Puran Singh was born on 17 February 1881 in a small village, Salhad, District Abbotabad, now in Pakistan. After passing his F.A. examination in 1899 from DAV College, Lahore, he sailed for Japan in 1900 and joined as a special student of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Tokyo University. He was sponsored by Bhagat Gokal Chand and the enlightened Sikh elite of Rawalpindi for higher studies in Science and Technology in Japan.