DHARAM ARTH BOARD, a body representing different sections of the Sikh community constituted in May 1949 by Maharaja Yadavinder Singh, Rajpramukh of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), to manage the major Sikh shrines within the new state which had come into being in consequence of the amalgamation of the eight princely territories in the Punjab. Before merger some of these states had their own boards or committees for the purpose. Patiala state had, for instance, its Interim Gurdwara Board formed on 8 November 1946; Kapurthala its General Gurdwara Committee; and Jind its Gurdwara Committee.
DHILLI MANDAL, BHAI, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan. Once, as says Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, he reported to the Guru that he had come across verses using the pseudonym Nanak, but which did not seem genuine at all. Guru Arjan, continues Bhai Mani Singh, undertook thereupon the task of preparing an authorized volume sifting the genuine from the counterfeit. Thus emerged the Holy Granth which was installed in the Harimandar at Amritsar in 1604. See GOPI MAHITA, BHAI
DIKKH, village 12 km to the north of Maur Kalan (30° 4`N, 75° 14`E) in Bathinda district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who visited it during his travels in these parts. According to Sakhi Pothi, an humble Sikh entreated the Guru to come and put up in his house. The Guru accepted his invitation. He blessed his host who had served him with complete devotion. The Sikh, who was childless, had four sons thereafter.A memorial platform raised in honour of the Guru, about 200 metres west of the village, was later buried under sand; but, as memory of the Guru`s visit survived, it was uncovered again and a singleroom gurdwara established on the site in 1917.
DIVAN SINGH, BHAI (1888-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born in 1888, the son of Bhai Hira Singh and Mat Pan Kaur of Pandori Nij[jaran, in Jalandhar district. The family later shifted to Chakk No. 91 Dhannuana, in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur, now in Pakistan. Divan Singh, an illiterate bachelor, made a name for himself in that area as a wrestler and as an intrepid fighter.
DULEY, village in Ludhiana district, 17 km southwest from the city (30° 54`N, 75° 52`E), claims a historical shrine called Gurdwara Phalahi Sahib Patshahi 10. Guru Gobind Singh halted here awhile under a phalahi tree, while travelling from Alamgir toJodhari at the close of 1705. An imposing new gurdwara building, a large rectangular hall, has been completed recently. There is a basement below the prakash asthan representing the site of the original building, and above it is a room topped by a highdomed pavilion. Four more doublestoreyed domed pavilions surround the central pavilion.
DES RAJ. BHAI, a Khatri Sikh of Amritsar, was entrusted with the supervision of the reconstruction of the Harimandar during the sixties and seventies of the eighteenth century. Nothing is known about his early life or family except that he originally came from Sursingh village, 30 km southwest of Amritsar, from where he migrated to the town and flourished in business, with a reputation for honesty and truthfulness. When the Sikhs sacked Sirhind in January 1764 and allocated several hundred thousands rupees from the plunder for the restoration of Sri Harimandar Sahib at Amritsar, demolished by Ahmad Shah Durrani two years earlier, they assigned Bhai Des Raj to undertake the reconstruction.
