Bhai Taru Singh Ji: the young farmer who gave his scalp rather than his kes

Bhai Taru Singh Ji is remembered twice in the Nanakshahi calendar, at his birth anniversary and at his Shaheedi Purab. His story, from the dark years of the eighteenth century, is the clearest example in Sikh history of devotion to the kes, the uncut hair that is part of the Sikh form.

The farmer of Poohla

Bhai Taru Singh Ji was born in 1720 at Poohla, a village near Amritsar, and lived with his widowed mother and his sister. In those years the governors of Lahore had put a price on the head of every Sikh, and many Singhs lived in the forests and deserts. Bhai Taru Singh Ji farmed his land and quietly shared what he grew with them, giving them food and shelter.

Arrest

In 1745 an informer, Harbhagat Niranjania, reported him to Zakariya Khan, the governor of Lahore, for helping the rebels. He was arrested and brought to Lahore. The governor offered him his life if he would accept Islam and cut his hair. He refused. Tradition remembers that when told his kes would be cut, he answered that his hair would go with his scalp, and asked for no other mercy.

The shaheedi

On the governor's orders his scalp was removed with a sharp blade. He bore it calmly, reciting the bani. He lived on for some days, and tradition holds that Zakariya Khan fell ill and died before him. Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh Ji in Lahore marks the place.

How he is remembered

Sikhs remember him with kirtan, katha and Ardas on both days. Many gurdwaras use the occasion to speak about the kes and the dastar, and young Sikhs often hold turban-tying camps in his memory.