Scholar and author of the Mahan Kosh; 1861-1938

Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha

also Kahn Singh of Nabha

A largely self-taught scholar, Bhai Kahn Singh of Nabha wrote the tract Ham Hindu Nahin, advised Max Arthur Macauliffe on The Sikh Religion, and compiled the Mahan Kosh, an encyclopaedic dictionary of Sikh literature published in 1930.

1861–1938

Born

30 August 1861[EoS]

Bhadon vadi 10, 1918 Bk

Died

24 November 1938[EoS]

Learning and service

He was born on 30 August 1861 at Sabaz Banera, in Patiala territory, and never attended school or college. By ten he could recite Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the Dasam Granth. He helped Bhai Gurmukh Singh in Lahore, tutored the Nabha heir Ripudaman Singh from 1887, and held high posts in Nabha state.[EoS]

Macauliffe

He met Max Arthur Macauliffe in 1885 and guided his work on Sikh scripture. Macauliffe took him to England while The Sikh Religion was printing and gave him its copyright.[EoS]

Works

Ham Hindu Nahin (1898) set out the Singh Sabha view of Sikh identity. Gurmat Prabhakar and Gurmat Sudhakar followed. His Gurushabad Ratanakar Mahan Kosh has 64,263 entries. He passed away at Nabha on 24 November 1938.[EoS][EoS]

Images

Gurdwara Janam Asthan as printed in Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha's Mahan Kosh of 1930. Commons dates the photograph to about the 1920s.
Published by Kahn Singh Nabha, c. 1920s. Public domain. Source
Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, as printed in the first volume of the first edition of his Mahan Kosh in 1930.
Unknown photographer, Before 1930. Public domain. Source