Jvala Singh

Jvala Singh, born Sukh Sembhi, is a Sikh linguist and researcher on Braj and Punjabi literature. A major focus of his is creating English translations of pre-colonial Sikh literature to increase their availability to present-day Sikhs. He is a lecturer of the Punjabi-language at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is the author of 54 Punjabi Proverbs, a book covering classic and elusive Punjabi proverbs by rendering them in English.

On 17 June 2024, he presented a lecture titled The All-Metal Text (Sarbloh Granth), A Sikh Retelling of a Jain Text? on the Sarbloh Granth at the CSASA-ACESA's Congress 2024 Meeting.

Jvala Singh completed his PhD at the Department of Asian Studies of the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Anne Murphy with the following doctoral thesis titled The splendor of several suns : the Gurpratāp Sūraj Granth and the Sikh intellectual tradition in the early 19th century. He has conducted research on the Sikh relationship with Advaita Vedanta, leading to a Sikh form of it that he terms Sikh Advaita. In April 2026, Jvala Singh digitized the Japanese translation of Japji Sahib by Tomio Mizokami.

Projects

Manglacharan Jvala Singh runs Manglacharan.com, which is an open-access website that hosts many first-ever English translations of specific Sikh literature. It is an attempt to decolonize the access to Sikh philosophy and to reclaim Sikh works from colonial constructs.

Study Sikhi In January 2025, Study Sikhi, an online Sikh educational institution with enrollable courses set-up by Jvala Singh, was launched.

The following courses were made available:

SS 101 - Intro to the Sikh Tradition SS 301 - Dasam Granth & The Goddess