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His special title to fame rests on the fact
that he was the guardian of the celebrated Akali Phula Singh (1761-1823)
whom he trained in the martial arts. Little is known about his early
life except that his original name was Narain Singh and that he
received khande di pahul or the rites of the Khalsa at the hands
of Jathedar Darbara Singh (D. 1734), leader of the Sikh fighting
forces prior to Nawab Kapur Singh. Naina Singh was a junior leader
in the Shahid misl, with headquarters at Damdama Sahib, Talvandi
Sabo, in present-day Bathinda district. He was a friend of Bhai
Ishar Singh of Nishananvali misl, father of Akali Phula Singh. Ishar
Singh was mortally wounded in an action in which the Shahid sardars
had also participated. As he lay dying, he entrusted his two infant
sons to the care of Naina Singh, who took the family to Damdama
Sahib and gave great attention to bringing up the children. Phula
Singh, the elder of the two, grew up into a firebrand Nihang who
later distinguished himself as jathedar of the Akal Takht at Amritsar
and as commander of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's crack Akali brigade.
Akali Naina Singh is also credited with introducing the tall pyramidal
turban common among the Nihangs to this day, and is said to have
been an adept in kirtan, the Sikh devotional music. In a gurdwara
at Bharpurgarh, a village near Amloh in Patiala district, are displayed
a few garments and the wooden frame of a musical instrument believed
to have once belonged to Akali Naina Singh who had retired to this
village in his later life.
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