DHAUṄKAL SIṄGH (d. 1844), a drill-nāik in the army of the East India Company who deserted the service of the British and joined the Sikh army about 1805. In 1807, Jamādar Khushāl Siṅgh, who had come to Lahore to seek his fortune and had eventually risen to the position of ḍeohṛīdār or chamberlain, was placed under Dhauṅkal Siṅgh. In 1828-29, when the Lahore army was reorganized, Dhauṅkal Siṅgh was given command of a regiment composed mainly of Pūrbiā deserters from the East India Company and a few Sikhs. Subsequently, he was promoted general who took an important part in the military administration of Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh. As a regimental commander in the Sikh army, Dhauṅkal Siṅgh participated in various military campaigns - Kāṅgṛā (1809), Aṭṭock (1813), Multān (1818), Kashmīr (1819), and Ḍerā Ismā'īl Khān (1820). From 1830 to 1833, he was active in operations in the Peshāwar valley. Dhauṅkal Siṅgh's troops were stationed at Hazārā in 1844 when he was ordered to move to Muzaffarābād to reduce the rebels who had risen in support of Ghulām Mohī ud-Dīn, the governor of Kashmīr. He secured some initial success against the rebels, but eventually fell in the fighting.