DARBĀRĀ SIṄGH, DĪWĀN (d. 1734), originally from the mercantile community of Sirhind, became a Sikh receiving the initiatory rites on 30 March 1699, the day the Khālsā was created, and took part in the battles of Anandpur. During the period after Bandā Siṅgh he commanded much esteem as a veteran fighter and as dīwān, i. e. commissar in charge of rations and forage. In 1733 when Zakarīyā Khān, governor of Lahore, decided to make it up with the Sikhs and sent his envoy, Subeg Siṅgh, with the offer of nawābship and a jāgīr, the Sikh assembly first decided to confer the mantle of nawābship upon Darbārā Siṅgh but he, according to Ratan Siṅgh Bhaṅgū, Prāchīn Panth Prakāsh, excused himself arguing that the Sikhs should not compromise their claim to sovereignty by accepting a title from the Mughal rulers. The saṅgat, however, overruling his objection, bestowed the title upon another leading Sikh, Kapūr Siṅgh. Darbārā Siṅgh Dīwān continued as controller of provisions till his death at Amritsar in 1734.