BIKRAMA SINGH, KANVAR (1835-1887), one of the pioneers of the Singh Sabha movement, was born in 1835. He was the son of Raja Nihal Singh of Kapurthala. As he grew up, he developed interest in classical learning and music. He received several honours and distinctions from the British government. During the 1857 uprising, he commanded a Kapurthala contingent of 300 men, horse and foot, and 2 guns to defend Hoshiarpur.
BISHAN SINGH, SANT (d. 1973), holy saint most of whose life was spent in works of seva, raising of buildings by labour volunteered by devotees, at different shrine sites, came of a well to do Sindhi family. Nothing is known about his early life except that his parents were Sahajdhari Sikhs and that he was in government service when he came in 1940 to the Punjab on a pilgrimage visiting Sikh places of worship and saw Sant Gurmukh Singh of Patiala, then engaged in massive works of seva reconstructing the shrines and sacred pools at Khadur Sahib and Goindval. Bishan Singh was so impressed by the piousness, humility and devotion of Sant Gurmukh Singh and of the large number of Sikhs volunteering their labour that he resigned his post in the government, gave away his personal belongings and joined the holy company.
DITT SINGH, GIANI (1853-1901), scholar, poet and journalist, was an eminent Singh Sabha reformer and editor. He was born on 21 April 1853 at Kalaur, a village in Patiala district of the Punjab. His ancestral village was Jhalliari, near Chamkaur Sahib, but his father, Divan Singh, had migrated to his wife`s village, Kalaur. Divan Singh, a Ravidasia by caste and a weaver by trade, was a religious minded person who had earned the title of Sant for his piety.
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