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Was the son of Bhai Gurmukh Singh of Daudhar, a village 22 km southeast
of Moga (30°-48'N, 75°-10'E), in Faridkot district of the
Punjab. Blind from birth, Khushal Singh received instruction in
gurbani and kirtan or devotional music in Vadda Dera, a school for
training Sikh musicians established at Daudhar in 1859 by Sant Suddh
Singh (D. 1882). Bhai Vir Singh (d. 1902), an accomplished musician
who became mahant or head of the institution after the death of
its founder, was his teacher. Khushal Singh made swift progress
and acquired uncanny proficiency in the art. Besides solitary recitation
of gurbani early in the morning and kirtan in the sangat morning
and evening, he gave lessons in devotional music to the inmates
of the Dera most of whom were physically handicapped being blind
or maimed.
The instruments taught included saranda, sitar,
tanpura and various kinds of drums and concussion instruments, but
Khushal Singh's particular specialization was in saranda. A good
vocalist, he not only sang the traditional classical measures, but
also made his own innovations. Once his singing of a hymn in Mirza
Gauri, a new tune set by himself, in a learned gathering at Damdama
Sahib, Talvandi Sabo, drew unprecedented applause.
Bhai Khushal Singh died in 1945 at the ripe
age of 83. The wooden frame of his favourite saranda is preserved
in a museum in the town of Faridkot.
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