BENI, PANDIT, a learned Brahman of Chunian, in present day Lahore district of Pakistan, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Amar Das. As he first visited Goindval, he came loaded with books to demonstrate his learning. Guru Amar Das spoke to him gently: "Mere learning begetteth pride. What aideth one is humility, love and devotion." Pandit Beni, as says Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, had no desire left to show his skill in arguing. He bowed at the Guru`s feet and became a disciple. Guru Amar Das, says the chronicler, uttered impromptu a hymn in the Malar measure, addressed to Bhai Beni.
DEVA SINGH NAROTAM, PANDIT (d. 1924), Nirmala scholar, was the son of Mahitab Singh of the village of Janetpura, 13 km north of Jagraori (30° 47`N, 75° 28`E), in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. He received his early lessons in the Sikh texts at the hands of Bhai Gurdit Singh and then left home to continue his studies under Sant Nattha Singh of Gurdwara Tapiana Sahib at Khadur Sahib, in Amritsar district, and later under Sant Mahna Singh (d. 1890) at the Nirmala dera or monastery at Khandur, near Mullaripur, in Ludhiana district. He accompanied Sant Mahna Singh to Bhai Rupa, a village 18 km north of Rampura Phul in Bathinda district, to join the Nirmala monastery called Dera Khuharivala. Here, Deva Singh, already reputed enough as a scholar to be known as pandit (lit. learned scholar), was put by his mentor through a course of comparative study of gurbani in the light of his knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedanta.
DINA NATH, PANDIT (b. 1888), active supporter of and participant in the Sikh Gurdwara reform movement 1920-25, was born in 1888, the son of Pandit Bal Krishan of Amritsar. In the wake of the agrarian protest in the Punjab in 1907, he joined the Indian National Congress. He was secretary of the Amritsar District Congress Committee when the Gurdwara reform or AkaIi movement got under way with the establishment in November 1920 of a representative Sikh body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Pandit Dina Nath was in sympathy with the movement and joined the Akali agitation for the restoration of the keys of the to shakhana or treasury of the Darbar Sahib, which had been taken away by the British Deputy Commissioner on 7 November 1921.
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