Patar hailed from the village of Pattar () Kalan in
Jalandhar district from which he got his surname. His father's name was Harbhajan Singh and mother's Harbhajan Kaur. He had four older sisters. His father had migrated to
Kenya for work and would only return home for short time after every five years. He matriculated from a nearby village school. After that admitted in as science student in a college in
Kapurthala. But the next year, he took up Arts. Patar graduated from Randhir College,
Kapurthala and then went on to get a master's degree from
Punjabi University,
Patiala and then a PhD in Literature on "Transformation of Folklore in Guru Nanak Vani" from
Guru Nanak Dev University,
Amritsar. He then joined the academic profession and retired as Professor of Punjabi from
Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana. and poems of
Bertolt Brecht and
Pablo Neruda. He wrote television scripts on Punjabi poets from
Sheikh Farid to
Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Patar was president of the Punjab Arts Council,
Chandigarh. Earlier, he had held the office of the President, Punjabi Sahit Akademi,
Ludhiana. He was awarded
Padma Shri in 2012.
Death Patar died of cardiac arrest at his residence on Barewal Road in
Ludhiana, on 11 May 2024, at the age of 79. According to his family members, he did not wake up that morning and was declared dead after arriving in the hospital. ==Works==