ATAR SIṄGH ATLEVĀLE, SANT (d. 1937), Sikh holy man and preacher, born in early fifties of the nineteenth century, was the eldest son of Bhāī Kishan Siṅgh and Māī Naraiṇī, a devoted couple of Mīrpur, in Jammū and Kashmīr state. Atar Siṅgh, originally known as Harī Siṅgh, was adopted by his childless uncle, Mehar Siṅgh, who had migrated to the village of Joṛe, in Khārīāṅ tahsīl of district Gujrāt, now in Pakistan. Harī Singh thus moved to Joṛe and joined the business of his foster-father. His work frequently took him to Rāwalpiṇḍī where he began to attend congregations at the Niraṅkārī Darbār established by Bābā Dayāl (1783-1855) and then headed by Bhāī Sāhib Rattā (d. 1911) whose follower he became. The Niraṅkārīs were a reformist sect aiming at purifying the prevalent Sikh usage garbled in the rising tide of conservatism during the days of Sikh rule in the Punjab. The Niraṅkārīs popularized Anand ceremony, i. e. marriage by Sikh rites in the presence of the Gurū Granth Sāhib. Harī Siṅgh fled his own marriage in 1875 when he discovered that it would be solemnized not by Anand rites but in accordance with the old Brāhmaṇical custom. He quietly slipped away from the bride's village, Barnālī, and made his way to Srī Hazūr Sāhib at Nāndeḍ, in the South. From Nāndeḍ he returned to Damdamā Sāhib, in Baṭhiṇḍā district, where he devoted himself to the study of Sikh theology. Later, he changed his name to Atar Siṅgh and established a ḍerā or preaching centre at Atlā Kalāṅ, near Mānsā (29º-59'N, 75º-24'E), where students were trained in scripture-reading and in kīrtan or Sikh devotional music. He soon came to be known as Sant Atar Siṅgh Atlevāle. It was only years later that the members of his family learnt about his whereabouts. Harī Siṅgh had made Atlā Kalāṅ his permanent abode, though he started visiting Rāwalpiṇḍī to attend ceremonies marking the death anniversary of Bābā Dayāl.

Mān Siṅgh Niraṅkārī