SĪHARFĪĀṄ HARĪ SIṄGH NALVĀ, by Misr Harī Chand who adopted the pen-name of Qādar Yār celebrating an earlier poet of this name, is a poem in Punjabi, Gurmukhī script, describing the valorous deeds of Harī Siṅgh Nalvā (1793-1837), an army general of the Sikh times. Inspired by the elder Qādar Yār's Sīharfī Sardār Harī Siṅgh Nalvā, the poem was first published in 1924 by Lālā Manohar Dās Dūā at Manohar Press, Sargodhā, under the title Harī Siṅgh Nalvā vā Jaṅg Peshāwar Mābain Sikhāṅ vā Afghānāṅ ba' ahid Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh jī Mahārājā. A reprint was brought out by Punjabi University, Paṭiālā, in 1965, the text having been edited by Gaṇḍā Siṅgh noted Punjab historian, who had obtained in 1931 an incomplete copy of the work from Sītā Rām Kohlī which before publication he compared with and corrected against a copy in the possession of Bābā Prem Siṅgh Hotī. The Sīharfīāṅ is divided into six parts pertaining to Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh's decision to attack Dost Muhammad Khān, the king of Kābul, to seize Peshāwar; Harī Siṅgh Nalvā's offer to lead that expedition ; internal strife at Kābul which prompted the Mahārājā to hasten the expedition ; Nalvā's victory over the Afghāns who fled from Peshāwar without firing a shot; his occupation of Peshāwar and his appointment as governor of Peshāwar; Dost Muhammad Khān's attack on Peshāwar to recover control of the city from the Sikhs and the fierce battle at the Fort of Jamrūd in which Harī Siṅgh was killed ; Raṇjīt Siṅgh's march towards Peshāwar on receipt of the tragic news; death of Akālī Phūlā Siṅgh in the battle that ensued between the Afghāns and the Sikhs; defeat of the Afghāns at the hands of Raṇjīt Siṅgh; and the search for the body of Phūlā Siṅgh and its cremation by Raṇjīt Siṅgh.

        A typical feature of the work composed in sīharfī form, borrowed from Persian, in which verses are arranged acrostically, is the poet's power of picturization. He has an inexhaustible store of native idiom and imagery, interspersed with Persian vocabulary. The dramatization of different events, especially of those which cover the battle of Jamrūd in which Harī Siṅgh was fatally wounded, is a notable quality of the poem.

Ātamjīt Siṅgh