General in Sikh Army (D.1844)
A drill-naik in the army of the East India Company who deserted the service of the British and joined the Sikh army about 1805. In 1807, Jamadar Khushal Singh, who had come to Lahore to seek his fortune and had eventually risen to the position of deohridir or chamberlain, was placed under Dhaunkal Singh.
In 1828-29, when the Lahore army was reorganized, Dhaunkal Singh was given command of a regiment composed mainly of Purbia deserters from the East India Company and a few Sikhs. Subsequently, he was promoted general who took an important part in the military administration of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. As a regimental commander in the Sikh army, Dhaunkal Singh participated in various military campaigns – Kangra (1809), Attock (1813), Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819), and Dera Isma’il Khan (1820). From 1830 to 1833, he was active in operations in the Peshawar valley.
Dhaunkal Singh’s troops were stationed at Hazara in 1844 when he was ordered to move to Muzaffardbad to reduce the rebels who had risen in support of Ghulam Mohi ud-Din, the governor of Kashmir. He secured some initial success against the rebels, but eventually fell in the fighting.