Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji was born in 1942 in the city formerly known as Lyallpur, which has now been renamed to Faisalabad and is located in Pakistan. He was born into the home of Giani Gurmej Singh Ji Bedal and Mata Mahinder Kaur Ji. He was five years old at the time of the partition in 1947, and his family relocated to the village of Jabbowal in Baba Bakala Tehsil of Amritsar district. His father, Giani Gurmej Singh Ji and grandfather, Giani Ujagar Singh Ji were both Kirtanis themselves and with their blessings and guidance, Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji continued the tradition. He also spent a considerable amount of time with Sant Gurbaksh Singh Ji Mastuane Wale at Gurdwara Santsar Sahib. He received ‘Gurmat’ education from Sant Sampuran Singh Ji, who was associated with Damdami Taksal. Sant Sampuran Singh Ji was the ‘gurbhai’ of Sant Gurbachan Singh Ji Bhindranwale.
In 1956, his family moved to Delhi and in 1964, he began his first duty as a Granthi in the Gurdwara in Raghubir Nagar. He also taught Kirtan to many children and had approximately 30 students. One of his students, Bhai Amarjeet Singh Ji learned the dholki from him. Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji was adept at playing the dholki and the tumbi as well. He was an artist with All India Radio (AIR), Jalandhar in the late 1950s. He sang folk and devotional songs while playing the tumbi. Bhai Amarjeet Singh Ji recounted that he was treated like family by Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji and his wife, Bibi Amarjit Kaur Ji who taught him Gurmukhi.
In 1984, they were caught in the Delhi anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. They were fortunate to have been unharmed and shortly after the riots, they moved to D.N. Nagar, Bombay in 1985. While in Bombay, Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji became a member of the Indian Film Association and served as a ‘Dharmak’ advisor for several movies and TV shows, including the serial, ‘Chunni’ which ran for 13 episodes. He had also established his own production company in 1987 called M.S.D. Movies and had plans to produce a ‘Dharmak’ film. He began filming in 1990 but could not complete it due to some unforeseen circumstances. Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji was also a writer and he got three books published. One of his books on poetry, Deedar-E-Dilbar and another on history, Chandni Chowk are available at Bhai Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh publishers.
He moved with his family to Indore in 1991 and opened a school for poor and orphaned children. He also used to run a Langgar service at this school which attracted a lot of the poor from a nearby village. This angered one of the shopkeepers because a lot of villagers were eating at the Langgar and stopped buying groceries from him. The shopkeeper and some of his friends lodged a false complaint to the police against Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji and his family. They claimed that he was harboring Sikh militants. As things had still not quite yet settled since 1984, they were harassed multiple times by the police. Finally, they had to make the painful decision to shut down the school and move back to Bombay in 1996.
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji has made several trips abroad as well. He went to the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2008 at the request of his student, Bhai Amarjeet Singh Ji who is based in Gillingham. Bhai Mukhtar Singh also made three tours to Malaysia and performed Kirtan in Gurdwara Sahib Kuala Kangsar during all his trips. His son, Bhai Sodhi Rajpal Singh and grandson, Simranjeet Singh are continuing his legacy. Sodhi Ji first started learning from his father and has since learned from various other maestros including Ustad Sabir Khan, Pandit Ranjit Kumar and Bhai Gurmeet Singh Shant. He has also accompanied his uncle, Bhai Kulwant Singh Parbhat and the late Principal Baldev Singh Ji on tabla. His son, Simranjeet Singh is a student of the renowned Pandit Rama Kant Ji. Bhai Sodhi Rajpal Singh Ji formed his own ‘jatha’ in 1994 and has traveled to Malaysia and Thailand with his jatha.
If anyone has more recordings of Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar or Sodhi Rajpal Singh Ji, please contact us.
The following recordings are from his tour to the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2008. These were kindly contributed by Bhai Harbans Singh Suraj who also gives a wonderful introduction of Bhai Mukhtar Singh Ji in the recordings below. Please ‘right click’ and ‘save link as’ to download audio files. Enjoy!
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 01 Introduction by Bhai Harbans Singh Suraj
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 02 Kawal Nain Madhurbain
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 03 Sahib Mera Nit Nawa
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 04 Main Banjaran Ram Ki
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 05 Sun Sakhiye Meri Neend Bhali
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 06 Raaj Na Chaaho
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 07 Mul Kharidi Laala Golaa
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 08 Charan Saran Gur Ek
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 09 Awal Allah Noor Upaaya
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 10 Ram Japo Ji Aise Aise
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 11 Koi Bole Ram Ram
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 12 Bole So Nihaal
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 13 Je Saho Preet Na Jaaye
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 14 Raajan Kaun Tumare
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 15 Tu Tu Karta Tu Huaa
Bhai Mukhtar Singh Dilbar – 16 Rasna Japti Tuhi Tuhi
Dilber ji was my first ustad ji….. Teaching me dholki at his best….. He sent me other musicians to learn further instruments and vocals classical
A best person legendary artist…. No one could play the TUMBI like him till now