DHARAM SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921) was the youngest of the four sons of Bhai Sant Singh and Mai Hukmi, of the village of Bundala, in Amritsar district. He was only four years old when the family migrated to Chakk No. 71 Bundala Bachan Singhvala in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur. His education was limited to rudimentary knowledge of the Punjabi language which he could barely read in the Gurmukhi script. He was robustly built and enjoyed wrestling.
DHINGAR, BHAI, a carpenter, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, Bhai Dhirigar, along with Bhai Maddu, a fellow worker in the craft, came to serve at the Guru`s feet. During the day they hewed wood for Guru ka Langar, community kitchen, and made cots and other articles for use by the disciples; in the divan they attentively listened to recitations and discourses; and early in the morning they drew water for Sikhs` ablutions.
DIP SINGH SHAHID. BABA (1682-1757). founder of the Shahid misi or principality as well as of the Damdami Taksal or Damdama school of Sikh learning, was born in 1682, the son of Bhai Bhagata and Mai Jiuni. a Sikh couple living in Pahuvind, a village 40 km southwest of Amritsar. He received the vows of the Khalsa at Anandpur where he stayed for some time to study the sacred texts under Bhai Mani Singh. He rejoined Guru Gobind Singh at Talvandi Sabo in 1706 and, after the latter`s departure for the South, stayed on there to look after the sacred shrine, Damdama Sahib.
DORAHA (30° 48`N, 76° 2`E), an old village along the Grand Trunk Road 20 km east of Ludhiana, claims an historical shrine, Gurdwara Damdama Sahib Patshahi Chhevin, sacred to Guru Hargobind, Nanak VI. According to local tradition, Guru Hargobind encamped here for a night travelling back from the Gwalior Fort. The present complex, a rectangular flat roofed hall with ancillary buildings inside a walled compound, was constructed in 1932. The Gurdwara is managed by the local sangat. M.G.S.
DURGA, BHAI, accompanied by Bhai Paira, once visited Guru Arjan and begged to be instructed in the duty of a householder. The Guru spoke: "Earn your living by the labour of your hands. Share with the needy from what you save. Feed the poor and clothe the naked. They receive God`s bounty who give away in His name." Durga and Paira acted on the Guru`s instruction. They, as says Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, distributed in charity all they had, and yet they were never in want. They received more than they gave.
Dard, Hira Singh, an eminent story writer, wrote with a reformatory attitude. He indirectly preached certain reforms keeping in view the realistic side of life. His story \'Rakhri\'1 is of this nature. The character, of the quarrelsome, rude and unlettered Rukmani—the heroine—making her home a hell and over hen-pecked nature of Daroga Prem Nath—the hero—are god realistic i portrayals but at the same time there is a implied suggestion of needed reform in both of them. His famous story \'Pir Gahlur Shah\' is a fine satire on the religious but blind faith of those people who, being uneducated, repose full faith in the hypocritical preachers.
DALIP SINGH (1894-1921), who fell a martyr at Nankana Sahib on the morning of 20 February 1921, was born to Karam Singh and Har Kaur in January 1894 at the village of Sahoval, in Sialkot district, now in Pakistan. Two of his three brothers having died young, Dalip Singh was brought up by his parents with extra attention and care. He was educated at Sarigia, Daska and Gujranwala. While at school, he developed a keen interest in Sikh history and gurbani, utterances of the Gurus, i.e. Sikh religious texts.
DE MEVIUS, BARON, also known as Frank Ernest Mevins, was a Prussian who came to the Punjab in March 1827 and was employed in the Sikh army in the rank of colonel. According to the Khalsa Darbar records, Mevius had to sign a pledge that he would, "during his period of service, abstain from eating beef, smoking or shaving, would domesticate himself in the country by marriage, would never quit the service without formal permission from the Maharajah, and would engage to fight any nation with whom the Maharajah declared war, even should it be his own."
DESU SINGH, BHAI (d. 1781), was the second of the five sons of Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh of the well known Bhai family, deriving its name from the celebrated Bhai Bhagatu, contemporary of three successor Gurus, Guru Arjan, Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai. According to Bhai Santokh Singh, Garb Ganjani Tika, Desu Singh was the fifth in the line of Bhai Bhagatu`s descendants. His father, Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh, was a close associate of Ala Singh of Patiala and had carved for himself some territories around Sirhind and Kaithal besides his ancestral possessions in several villages around Bhuchcho, near Bathinda.
