Bhai Daya Singh Ji was the first of the Panj Piare, a Khatri of Lahore, who stood up first when Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked for a head at Anandpur in 1699.
He was one of the five who administered amrit to the Guru himself.
With Bhai Dharam Singh Ji he carried the Zafarnama from Dina to Aurangzeb in the Deccan, a journey of well over a thousand kilometres through territory where they could be arrested.
He was at Chamkaur and was one of the three who left with the Guru. He went south with him and died at Nanded shortly after him in 1708.
A rehatnama is attributed to him, and its attribution is disputed like the others.
The man who volunteered first is the least written about of the five, which is the ordinary fate of people who do the thing rather than describe it.
He was a Khatri of Lahore and his family had come to Anandpur before 1699. He was in his thirties at the amrit sanchar.
The five who received amrit then administered it to the Guru, on his own instruction. That reversal is the structural point of the ceremony and it is what the institution of the Panj Piare rests on.
He died at Nanded, where a shrine marks the place, and he was with the Guru at the end.