| Kahn Singh Nabha | |
| Birth Date: | 30 August 1861 |
| Birth Place: | Sabaz Banera, Patiala State, British India[1] |
| Death Place: | Nabha, Nabha State, British India |
| Nationality: | British Indian |
| Occupation: | Encyclopedist, Lexicographer |
| Notableworks: |
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Kahn Singh Nabha (30 August 1861 – 24 November 1938) was a Punjabi Sikh scholar, writer, anthologist, lexicographer, and encyclopedist.[1] His most influential work, Mahan Kosh, inspired generations of scholars after him.[1] He also played a role in the Singh Sabha movement.
He was born into a Sikh family to Narain Singh and Har Kaur at the village of Sabaz Banera, located in what was then Patiala State.[1] His father, Narain Singh succeeded to the charge of Gurdwara Dera Baba Ajaypal Singh at Nabha, after the death of his grandfather Sarup Singh in 1861.[1] Kahn Singh was the eldest of three brothers (the other two being Meehan Singh and Bishan Singh) and one sister (Kahn Kaur).[1]
He did not attend any school or college for formal education, but studied several branches of learning on his own. By the age of 10 he was able to quote freely from the Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth.[1] In Nabha, he studied Sanskrit classics with local pandits and studied under the famous musicologist Mahant Gajja Singh.[1] In Delhi, he studied Persian with Mawlawis.[1]
In 1883, he continued his study of Persian for two years and assisted Gurmukh Singh, a leader in the Singh Sabha Movement, in publishing Sudhararak.[1] In 1887, he was appointed the tutor to Ripudaman Singh, heir apparent to Nabha State. He continued to serve Nabha State in several capacities, from Deputy Commissioner in 1896, to Foreign Minister in 1911, to the personal secretary of Maharaja Hira Singh,[1] to judge of the High Court in 1912.[2] Between 1915-17, he served the neighbouring Patiala State.[1]
In 1885, he had a chance meeting with Max Arthur Macauliffe which led to a lifelong friendship as well as scholarly collaboration between the two. When Max Arthur Macauliffe was researching his six volume work entitled "The Sikh Religion", Macauliffe depended a great deal on his advice and guidance in the work he was then doing on Sikh scriptures and the history of early Sikhism;[1] such was his admiration for Kahn Singh that when it was published by the Clarendon Press Kahn Singh was assigned the copyright of the work.[1]
His books Gurmat Prabhakar and Gurmat Sudhakar are the standard guide books for understanding Sikhism. His work, Mahan Kosh (known as the Sikh encyclopedia), is his magnum opus. He published magazine Khalsa Gazette and is also regarded as one of the founders of the weekly newspaper, Khalsa Akhbar. Works from the period 1882–1911 include:
. ਹਮ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਨਹੀਂ. Singh Brothers. Nabha, Kahn Singh. Kahn Singh Nabha. 2011. Amritsar. 128. 978-81-7205-051-1. Punjabi.