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DALLA, an old village, 6 km southeast of Sultanpur Lodhi (31° 13`N. 75° 12`E) in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, is one of the oldest centres of the Sikh faith. It had a flourishing sangat a fact which has been noted by Bhai Gurdas in one of his Varan. Prominent among the earliest devotees were Bhai Paro and Bhai Lalu, contemporaries with Guru Arigad and Guru Am ar Das. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, Guru Amar Das himself once visited Dalla.
DARGAH MALL, DIWAN (d. 1695), son of Dvarka Das Chhibbar, was, according to Shahid Bilas Bhai Mani Singh, and Guru kian Sakhian, a diwan or minister in the time of Guru Hargobind and his successors and managed, as such, their households. He was the great grand father of Kesar Singh Chhibbar, the author of Bansavalinama. He was in attendance upon Guru Har Rai when summons arrived from Aurangzib asking the Guru to meet him in Delhi. The Guru sent instead his son, Ram Rai, to call on the emperor. Diwan Dargah Mall was deputed to escort him to the imperial capital.
DEVA SINGH, SARDAR BAHADUR(d. 1872), son of Fateh Singh and a great grandson of Savan Singh, cousin of Sarigat Singh, the leader of the Nishanavali misi, came of a Shergil Jatt family of Mansurval, in Firozpur district. Deva Singh joined service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1816 at a very young age. After some time, he was put under Lahina Singh Majithia who made him commandant of the regiment of his brother, Gujjar Singh. In 1834, he accompanied the young Sardar to Calcutta on a mission half complimentary, half political. In 1842, he was transferred to the Gurkha regiment to serve in Hazara.
DHANNA SINGH MALVAI (1775-1843), soldier and jagirdar under Ranjit Singh, belonged to the village of Maur in Nabha territory. Mall Singh, Dhanna Singh`s father, who was the first in the family to be initiated a Sikh, left his village about 1760 and entered the service of Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia as a sowar. He was killed in a campaign in the northwest. His son, Dhanna Singh, left Maur in 1793 and took up service with Sahib Singh Bharigi of Gujrat. About the year 1800, he enlisted himself in the force of Fateh Singh Kaliarivala as a trooper, and soon rose in his favour, obtaining an independent command.
DHAUNKAL SINGH (d. 1844), a drillnaik in the army of the East India Company who deserted the service of the British and joined the Sikh army about 1805. In 1807, Jamadar Khushal Singh, who had come to Lahore to seek his fortune and had eventually risen to the position of deohridar or chamberlain, was placed under Dhaunkal Singh. In 1828-29, when the Lahore army was reorganized, Dhaunkal Singh was given command of a regiment composed mainly of Purbia deserters from the East India Company and a few Sikhs. Subsequently, he was promoted general who took an important part in the military administration of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
DIAL DAS, son of Gaura and grandson of the celebrated Bhai Bhagatu, lived at Bhuchcho, now in Bathinda district of the Punjab, at the time of Guru Gobind Singh`s journey through those parts in 1706. At the village of Bhagu, Dial Das took the rites of amrit at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and received the name of Dial Singh. There after the Guru and the Sikhs partook of the food he had brought for them. It so happened, says the Sakhi Pothi, that a few more Sikhs arrived after all the food had been consumed. Dial Singh sold his gold ring and bought fresh victuals for the newcomers,
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DIRHBA, an old town 30 km southeast of Sangrur (30° 14`N, 75°50`E) in the Punjab, has a historical shrine commemorating the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. It is known as Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi IX and is situated on the bank of a deep pond on the northwestern outskirts of the town where the Guru is believed to have encamped. The sanctum is in the middle one of the three small cubicles built in a row.
