Dr Charan Kamal Singh

Dr Charan Kamal Singh is the author of Ghar in Gurbani: Reading and Singing Gurbani, the Guru’s Way, published by Notion Press in 2019 in English and Punjabi (491 pages). The book takes up the word ghar, which appears often in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and which, the listing says, is poorly understood. It is written for people who read Gurbani, perform kirtan or study any part of Gurbani.

The note on the author, carried by a bookseller’s listing and so his own account, says he is Director of the Ishmeet Singh Music Institute in Ludhiana. It says he holds the music qualifications Sangeet Vishard from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, and Sangeet Parbhakar from Gandharv Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi. It adds that he worked as a scientist at Punjab Agricultural University and later as a head of department at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, both in Ludhiana, and describes him as a veterinarian, academician, research worker and kirtan performer.

Key moments

• His foreword says the study began with a question about why the Rahao line of a shabad is not always the first line.
• In working on it he relied heavily on Professor Sahib Singh’s ten-volume Guru Granth Sahib Darpan and on Gurbani grammar.
• 2019: the book was published.

What he is known for: this study of ghar, aimed at readers and singers of Gurbani. The sources we could open say nothing more about him, and this profile does not go beyond them.