Buddha Singh

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Disambiguation with Buddha Singh Sukkarchakia & Bhai Buddha Singh

BUDDHA SINGH (d. 1718), greatgreatgrandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the founder of the Sukkarchakkia family. One of his ancestors, Bhara Mall, who lived in the village of Sukkarchakk, in Gujranwala district, now in Pakistan, had been initiated into the Sikh faith by the Seventh Guru, Guru Har Rai. Buddha Singh received the rites of amrit at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh himself and fought in battles under him and under Banda Singh Bahadur. He constructed a big house at Sukkarchakk and acquired considerable influence in those turbulent times. He was elected the village chaudhari or chief. He was a daring horseman, and there were many legends current about his adventures on his favourite piebald mare called Desi. It is said that on the back of Desi, he swam across the Ravi, Chenab and Jehlum rivers as many as fifty times. The dauntless warrior had on his body scars of scores of wounds by sword, spear and gun. He died in 1718.

References

1. Suri, Sohan Lal, `Umdat-ut-TwanJkh. Lahore, 1885-89

2. Griffin, Lepel, Ranjit Singh. Delhi, 1957

3. Harbans Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Delhi, 1980

BUDDHA SINGH (b. 1891), a Ghadr revolutionary, was son of Ishar Singh of the village of Sursingh, now in Amritsar district. He served in the Mule Battery at Bareilly but deserted and went to Shanghai, where he became a night watchman. He returned to India to take part in the armed revolution planned by the Ghadr Party and arrived in Calcutta aboard the S.S. Namsang on 13 October 1914. Finding that deserters were being retaken by their regiments, Buddha Singh went back to Bareilly and rejoined the Mule Battery. It was there that he was arrested and brought to Lahore to stand trial in the supplementary Lahore conspiracy case of 1915. He was 24 at that time and was sentenced to transportation for life and forfeiture of property on 30 March 1916. He died in the Andamans jail where prisoners were given the harshest treatment. Torture and beating were part of it.

References

1. Sainsara, Gurcharan Singh, Ghadar Parti da Itihas. Jalandhar, 1969

2. Jagjit Singh, Ghadar Parti Lahir. Delhi, 1979