KARTĀR SIṄGH KALĀSVĀLĪĀ, GIĀNĪ (1882-1952), theologian, poet and historian who started a new line in modern Punjabi verse making a departure from the traditional love romance or lays of heroic poetry in Braj or Hindi-ized Punjabi, was born in 1882 in Kalāsvālā, a village in Pasrūr tahsīl of Sialkoṭ district, now in Pakistan. Hence the epithet Kalāsvālīā. Kartār Siṅgh mastered scripture-reading in the village gurdwārā and joined the 47th Sikh Battalion, later 4th Battalion of the 11th Sikh Regiment, as a granthī or Sikh religious teacher. After leaving the army, he became a granthī at the Darbār Sāhib at Amritsar, rising subsequently to the position of head granthī. An avid reader of Sikh historical texts and blessed with a natural flare for poetry, he assigned himself to the task of composing a comprehensive history of the Sikhs in verse. This had been done earlier by Bhāī Santokh Siṅgh, Ratan Siṅgh Bhaṅgū and Giānī Giān Siṅgh but their language was dominated by extensive admixture of Braj idiom; hence not easily intelligible to Punjabi readers. Kartār Siṅgh used current Punjabi in his poetry. His favourite prosodic metre was bait, popularized by Punjabi romances such as Hīr by Wāris Shāh. Not that he did not try his hand at other metres. His voluminous biography of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh, Srī Kalgīdhar Darshan, is in the dohā-chaupaī style of Tulasī's Rāmāyaṇa, and he successfully uses the indigenous Punjabi vār, or pauṛī style, in two of his minor works, Sardārnī Jhālā Kaur and Bhāī Kalyāṇā. Pauṛīs and Kabitts are used in Vārāṅ Dharam Shahīdāṅ. His total work spread over more thān 40 books covers the entire gamut of Sikh history, but the various volumes were not written in chronological order. The exact sequence of his compositions is not easy to determine. A complete list of his works is given below:

        (A) In verse

        1. Niraṅkārī Jot (Biography of Gurū Nānak)

        2. Hitkārī Jot (Srī Gurū Aṅgad Prakāsh)

        3. Dātārī Jot (Srī Gurū Amar Prakāsh)

        4. Ujiārī Jot (Srī Gurū Rām Dās Prakāsh)

        5. Jāgadī Jot (Srī Gurū Arjan Prakāsh)

        6. Dalbhānjanī Jot (Srī Khaṛagesh Prakāsh) (on Gurū Hargobind)

        7. Upkārī Jot (Srī Gurū Harī Rāi Prakāsh)

        8. Dīdārī Jot (Srī Gurū Hari Krishan Prakāsh)

        9. Narañjaṇī Jot (Prasaṅg Srī Gurū Tegh Bahādur)

        10. Akālī Jot (Srī Gurū Dasmesh Prakāsh later revised as Srī Dushṭ Daman Prakāsh)

        11. Nirbhai Yodhā (Exploits of Bandā (Siṅgh) Bahādur)

        12. Ajīt Khālsā (Covering the period after Bandā (Siṅgh) Bahādur)

        13. Jauhar Khālsā (Sikhs and Mīr Mannū)

        14. Prakāsh Khālsā (The Sikh Misls)

        15. Sarkār Khālsā (Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh)

        16. Darbār Khālsā (Decline and end of Sikh rule)

        17. Betāj Khālsā (Exile and end of Mahārājā Duleep Siṅgh and Mahārāṇī Jindaṅ)

        18. Daler Khālsā (Sardār Harī Siṅgh Nalvā)

        19. Sudhār Khālsā (Gurdwārā Reform movement)

        20. Bīr Khālsā (Gurū kā Bagh morchā)

        21. Srī Kalgīdhar Darshan (Life of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh in epic style (dohārā-chaupaī)

        22. Pratāp Khālsā (Nawāb Kapūr Siṅgh)

        23. Dasames Dulāre (Martyrdom of the four sons of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh)

        24. Vārāṅ Dharam Shahīdāṅ

        25. Siṅghanīāṅ dā Sidak (Torture and martyrdom of Sikh women under Mīr Mannū)

        26. Khūn-i-Shāhīdāṅ (The Nankāṇā Sāhib tragedy)

        27. Bābe dī Ber (The Gurdwārā Reform movement at Siālkoṭ)

        28. Khūnī Sāl dīāṅ Khūnī Holīāṅ (The 1947 holocaust)

        29. Gyān Prakāsh arthāt Zindagī Sudhār (On spiritual knowledge, moral teachings and political policy)

        30. Rūp Basant (A popular folk tale)

        31. Prahlād Bhagat (A traditional story)

        32. Sardārnī Jhālā Kaur (Stories from Sikh tradition composed in verse for singing by ḍhāḍhīs)

        33. Bhāī Kalyāṇā

        34. Naḍḍhe dī Nār (Didactic fiction in verse against unmatched child-marriage)

        (B) In prose

        35. Mahārāṇī Shakuntalā

        36. Jamraud

        37. Gagan Damāmā

        38. Yāraṛe dā Satthar

        39. Bābā Buḍḍhā Jī

        40. Dukh Bhañjanī

        41. Sāhib Kaur

        42. Mahārāṇī Jindāṅ

        43. Bābā Phūlā Siṅgh Akālī

        44. Kāle Pāṇī

        45. Golī Chaldī Gaī

        Giānī Kartār Siṅgh Kālāsvālīā died at his residence in Kūchā Bāghvālā, Amritsar, on 22 February 1952.