Budha Dalਬੁੱਢਾ ਦਲ

The Budha Dal, the army of the elders, was one of the two divisions of the Dal Khalsa, the confederated Sikh army of the eighteenth century. Nawab Kapur Singh created it at Amritsar in 1734, placing the older leaders in the Budha Dal and the younger men in the Taruna Dal. Kapur Singh commanded both.

What is the Budha Dal?

The Budha Dal is, first, a piece of Sikh military history, and second, a living institution. Historically it was the senior half of the Dal Khalsa, the joint army that carried the Khalsa Panth through the hardest decades of the eighteenth century, from persecution under the Mughal governors of Lahore to the rise of the Sikh misls. In the present day the name belongs to the Shiromani Panth Akali Budha Dal, described on SikhiWiki as the head section of the Nihang Sikhs, the blue clad martial order of the Khalsa. Budha means elder, and the Dal is led, as a military body, by a jathedar. Its modern headquarters are at Raqba, and its camps, called deras or chhaunis, keep horses, run gurdwaras and train in martial arts. The Dal's own tradition traces its leadership back in an unbroken line to the first jathedars of the Dal Khalsa, a claim this page reports as the Dal's tradition.

Why was the Dal Khalsa divided?

The division was an answer to a crisis. With the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716, the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records, the Sikhs were deprived of a unified command, and the persecution that followed under Abd us Samad Khan, governor of Lahore, scattered them in small jathas into hills, forests and deserts. His son Zakariya Khan proved no more able to subdue them, and in 1733 he came to terms: a jagir worth 100,000 rupees a year, the title of Nawab for one of their leaders, and peaceful settlement at Amritsar. The Sikhs accepted. The bulk of the warriors, a few thousand men, concentrated at Amritsar under Sardar Kapur Singh, with Darbara Singh assisting him as diwan. Kapur Singh found it difficult to cater for so large a force centrally, particularly after Darbara Singh died in 1734, so he divided the camp into two parts on the basis of the age of the jathedars, the group leaders. The elders camp, comprising the jathas of older leaders such as Sham Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh, Bagh Singh, Gurdial Singh, Sukkha Singh and Kapur Singh himself, came to be called Buddha Dal, the elderly Dal. The youths camp was the Taruna Dal. Nawab Kapur Singh remained in overall command of the two Dals, jointly called the Dal Khalsa, and men were free to join the jatha of their choice.

Taruna Dal: the army of the young

The Taruna Dal, taruna meaning youthful, gathered the jathas of the younger leaders. It was subdivided into five jathas, each with its own drum and banner, and the Budha Dal was similarly subdivided after some time. The Encyclopaedia, citing Ratan Singh Bhangu and his Prachin Panth Prakash, notes the one surviving strength figure for a jatha: the fifth jatha of the Taruna Dal, commanded by Bir Singh Ranghreta, is put at 1,300 horse, from which the jathas are reckoned at 1,300 to 2,000 men each. The two Dals worked to an agreed division of labour. It was generally agreed that the Budha Dal would remain at Amritsar and manage the shrines, leaving the Taruna Dal free for operations in the country. The settlement with the Mughals soon broke down and persecution resumed. In the fighting that followed, while the Taruna Dal crossed the Sutlej into the territory of Sirhind, the Budha Dal spread through the countryside of Majha, and both returned to Amritsar for the Baisakhi and Diwali gatherings. In later years the Taruna Dal was spread over Majha and the Budha Dal operated in the Doaba and Malwa regions, but they continued to combine against common enemies, above all the Afghan invader Ahmad Shah Durrani.

From two Dals to the eleven misls

Success brought its own problem: the army outgrew two camps. Meeting at Amritsar on Diwali, 14 November 1745, the Dal Khalsa divided itself into 25 jathas, which still owed allegiance to the Budha Dal or the Taruna Dal and often undertook joint operations. Jathas of both Dals suffered together in the Chhota Ghallughara of April and May 1746. Then, at a Sarbatt Khalsa assembly at Amritsar on Baisakhi, 29 March 1748, the entire force of 65 jathas was reorganised into eleven misls, each under its own sardar. The first six misls, Ahluwalia, Singhpuria, Karorsinghia, Nishanwalia, Shahid and Dallewalia, stood under the Budha Dal, and the latter five, Sukerchakia, Bhangi, Kanhaiya, Nakai and Ramgarhia, under the Taruna Dal. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was chosen for the joint command of the entire Dal Khalsa, while Nawab Kapur Singh continued to be acknowledged as supreme commander. Before his death at Amritsar on 7 October 1753, Kapur Singh nominated Jassa Singh Ahluwalia as his successor, and the Sarbatt Khalsa ratified the appointment on Baisakhi, 10 April 1754. Through the years 1753 to 1764 the Dals replaced raiding with the rakhi system, protection offered to villages and minor chiefs for a regular cess, endured the Vadda Ghallughara of 5 February 1762, and joined in the conquest of Sirhind in January 1764. As the misls occupied defined territories and their sardars ruled independently, the terms Budha Dal and Taruna Dal became redundant and went out of use. The name Baba Deep Singh Ji, head of the Shahid misl, belongs to this Budha Dal half of the old army.

Who has led the Budha Dal?

SikhiWiki records the Dal's own list of jathedars in this order: Baba Binod Singh, Baba Darbara Singh, Nawab Kapur Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Baba Naina Singh, Akali Phula Singh, then Baba Hanuman Singh, Jathedar Prahlad Singh, Jathedar Gian Singh, Jathedar Baba Teja Singh, Baba Sahib Ji Kaladhari, Jathedar Baba Chet Singh, Jathedar Baba Santa Singh, Jathedar Baba Surjeet Singh and Jathedar Baba Prem Singh, with Jathedar Baba Maan Singh named as the current jathedar in that list. The early names anchor the story told on this page: Binod Singh and Darbara Singh led the Khalsa before the division, Kapur Singh made the division and commanded the whole, and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia succeeded him. Akali Phula Singh, overseer of the Akal Takht in Amritsar in the time of the Sikh Empire, shows the line running into the nineteenth century, when the Nihang deras stayed independent, helped maintain many Sikh places of worship, and kept the martial tradition alive through the British period and the revival after independence.

The Budha Dal today

The modern Shiromani Panth Akali Budha Dal is the senior Nihang order, and its work is the keeping of the Khalsa and its oldest martial customs. Its Singhs wear the blue bana, keep horses, and travel a full festival circuit: to Amritsar for Vaisakhi, to Muktsar for Maghi, to Baba Bakala for Rakharh Punnian, and above all to Anandpur Sahib for Hola Mohalla, the festival of martial display founded by Guru Gobind Singh Ji, where the dals ride and perform Gatka before vast crowds. At gurpurabs the Dal is present in force, its deep blue Nishan Sahib marking its camps out from the orange flags of SGPC managed gurdwaras. Its deras run gurdwaras of their own, continuing the custodianship of shrines recorded for the Budha Dal from the beginning, when its agreed task was to remain at Amritsar and manage the shrines while its sister Dal took the field.

Is the Budha Dal the fifth Takht?

This is a disputed claim, and it is stated here as a claim. The Budha Dal regards itself as the Panjva Takht, the fifth Takht, a moving throne rather than a fixed seat, and SikhiWiki presents the Dal in those terms. The other position is the settled institutional one: Takht Sri Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo was officially recognised as the fifth Takht by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee on 18 November 1966, and the Government of India declared it the fifth Takht in April 1999. The Damdama Sahib record notes that before Damdama Sahib became a Takht, the Budha Dal held that place, and its reference note states plainly that the position is disputed by the Budha Dal, who claim that their group is the fifth Takht. Jugti records both positions and takes neither side.