DEVA SINGH, SIR (1834-1890), a highranking Patiala state administrator, was born in 1834 into an Arora Sikh family, the son of Colonel Khushal Singh, a brave soldier who had once killed a tiger (sher, in Punjabi) near one of the city gates conferring upon it the name Sheranvala which lasts to this day. Deva Singh received the only formal education available at that time by attending a maktab or Persian school, and entered Patiala state service at a very early age in 1846. In 1853, he was appointed assistant judicial minister and in 1855, a Risaldar in a cavalry unit.
GIAN SINGH RAREVALA (1901-1979), administrator and politician, was born on 16 December 1901 at his mother`s village Bhari in Ludhiana district. His own ancestral village was Rara, also in Ludhiana district, where his father Ratan Singh was a bisveddr (fiefholder) of the former princely state of Patiala. Gian Singh having received his early education at Bhari, Samrala and Ludhiana, passed his matriculation examination from Model High School, Patiala, and Bachelor of Arts examination from Mohindra College, Patiala, in 1925. He then entered the Patiala state service as a ndib ndzim (assistant deputy commissioner) and after a year`s training at Patiala he was posted to Sunam.
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