Giani Soorat Singh

Giani Soorat Singh is the third head of the Damdami Taksal in the Taksal's own list, after Baba Deep Singh and Baba Gurbaksh Singh Shaheed. The Taksal also names him as the father of Bhai Gurdas Singh and Giani Sant Singh, the two heads who follow him in its list. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism spells his name Surat Singh and does not call him a head of the Taksal. No source we opened gives the year of his birth or death.

The Taksal's account: The Taksal's website says he was born at Chanyot (Chiniot) in Jhang district, now in Pakistan, to Ram Chand, who took the name Bhai Ram Singh when he took amrit. It says he studied Gurbani under Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh and Shaheed Baba Gurbaksh Singh, knew Farsi, Urdu and Hindi, and spread Sikh teaching around Jhang until a minister of the local ruler objected and he moved with his family to Amritsar. There he taught Gurbani santhia, the correct pronunciation, and gave daily katha to the sangat. It says he wrote pothis of the katha he had heard from Bhai Mani Singh, and a Punjabi commentary on the Vars of Bhai Gurdas. The Taksal's list of leaders adds that his eldest son, Bhai Gurdas Singh, born in 1773, became Jathedar of the Taksal after him.

The Encyclopaedia's account: In its entry on his son Giani Sant Singh, the Encyclopaedia says Bhai Surat Singh was a scholar of Persian and Punjabi, known as a giani for his clear explanations of scripture, who settled at Amritsar about 1750, later managed the Darbar Sahib and its endowed estates, and was given a landed estate near Jalandhar. Its entry on the Giani Sampradai lists him first among the Giani family's head priests of the Harimandar, followed by Gurdas Singh, Sant Singh, Gurmukh Singh and Pardumaan Singh.

A dissenting view: Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, in an essay posted in English translation in 2012, calls Surat Singh a Nirmala, born of Ram Chand at Chiniot and educated by pandits at Benares, and denies that he was a follower of Mani Singh or Gurbaksh Singh. He also says no early record makes Baba Deep Singh head of a taksal and that Baba Gurbaksh Singh had no association with the Damdami Taksal. The Taksal's account is the opposite.

Key moments (the sources give few dates)

• Born at Chanyot in Jhang district, no date given.
• About 1750: Bhai Surat Singh settles at Amritsar, according to the Encyclopaedia.
• 1773: his son Bhai Gurdas Singh is born, according to the Taksal.

Remembered for: standing in the Taksal's list between Baba Gurbaksh Singh Shaheed and his sons Bhai Gurdas Singh and Giani Sant Singh, and for the Gurbani teaching at Amritsar that the Taksal credits to him.