Sardar Sir AttarSingh, Raiss (Jagirdar) of Bhadaur estate (1833-1896) was a Sikh nobleman and polymath renowned for his literary skills. One of the first English-literate Sikhs, he was also proficient in Punjabi, Farsi, Sanskrit and Urdu.
After taking charge of his family estates in 1858, Attar Singh set up a library and a school at Bhadaur. He translated many Sikh liturgical texts into English for the first time and set up the Sri Guru Singh Sabha of Ludhiana in 1884.
He received many titles during the course of his life such as Faiz ul Fuzala (meaning “excelling the excellent learned men”) in 1877, and Companion of the Indian Empire in 1880.
He received many titles during the course of his life such as Faiz ul Fuzala (meaning “excelling the excellent learned men”) in 1877, and Companion of the Indian Empire in 1880.
For his skills in Sanskrit he was conferred the title of Mahamahopadhyaya and for his Arabic-Persian proficiency he was titled Shamas ul'Ulema. He was a member of the Bengal Philharmonical Society and served on the Committee of Management of the Aitchison Chiefs' College, Lahore.
A staunch British loyalist, he often acted as a bridge between the Sikh community and the British empire. He proved really valuable to the government during the Kuka uprising when he translated the Sau Sakhi, a text that the Namdharis used to source their predictions, in English.
He was knighted in 1888.
He took a leading part in the establishment of the Khalsa Diwan at Lahore of which he became patron in chief. In 1886 he was nominated a member of the General Committee of Darbar Sahib, Amritsar.
Sardar Attar Singh made signal contributions to the history of the development of the Punjabi language and he stressed on the inclusion of Punjabi in the academic syllabus at the Oriental College of Lahore.
A staunch British loyalist, he often acted as a bridge between the Sikh community and the British empire. He proved really valuable to the government during the Kuka uprising when he translated the Sau Sakhi, a text that the Namdharis used to source their predictions, in English.
He was knighted in 1888.
He took a leading part in the establishment of the Khalsa Diwan at Lahore of which he became patron in chief. In 1886 he was nominated a member of the General Committee of Darbar Sahib, Amritsar.
Sardar Attar Singh made signal contributions to the history of the development of the Punjabi language and he stressed on the inclusion of Punjabi in the academic syllabus at the Oriental College of Lahore.
To counteract the arguments that there was no significant literature in Punjabi, he produced an important list of books and manuscripts in Punjabi from his personal collection which disproved such claims. He discovered an old inscription at Hathur, a village in Ludhiana district, which proved the antiquity of the Punjabi language and script.
Sardar Sir Attar Singh died at Ludhiana on the 10th of June, 1896.
Sardar Sir Attar Singh died at Ludhiana on the 10th of June, 1896.
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