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Was a Buttar jatt of the village Van, popularly known as Dall-Van
because of its proximity to another village called Dall, in present-day
Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father, Gurdas Singh, had received
the rites of the Khalsa in the time of Guru Gobind Singh, and had
taken part in the battle of Amritsar (6 April 1709), in which Bhai
Mani Singh led the Sikhs and in which Har Sahai, a revenue official
of Patti, was killed at his (Gurdas Singh's) hands. Tara Singh,
the eldest of the five sons of Gurdas Singh, was born around 1702.
Receiving the rites of initiation from Bhai Mani Singh, he grew
up to be a devout Sikh, skilled in the martial arts. As persistent
persecution drove the Sikhs out of their homes to seek shelter in
hills and forests, Tara Singh collected around him a band of desperadoes
and lived defiantly at Van, where he, according to Ratan Singh Bhangu,
Prachin Panth Prakash, possessed a jagir or land-grant.. In his
vary or enclosure made with thick piles of dried branches of thorny
trees, he gave refuge to any Sikh who came to him to escape persecution.
A government informer, Sahib Rai of Naushahra Pannuan, complained
to the faujdar of Patti, Ja'far Beg, that Tara Singh harboured criminals.
The faujdar sent a contingent of 25 horse and 80 foot to Van, but
Tara Singh fought back and routed the invaders with several dead,
including their commander, a nephew of the faujdar. Ja'far Beg reported
the matter to Zakariya Khan, who sent a punitive expedition consisting
of 2,000 horse, five elephants, 40 light guns and four cannon-on-wheels
under his deputy, Momin Khan. Tara Singh had barely 22 men with
him at that time. They kept the Lahore force at bay through the
night, but were killed to a man in the hand-to-hand fight on the
following day. This happened on 24 December 1732. A Gurdwara now
marks the site where Tara Singh and his companions were cremated.
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