, now in Yamunanagar district of Haryana, had settled at Lahore. From there Dvarka Das, great great grandfather of Girdhar Lal, had shifted to Agra at the in stance of Muzaffar Khan, an Afghan noble.
Girdhar Lal received education in Braj literature and prosody at the hands of a Brahman scholar, Hriday Ram. He had commenced writing Pingal Sdr at Agra, but completed it at Paonta in Magghar 1745 Bk/November 1688. The manuscript is preserved in the Languages Department Library at Patiala (MS. No. 129).
References :
1. Senapati, Sn Cur Sobhd. Patiala, 1967
2. Padam, Piara Singh, Sn Guru Gobind SinghJi deDarbun Ralan. Patiala, 1976
