TĀRĀ SIṄGH, BHĀĪ, the eighteenth century Sikh martyr, was a Buṭṭar Jaṭṭ of the village Vāṅ, popularly known as Ḍall-Vāṅ because of its proximity to another village called Ḍall, in present-day Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father, Gurdās Siṅgh, had received the rites of the Khālsā in the time of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh, and had taken part in the battle of Amritsar (6 April 1709), in which Bhāī Manī Siṅgh led the Sikhs and in which Har Sahāī, a revenue official of Paṭṭī, was killed at his (Gurdās Siṅgh's) hands. Tārā Siṅgh, the eldest of the five sons of Gurdās Siṅgh was born around 1702. Receiving the rites of initiation from Bhāī Manī Siṅgh he grew up to be a devout Sikh, skilled in the martial arts. As persistent persecution drove the Sikhs out of their homes to seek shelter in hills and forests, Tārā Siṅgh collected around him a band of desperadoes and lived defiantly at Vāṅ, where he, according to Ratan Siṅgh Bhaṅgū, Prāchīn Panth Prakāsh, possessed a jāgīr or land-grant. In his vāṛā or enclosure made with thick piles of dried branches of thorny trees, he gave refuge to any Sikh who came to him to escape persecution. A government informer, Sāhib Rāi of Naushahrā Pannūāṅ, complained to the faujdār of Paṭṭī, Jā'far Beg, that Tārā Siṅgh harboured criminals. The faujdār sent a contingent of 25 horse and 80 foot to Vāṅ, but Tārā Siṅgh fought back and routed the invaders with several dead, including their commander, a nephew of the faujdār. Jā'far Beg reported the matter to Zakarīyā Khān, who sent a punitive expedition consisting of 2,000 horse, five elephants, 40 light guns and four cannon-on-wheels under his deputy, Momin Khān. Tārā Siṅgh had barely 22 men with him at that time. They kept the Lahore force at bay through the night, but were killed to a man in the hand-to-hand fight on the following day. This happened on 24 December 1732. A Gurdwārā now marks the site where Tārā Siṅgh and his companions were cremated.