CHARAN SINGH. BHAI (d. 1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the son of Bhai Gokal Singh and Mai Lachhman Kaur of Diriga village, in Gujrat district. He lost his mother during infancy. His old grandmother looked after him for about five years and was then sent to live with his maternal aunt in a village in Lyallpur district where a childless neighbour Bhai Piara Singh adopted him as his son. He took the vows of the Khalsa at the age of 15. He adopted tattooing as a profession.
CHANDA SINGH, BHAI (1885-1921) was born on 9 Savan 1942 Bk / 22 July 1885, the son of Bhai Hukam Singh and Mat Nand Kaur, a peasant couple of village Nizampur, in Amritsar district. The family shifted westward to Chakk No. 38 Nizampur Deva Singhvala, in a newly colonized district. As he grew up, Chanda Singh, was influenced by the current of Sikh reformation then sweeping the Punjab.
CHARAN SINGH, BHAI (1902-1921), son of Bhai Gurdit Singh and Mai Sada Kaur of the village of Kotla Santa Singh in Sheikhupura district, now in Pakistan, was born on 12 Maghar 1959 Bk/26 November 1902. His original name was Karnail Singh and he was renamed Charan Singh when he received the vows of the Khalsa. He attended the village primary school. He had a musical voice and got up a dhadi jatha (band of preachers singing heroic ballads from Sikh history to the accompaniment of small tambourines called dhads and a sarangi, a stringed instrument). He himself played the sarangi.
