Giani Sant Singh of Amritsar

Giani Bhai Sant Singh was a scholar of the Giani family of Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism calls him a man of letters who served as custodian of Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar in Sikh times. The Damdami Taksal lists him as its fifth head, after Bhai Gurdas Singh.

Family and teachers: The Encyclopaedia says his family came from Chiniot in present-day Jhang district. His father, Bhai Surat Singh, a scholar of Persian and Punjabi known as a giani for his clear explanations of scripture, settled at Amritsar about 1750, later managed the Darbar Sahib and its endowed estates, and was given a landed estate near Jalandhar, where Sant Singh was born in 1768. The Taksal's pages call his father Giani Soorat Singh. Sant Singh trained in Sikh learning under his father and studied Braj and Sanskrit under Pandit Nihal Singh of Thoha. The sources differ on his brother Bhai Gurdas Singh. The Encyclopaedia's entry on Sant Singh calls Gurdas Singh his younger brother, and the two recited the Guru Granth Sahib in the Harimandar. The Taksal calls Sant Singh the youngest son and Gurdas Singh his elder brother, who led the Taksal before him. The Encyclopaedia's table on the Giani Sampradai lists Sant Singh as Gurdas Singh's son.

Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh: When Ranjit Singh took the Jalandhar Doab in 1806 to 1807, Sant Singh kept the family estate and succeeded his father in supervising repair and decoration at the Darbar Sahib. He attended the court at Lahore and in 1821 went with Ranjit Singh on an expedition to Mankera. Maharaja Ranjit Singh entrusted him with art and filigree work inside the Harimandar and with having the upper part of its outside covered in gold leaf, and an inscription at the main entrance of the inner sanctum names him as the supervisor of the work. After his brother's early death he left court life for Amritsar to study and expound scripture, and his son Gurmukh Singh took his place at court.

Key moments

• 1790: the Taksal says he began katha on the daily hukamnama at Sri Harmandir Sahib, with five saroops of the Guru Granth Sahib installed so that other Gursikhs could study.
• 1806 to 1807: Ranjit Singh takes the Jalandhar Doab, and Sant Singh takes over his father's work at the Darbar Sahib.
• 1821: goes with Ranjit Singh to Mankera.
• 1832: he died at Amritsar, and Gurmukh Singh took over his work at the Darbar Sahib.

Works and pupil: The Encyclopaedia lists Suras Pradipika, a prose translation of Tulsidas's Ramayana published in 1897; Sri Guru Charitra Prabhakar, short lives of the Gurus, published in 1877; and a work on pahul, the Sikh initiation. It calls Bhai Santokh Singh, who wrote the Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth while living in his house, his pupil. Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, in an essay posted in English translation in 2012, calls Sant Singh a committed Nirmala; the Encyclopaedia's entry does not call him one.