BHUPINDER SINGH, LIEUTENANTGENERAL MAHARAJA SIR (1891-1931), Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, Knight of the Order of the British Empire, ruler of the Sikh state of Patiala, was one of the most colourful and influential Indian princes of the interwar years. Tall, robust, dashingly handsome, he was to the British the personification of the Punjabi martial races, a veritable "flower of Oriental aristocracy." In his own eyes, and in the eyes of many of his coreligionists, he was the temporal leader of Sikhism.
FATEH SINGH MAN (d. 1845). son of Sham Singh Man, soldier, diplomat and commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. He entered the service of the Maharaja as a trooper, and took part in several campaigns, including those of Multan (1818) and Kashmir (1819). He rose to be a kumeddn. In 1811, he had a jagir worth one lakh of rupees and maintained a contingent of 300 horsemen. He served mostly in the northwest frontier region, across the Indus. After Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s death, he became an active partisan of Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh and Wazir Dhian Singh.
GULABDASIAS, a sect subscribing to epicurean ethics, were the followers of one Pritam Das, originally an Udasi sddhu. Pritam Das`s principal disciple was Gulab Das after whom the members of the sect came to be known as Gulabdasias. Gulab Das, son of Hamira, was born in 1809 at the village of Rataul, near Tarn Taran, in Amritsar district. He had served as a trooper in the army of Maharaja Sher Singh. On the abrogation of the Sikh rule, he became a follower of Pritam Das, succeeding him on his death as the head of the sect.
