The 'Army of Baba Buddha'.

This is the original Khalsa army of Akalis as trained by Akali Baba Buddha for defending the 'Akal Takht'. From its conception in 1606 the army of the Akal Bunga was informally known as 'Buddha Dal'. Hence just as the designation Khalsa informally existed from times of the Akali Guru Hargobind, so did the designation 'Buddha Dal' for the Sikh standing army.

It was in 1734 that the third supreme leader of Akal Takht's army after the Sikh Gurus, Akali Nihang Baba Nawab Kapoor Singh formally recognised and reorganised the Akali Nihang Singh Khalsa army into 'Buddha Dal' (Army of veterans) and 'Tarna Dal' (Army of young ones). Buddha Dal represented the supreme leadership of all the Akali Nihang Dals which latter divided into confederacies and went onto establish their own 'Reeasta' (kingdoms). Until establishment of British Raj in 1849, the Buddha Dal was the sole Sikh Khalsa martial religious order based at Akal Takht. The decline of Buddha Dal occurred with the arrival of British Raj. British initially replaced Buddha Dal's 'Khalsa' authority by pacifist vegetarian 'Nirmala' Sikh 'Sants' (holy men).

In 1925, the Buddha Dal influence was almost negated by the British with the setting up of impostor 'Akali' Sikhs of the S.G.P.C. Today, the Buddha Dal clinging to its original Guru-ordained martial traditions exist on the fringes of Sikhism - forever battling to preserve its unique martial way of life against the onslaughts of the British Raj-established modern mainstream Sikhism. Many modern Sikhs, being far removed from their historical martial heritage cannot appreciate Buddha Dal martial traditions such as 'Sukha' (use of cannabis), 'Chatka' (concept of decapitation with a single blow), 'Virodpash' (paradoxical martial philosophy) etc. In fact many mainstream Sikhs look down upon the Akali Nihangs for practising these ancient Guru ordained historically verifiable martial traditions and rituals.

Also see 'Akali', 'Akali Nihang' and 'Akali Nihang Singh Khalsa', 'Baba Buddha'.