Kumedan Sardar Jai Singh of Ghorewah

Kumedan Sardar Jai Singh of Ghorewah, was born into Sandhu Jat family , when he was young he was a trooper in the service of Dhillon Jat ruler Sardar Gulab Singh Bhangi of Lahore, and occupied the village of Saidupur and Ghorewah, in the Hoshiarpur District. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore took Amritsar, in 1801, he appointed Kumedan Jai Singh as Station Commander, of Kot Syed Mahmood village, located a few kilometres to the west of Amritsar, to protect the holy city from invasion. This village which had been plundered several times, is more than three centuries old, and was inhabited by Hindu traders. A Muslim warrior, Syed Mahmood, later, occupied the region, and established himself by erecting small fort surrounded by a moat, and thus the village became to be known as Kot Syed Mahmood. Today it is known as KotKhalsa. The Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore, later selected this strategic place for establishing a cantonment, to defend the holy city of Amritsar, in which full control was given to Kumedan Jai Singh. Syed Mahmood, and his followers were later ousted by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore, and relocated to an alternative village in Sialkot District, now in Pakistan.It is at this spot where Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore stationed himself to recruit able-bodied soldiers for the Khalsa Army, when he took over the holy city of Amritsar.