MAJLAS RĀI, RĀJĀ, a Brāhmaṇ native of Lopoke in Amritsar district of the Punjab and a dīwān or revenue minister at the court of Emperor Bahādur Shāh I (1707-12), was a devotee of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh whom he frequently visited during journey to the Deccan in 1708. The Gurū while stopping at Nāndeḍ was stabbed by an Afghān agent of the faujdār of Sirhind, and, as his wound was well on the way to recovery, a Sikh brought a present of two heavy bows. According to Kuir Siṅgh, Gurbilās Pātshāhī 10, the Gurū proceeded at once to string the bows and test them when Majlas Rāi, who was then present in the saṅgat stood up and humbly warned him, "Listen, O cherisher of the poor! Your wound is still raw and might open up again if you strain yourself." The Gurū at first paid heed to the Rājā's counsel and dropped the bows, but after some time he picked them both together and bent them with such force that they were both broken. Majlas Rāi's worst fears came out to be true; stitches of the Gurū's wound snapped and it bled profusely. Majlas Rāi hastened to the imperial camp and sent the same physician as had earlier treated the Gurū, but it was of no avail. Gurū Gobind Siṅgh calmly sent for the Granth Sāhib and formally installed it as the successor-Gurū in perpetuity. He passed away the following day, 7 October 1708.

         In 1710, Rājā Majlas Rāi accompanied the emperor back to Delhi where he regularly attended upon Gurū Gobind Siṅgh's widows, Mātā Sundarī and Mātā Sāhib Devāṅ. Kesar Siṅgh Chhibbar, Baṅsāvalīnāmā, records that when it was proposed to appoint a day for a regular religious melā or festival for the Sikhs, Rājā Majlas Rāi was one of the prominent Sikhs consulted by Mātā Sāhib Devāṅ. It was decided to hold the melā annually on the occasion of Dīvālī at Amritsar as times were not favourable for large Sikh gatherings at the imperial capital.