Sant Giani Bhagwan Singh

Sant Giani Bhagwan Singh is the seventh head of the Damdami Taksal in the Taksal's own account of its leaders, a teacher of Gurbani who lived in the Majithia bunga at Sri Harmandir Sahib and wrote a steek, or commentary, on the Bhagat Bani that was printed at Lahore in 1897. The Taksal's website gives no dates for his life or his time as head.

The website says he learned Gurbani and religious studies from Sant Daya Singh, who later gave him the dastar, the turban of leadership, of the Damdami Taksal. It says he spent most of his time reciting Gurbani, was unmoved by worldly attachments and was strict in rehat, and that in Amritsar he trained many kathakars and Gurbani readers.

In the Taksal's account

• Students: the website names Sant Harnam Singh, Sant Fateh Singh and Sant Ameer Singh. Ameer Singh later became jathedar of the Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh branch of the Taksal and is credited with a full steek of the Guru Granth Sahib.
• Writing: the website calls him a poet and scholar. At the request of the sangat, who found the Bani of the Bhagats deep, he wrote a steek of it, which was printed at Lahore in 1897, with the printing seen to by Bhai Gurmukh Singh Sidhana.
• Belief: it says he held all the Gurus, and the Guru Granth Sahib, to be forms of Akal Purakh.

The website's page on Sant Baba Harnam Singh Bedi says Bedi became head of the Taksal after Bhagwan Singh died. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's article on the Giani Sampradai lists a Bhai Bhagvan Singh among the scholars of the giani school, with a manuscript commentary on the Japu and a grammar of Gurbani, and gives no dates for him.