Through twenty-five years of intense study and demanding physical training, Nidar Singh Nihang has managed to preserve Sanatan Shastar Vidiya™. As a closely guarded art that has teetered on the brink of extinction for the last 150 years, he is the sole-surviving master and ninth Gurdev ("grandmaster") of a classical school of learning established in 1661, called the Baba Darbara Singh Akhara™, which is the last remnant of this ancient tradition.
Born and brought up in the UK, Gurdev Nidar Singh Nihang was a teenager who knew virtually nothing about the religion he was born into when, in 1984 , left his home in the backstreets of Wolverhampton to live with relatives in a sleepy Punjabi village. It was there that his mundane life was changed forever following a chance meeting with an enigmatic septuagenarian Akali-Nihang warrior.
“I was fascinated by the old man’s claim that he was the last in a lineage of Sikh warriors who had secretly guarded the Guru’s art of war. I was immediately drawn on a journey of discovery into a world that has now all but vanished.”
Gurdev Nidar Singh lives and breathes the technical aspects of the physical art, but reflecting the Indian tradition of all-encompassing learning, he is constantly striving to discover more of the art’s history, traditions, and martial philosophy, as passed on by a lineage of masters stretching back to the dawn of Indian civilisation.
Gurdev Nidar Singh’s journey to reconnect people with their martial traditions continues and he has dedicated his life to preserving and sharing this precious heritage for the benefit of current and future generations.
In 2021, he gave his blessings to his shish ("personal student") Nihang Teja Singh to establish Budh Baridh™, an organisation headed in the UK with the mission to preserve Sanatan Shastar Vidiya™ and its associated practices.
Visit www.shastarvidiya.org to find out more about Sanatan Shastar Vidiya™.
2004 – Shastar Vidya, Martial Arts Illustrated Vol. 17 No.4
2009 – Shastar Vidya, Martial Arts Illustrated Vol. 21 No.12
2009 – Ancient But Deadly: the Return of Shastar Vidiya, The Independent
2009 – A tale of survival, Tribune India
2009 – British Sikhs revive deadly art banned by the Raj, Reuters
2009 – Brite genopliver ældgammel kampkunst [Danish], Politiken
2009 – UN ART MARTIAL SAUVÉ DE L’OUBLI [French], Courrier International
2011 – The only living master of a dying martial art, BBC News
2011 – Meet the last surviving master of the Sikh warrior art, Daily Mail
2011 – UK factory ex-worker is last Sikh martial art master, Tribune India
1999 – Warrior Saints: Three Centuries of the Sikh Military Tradition, I. B. Tauris (to buy click here)
2004 – Sicques, Tigers or Thieves: Eyewitness Accounts of the Sikhs (1606 -1809), Palgrave Macmillan (to buy click here)
2008 – In the Master’s Presence: the Sikhs of Hazoor Sahib Vol. 1, Kashi House (to buy click here)
2011 – Golden Temple of Amritsar, Kashi House (to buy click here)
Consultation – Prem Sumarg: The Testimony of a Sanatan Sikh, Hew Macleod
2018 - Authored Pakhyaan Charitter Vol. 1 (Instructions With Regards to Deceptive Characters); Exotic Sikh Tales of Erotica, Cunning, Humour, Love, Valour, Vice, Virtue, Magic, Wisdom, and Spirituality, Edited by Nihang Teja Singh (for more information visit www.pakhyaancharitter.com)
2005 – Presentation of research to Buddha Dal, India
Pehalwani – Exhibition
The Sikh fortress turban – Exhibition, British Museum
Shastar Vidya, Canada
2008 – Budo Warrior & Shastar Vidya, Master Marc G Moor
2009 – Shastar Vidya and Established Martial Arts [1] [2] [3]
2011 – Joint with Philippine martial arts master Tuhon Pat O’Malley
2011 – Abode of Warriors, At Golden Temple Exhibition – SOAS
2011 – Golden Temple book launch, Nehru Centre
Boomerangs to Ballistics, Discovery Channel
Weapons Masters – The Chakar, Discovery Channel
Twisted Weapons of the East, Discovery Channel
2011 – The last Sikh warrior, BBC World Service
2011 – The last living Master of Shastar Vidya, BBC Midlands Today
For the latest information on Sanatan Shastar Vidiya™ classes across UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, and India, please check out www.shastarvidiya.org
Press / Enquiries: info@shastarvidiya.org
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