At the age of twenty, he left his village Kahlwan, which was near Qadian, and he arrived at the Nirmala dera of Sant Gulab Singh[3] at Kurala, Hoshiarpur.

The Maharaja of Patiala, Maharaja Narinder Singh (1824–1862) gave patronage to him,[3] after which Tara Singh came to Patiala and established his own Nirmala dera by the name of Dharam Dhuja and began doing scholarly work.

[4] Pundit Tara Singh was the first Sikh to trace the geographical location of Hemkunt Sahib.

Using clues from the Bachitar Natak[5] to reveal Guru Gobind Singh's tap asthan (place of meditation) such as the place was named Sapatsring (seven peaks) and was on/near Hemkunt Parbat (lake of ice mountain), he set out to explore the Garhwal Himalayas and his search took him to Badrinath and to the nearby village of Pandukeshwar, near the present-day Gobind Ghat.

His more famous works are Gurmat Nirnay Sagar, Sri Gur Tirath Sangrah, and Guru Girarath Kos.