JAVĀLĀ SIṄGH, SANT (1889-1957), widely revered for his piety especially among Sikhs in the Doābā region of the Punjab, was born on 1 May 1889 at Laṅgerī, a village in Hoshiārpur district. His parents, Narain Siṅgh and Rāj Kaur, were known as highly religious persons. Javālā Siṅgh was their eighth child and the only brother of seven sisters. He received instruction at the village primary school and at the gurdwārā. Tall and of athletic built, he joined the army on 5 January 1907 as a soldier in the 35th Sikh Battalion. It was during his service at Rāwalpiṇḍī that he came in contact with Sant Āyā Siṅgh, spiritual successor to the celebrated saint Sant Karam Siṅgh of Hotī, a village near Mardan cantonment in the North-West Frontier Province. He formally became disciple of Sant Āyā Siṅgh on 5 March 1911. Javālā Siṅgh saw action in France during World War I, but resigned from the army on 1 January 1917 and joined the ḍerā at Hotī to devote himself to a life of contemplation and service. At the persuasion of Sant Harnām Siṅgh of his native Hoshiārpur district and with the permission of his religious mentor, Sant Āyā Siṅgh, Javālā Siṅgh returned home to the Doābā in December 1918 and settled in a lonely place between the villages of Harkhovāl and Paṇḍorī Bībī, about 11 km southwest of Hoshiārpur. Santgaṛh, the name by which his ḍerā came to be known, attracted Sikhs in increasingly large numbers. They came drawn by Sant Javālā Siṅgh's pious manner and by the simplicity and lucidity of his religious discourses. Thousands received the rites of Khālsā initiation at his hands, among them being Mahārājā Yādavinder Siṅgh, ruler of Paṭiālā state. Sant Javālā Siṅgh supported the Akālī and Babar Akālī movements and set himself staunchly against the heresy preached by the Pañch Khālsā Dīwān of Bhasauṛ. At his initiative several gurdwārās were raised or rebuilt at Sikh holy places, such as Anandpur, Paṭnā and Talvaṇḍī Sābo.

         Sant Javālā Siṅgh died at Ḍomelī, a village in Kapūrthalā district of the Punjab, on 13 November 1957.

Gurdiāl Siṅgh Phul