ਭਾਈ ਦਇਆ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀਭਾਈ ਦਇਆ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ

Bhai Daya Singh Ji (1661 to 1708) was the first of the Panj Pyare, the five Sikhs who formed the Khalsa at ਅਨੰਦਪੁਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ on Vaisakhi 1699. Born Daya Ram, he was the first to rise and offer his head when ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ asked for one, and his name is spoken first among the five in the Ardas.

Who was Bhai Daya Singh Ji?

Bhai Daya Singh Ji was born Daya Ram in Lahore in 1661, the son of Bhai Suddha Ji and Mai Diali Ji, a Sobti Khatri family. His father was a devout Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji and had visited Anandpur more than once to seek the ninth Guru's blessing. In 1677 the family moved to Anandpur for good, settling there to serve Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Daya Ram grew up well versed in Punjabi and Persian, studying the classics and gurbani and training in the use of arms.

Most accounts give 1661 as the year of his birth, which would have made him 38 when the Khalsa was formed, though a few accounts give other years. The date is best read as the traditional one rather than a settled record, and nothing else in his story turns on it.

His name fits the man the tradition remembers. Daya means compassion, and each of the five beloved ones carries a name that stands for a quality: Dharam Singh for righteousness, Himmat Singh for courage, Mohkam Singh for steadfastness and Sahib Singh for sovereignty. Bhai Daya Singh Ji is remembered as the first among equals, the one whose name is uttered first when the five are named in the Ardas.

Vaisakhi 1699: the first to offer his head

On 30 March 1699, at a great diwan in the Kesgarh fort at Anandpur, Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked the gathered Sikhs for a head. Daya Ram was the first to rise and offer his own, believing he was going to his death. Four others followed him in turn, and the five were admitted as the first members of the Khalsa. They then administered the rite of initiation to Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself, who named them the Panj Pyare, the Five Beloved. Daya Ram took the name Daya Singh that day.

The moment changed Sikh life for good. Until then the Guru had stood above the sangat; from that day the five stood as equals of the Guru, and the Khalsa that grew from them carried the Guru's authority in the community itself. Bhai Daya Singh Ji stayed close to Guru Gobind Singh Ji for the rest of his life, as a constant attendant and confidant, and the place he took that morning has never been forgotten: in every gurdwara, his name is the first of the five spoken in the Ardas.

Battles and the escape from Chamkaur

Bhai Daya Singh Ji fought beside Guru Gobind Singh Ji in the battles around Anandpur, and the Guru's own account in the Bichitra Natak praises his courage at the Battle of Bhangani. He was with the Guru through the hardest years of the struggle with the Mughal and hill forces, when Anandpur itself was besieged and the Khalsa was driven from its home.

On the night of 7 and 8 December 1705, he was one of the three companions who slipped out of the besieged fort at Chamkaur with Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the others being Bhai Dharam Singh Ji and Bhai Man Singh. The Guru's two elder sons had been killed in the fighting that day, and the small party made its way through enemy patrols to safety. Bhai Daya Singh Ji stayed with the Guru in the Malwa region in the months that followed, as the Guru gathered his strength again.

The Zafarnama mission to Aurangzeb

From Dina in the Punjab, Guru Gobind Singh Ji sent Bhai Daya Singh Ji and Bhai Dharam Singh Ji south as his emissaries, carrying his letter to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, then camped at Ahmadnagar in the Deccan. The letter, later known as the Zafarnama, the Letter of Victory, set out the Guru's charge against the emperor for the betrayal of his word and the killing of his sons.

The two reached Ahmadnagar by way of Aurangabad, but found they could not gain a personal audience with the emperor as the Guru had directed. Bhai Daya Singh Ji sent Bhai Dharam Singh Ji back to seek the Guru's advice, and before his companion could return with fresh instructions, he had managed to have the letter delivered. He came back to Aurangabad and stayed in the Dhami Mahalla quarter, where a gurdwara now marks the place of his stay. A copy of the Zafarnama prepared by Bhai Daya Singh Ji is still preserved.

The two then rejoined Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Kalayat, a town in Rajasthan, and Bhai Daya Singh Ji remained in attendance on the Guru to the end of his life.

Last days at Nanded and the Angitha

Bhai Daya Singh Ji was with Guru Gobind Singh Ji at ਨਾਂਦੇੜ in the Deccan when the Guru died on 7 October 1708. He himself died at Nanded soon after, and a joint memorial known as the Angitha Bhai Daya Singh ate Dharam Singh stands in memory of him and Bhai Dharam Singh Ji, marking their cremation ground near the bank of the river Godavari.

His birthplace in Lahore was marked by a shrine in the Koocha Softi quarter of the old walled city, now known as Koocha Katri Bawa, and in August 2024 researchers traced the site again inside the old city, a reminder that the Lahore of his childhood still holds the places of his story.

Legacy: the scholar and the Samparda

Bhai Daya Singh Ji was a learned man. One of the Rahitnamas, the manuals of Sikh conduct, is ascribed to him, and a manuscript of the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ from Aurangabad is attributed to his hand. Under the Guru's hukam he set up a school to pass on the spiritual wisdom he had received, and the school became known as the Bhai Daya Singh Ji Samparda. Its care later passed to Baba Sobha Singh Ji of Anandpur Sahib, and the line that grew from it is remembered today in the traditions of Hoti Mardan and Rara Sahib.

The Darauli branch of the Nirmala tradition traces its line to Bhai Daya Singh Ji through Baba Deep Singh Ji. Three centuries after Vaisakhi 1699, his place in Sikh life is unchanged: the first name in the Ardas, the first head offered, and the model of a Sikh who answered the Guru's call without hesitation.