Sant Jawala Singh, Scholar, Author and Theologian: Difference between revisions

JAWALA SINGH, SANT(1878-1938), a pious and learned SIKH who also worked as a royal tutor for a time, was born at the village of DhamTari Kalari, in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab, on 26 October 1878. He learned to read Gurmukht and the Sikh Scripture at the hands of an Udasi priest, Giani Prem Das, and continued further religious study under different scholars and theologians, including Sant Khaan Singh Virakat of Sukkho in Rawalpindi district (now in Pakistan). The death register of the Municipal Committee of Patiala, where he died, shows him in the parentage column, as chela or disciple of Sant Gulab Singh. Such was Sant Jawala Singh`s reputation as a scholar that he was in 1905 appointed to instruct Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1891-1938), then a young prince of 14, in Sikh texts and doctrine. Brought up in the austere way of a Nirmala sadhu, Sant Jawala Singh now adopted the attire of a courtier, though he remained at heart a deeply religious person. Collection of rare articles became one of his hobbies. He also wrote humorous verse in Braj. However, none of his writings has survived, except a sixpage Siharfi Veddnt Svarup Bodhm, published in 1892. It is an acrostic in PUNJABI, in baint metre, based on letters of the Persian alphabet. Sant Jawala Singh died at Patiala on 24 March 1938 in a stampede occurring in the funeral procession of his own pupil, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh. Bibliography Ganesha Singh, Mahant, Nirmal Bliushcin nrthdl Itihfis Nirmal Jihfkh. Aniritsar, n.d. Gs.S.