Murale

Murale, also written Murala, is a village in Gujrat district of the Punjab, now in Pakistan. It was the seat of Sant Bishan Singh Muralewale, a teacher of the Guru Granth Sahib, and so a place in the line of teachers that the Damdami Taksal counts as its own.

What the sources say

• The Taksal's own account of Sant Bishan Singh says that after Sant Ameer Singh died the sangat of Murale asked him to settle there for good. About 200 students were training there as kathakars, kirtanis and readers of Gurbani, and a langar was open to the sangat at all times. His students named on the page include Sant Giani Sundar Singh Bhindranwale, Sant Baba Prem Singh Muralewale and Sant Baba Bhagat Singh Ghebewale.
• The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Sundar Singh Bhindranwale became a pupil of Sant Bishan Singh of Murala, arriving on 8 March 1906 and studying there until his teacher's death on 28 January 1908.
• The Taksal's account says Bishan Singh himself tied the dastar of the Damdami Taksal on Sundar Singh on 13 Magh 1962 Bikrami, which it gives as 1905, and that he died in 1905. The dates differ from the Encyclopaedia's.
• The Encyclopaedia's table of the Giani lineage lists Giani Bishan Singh of Murala between Sant Harnam Singh and Sant Sundar Singh, and the Taksal's list of its leaders gives the same order.

What it means today. Murale is now across the border in Pakistan. Sundar Singh's later teaching centres, according to the Encyclopaedia, were in Indian Punjab, the most important at his native Bhindar Kalan, at Bopa Rai in Ludhiana district and at Takhtupura in Moga district, so the teaching of the line carried on from there.