Baba
Sahib Singh Bedi
Pahari equestrian miniature painting of Sahib Singh Bedi, circa 19th century
Personal
Born(1756-04-07)7 April 1756
Dera Baba Nanak, Punjab
Died17 July 1834(1834-07-17) (aged 78)
Una, Himachal Pradesh
ReligionSikhism
ChildrenBishan Singh
Bikram Singh
Attar Singh

Sahib Singh Bedi (7 April 1756 – 17 July 1834) was a direct lineal descendant of Guru Nanak in the tenth generation.[1][2]

Biography

Early life

Sahib Singh Bedi was born to parents Ajit Singh Bedi (died 1773) and Sarupan Devi on 7 April 1756 at Dera Baba Nanak (in present-day Gurdaspur district) in the traditional Punjabi month of Chet sudi.[1] In 1770, his family shifted to Una located at the foothills of the Sivalik Hills region (in present-day Himachal Pradesh), where they held land.[1]

Later life

Painting of Sahib Singh Bedi (seated right) seated with his son, Tegh Singh Bedi (seated left), North India, dated 1838–39 CE
Mural of Sahib Singh Bedi with his sons and relatives (Suraj Singh, Attar Singh, and Bikram Singh Bedi, Sujan Singh), and Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Una Sahib

Sahib Singh Bedi was greatly respected by the Sikh misldars (chiefs) during the era of the Sikh Confederacy and acted as a common uniting cause between the various bickering, rival chiefs against an outside enemy.[3] He was responsible for applying the tilak and saffron paste during the coronation ceremony of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 11 or 12 April 1801 in Lahore.[1][4] He was also the founder of the locality of Bedian located near Lahore on tracts of land allotted to him by Ranjit Singh.[5] He established a Sikh religious educational school at Bedian, partly choosing this location to combat the rival heretic Mina sect, founded by the disgruntled and rebellious Prithi Chand, which was headquartered at Heir village nearby.[5] He died on 17 July 1834 in Una.[1][2] He was survived by two sons, Bishan Singh and Bikram Singh.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Singh, Harbans (1992–1998). The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Vol. 4, S–Z. Patiala: Punjabi University, Patiala. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-8364-2883-8. OCLC 29703420.
  2. ^ a b Grewal, J. S. (2015). Early Nineteenth-Century Panjab. Indu Banga. London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-33694-5. OCLC 1018168644. Baba Sahib Singh Bedi, son of Kala Dhari, a descendant of Baba Asa Chand, also has been a man of felicity and miracle. He came into possession of Una. He died there and his samadh is a place of pilgrimage.
  3. ^ Singh, Bhupender (23 December 2022). Baba Nanak Shah Fakir (1st ed.). Blue Rose Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 9789357046602. Sahib Singh Bedi (1756-1834), a contemporary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was tenth in direct descent from Guru Nanak. He was a selfless man and by virtue of his descent from the holy Guru and his age, he enjoyed the status of father of the Sikhs. He was always wont to appear as a saviour when the Sikhs were in a crisis and threatened with disruption. The venerable Sahib Singh Bedi united the Sikhs when there were differences between them and stopped them from being misled by the enemy when he was trying to sow seeds of discord among them. Such was the prestige of the man that the Sardars obeyed without demur; they readily and implicitly lay down their swords at his feet and agreed to abide by his decision.
  4. ^ Singh, Rishi (2015). State Formation and the Establishment of Non-Muslim Hegemony : Post-Mughal 19th-century Punjab. New Delhi: SAGE Publications. ISBN 93-5150-504-9. OCLC 1101028781. For instance, it was decided that a big gathering was to be held where Ranjit Singh would take the title of 'Maharaja'. The gathering took place on 12 April 1801 in which all the notable persons, including mukaddams, nambardars, chaudharis (government officials), came from far and near to congratulate him. In this gathering, Ranjit Singh declared that from then onwards he should be addressed as sarkar. Waheeduddin writes in his account based on his family archival material that Baba Sahib Singh Bedi daubed Ranjit Singh with saffron paste and proclaimed him the Maharaja of Punjab.
  5. ^ a b Khalid, Haroon (2022). Walking With Nanak. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 9789354928475. 'Bedian village was occupied by the descendants of Guru Nanak before Partition. They were called Bedi, hence Bedian. They were referred to as Bedi because in ancient times they used to recite the Vedas, from which they earned the title of Vedis or Bedis,' continued Iqbal Qaiser. 'Baba Nanak had two sons, Sri Chand and Sri Lachman. Sri Chand became an ascetic and never married but Sri Lachman did and had children. Baba Nanak's lineage is therefore preserved through his younger son. During the tenure of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, there was a man called Baba Sahib Singh Bedi who was respected widely because of his piety and religious lifestyle. Ranjit Singh allotted him vast tracts of land around the cities of Gujranwala and Lahore. It was on this land that Sahib Singh Bedi founded the village of Bedian near the city of Lahore. Here he also founded a religious centre that would preach the teachings of Guru Nanak. He chose this spot because he wanted to counter the propaganda being spread by the sect founded by Prithi Chand at Heir, which as you can see is not far from Bedian. When the British took over Punjab they allowed the Bedi community settled here to retain their land. At the time of Partition all of them migrated to India to be replaced by Mewatis and Arains from Amritsar.
  6. ^ Dilagīra, Harajindara Siṅgha (1997). The Sikh Reference Book (1st ed.). Edmonton, Alb., Canada: Sikh Educational Trust for Sikh University Centre, Denmark. pp. 588–89. ISBN 0-9695964-2-1. OCLC 37769917.
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