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CHHATTIANA, village 14 km north of Giddarbaha (32° 12`N, 74° 39`E) in Faridkot district of the Punjab, claims an historical shrine, Gurdwara Guptsar, sacred to Guru Gobind Singh who visited here after the battle of Muktsar (1706). Here warriors of the Brar clan received payment for the services they had rendered to the Guru. One who declined was Bhai Dan Singh. To quote an old chronicle. MaJva Desh Ratan di Sakhi Pothi, "Bestow on me sikkhi (the Sikh faith), if you please; I have no other desire," begged he. The Guru administered to him the rites of initiation.
DHARAM SINGH, BHAI (1666-1708), one of the Pan] Piare or the Five Beloved, the forerunners of Khalsa, came of farming stock. He was the son of Bhai Sant Ram and Mai Sabho, of Hastinapur, an ancient town on the right bank of the Ganges, 35 km northeast of Meerut (29°N, 77° 45`E). Dharam Das, as he was originally named, was born around 1666. As a young man, he fell into the company of a Sikh who introduced him to the teachings of the Gurus. He left home at the age of thirty in quest of further instruction. At the Sikh shrine ofNanak Piau, dedicated to Guru Nanak, he was advised to go to Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur, where he arrived in 1698.
