AJITTA, BHAI, a Randhava Jatt, whose name occurs in Bhai Gurdas`s roster of prominent Sikhs of Guru Nanak, Varan, XI. 14, was a resident of the village of Pakkhoke Randhave, close to the present town of Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. It was at Pakkhoke

ABUL FAZL (1551-1602), principal secretary-cum-minister to Akbar, the Mughal emperor. He was an accomplished man of learning and was the author of two celebrated works, A`ini Akbari and Akbar-nama, the former being a description of Akbar`s administrative system and the latter a chronicle of the events of his reign.

AHANKAR (hankar as it is commonly pronounced in Punjabi) is a compound of Sanskrit aham (I) and kar (\'maker\') and means I-maker, i.e. what individuates the person as I. It stands for egotism, egoism, self conceit, self centredness, vanity or simply pride. Other synonyms used in the sacred texts of

AHIMSA. The term ahimsa is formed by adding the negative prefix a to the word himsa which is derived from the Sanskrit root \'han\', i.e. \'to kill\', \'to harm\', or \'to injure\', and means not killing, not harming, not injuring. The commonly used English equivalent \'non-violence\' is inadequate as it

AHLUVALIA MISL. See also MISLS Ahluvalia Misl was one of the twelve misls or Sikh confedracies which had gained power in the Punjab during the latter half of the eighteenth century, derived its name from the village of Ahlu, in Lahore district, founded by a Kalal or distiller of wine,

AGYA KAUR. BIBI (d. 1918), wife of Bhai Takht Singh and his helpmate in promoting women\'s education among Sikhs to which cause he was passionately devoted, was the daughter of Sardar Tek Singh of the village of Sultanpur, near Rahim Yar Khan railway station in the princely state of

AGRA (27°10\'N, 78°\'E), became the seat of a Sikh sangat following a visit by Guru Nanak during the first of his four long preaching journeys. Later, Guru Ram Das, in his early career as Bhai Jetha, was in Agra when he attended Akbar\'s court on behalf of Guru Amar Das,

AHMADlYAH MOVEMENT, started in the late nineteenth century as a reforming and rejuvenating current in Islam, originated in Qadian in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. In the 1880`s, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, son of the chief landowning family of Qadian, after he had received revelations and preached a renewal of Islamic

AMRITSAR (31°38\'N, 74°53\'E), principal holy city of the Sikhs, is the headquarters of a district (Amritsar) in the Punjab. The foundation of the town was laid in 1577 by Guru Ram Das (1534-81) when he inauguarted the digging of the holy tank Amritsar (amrit = nectar, sar = pool)

ADHARKA, according to Bhai Bala Janam Sakhi, visited Guru Nanak in the train of his master, Salas Rai, the jeweller. Both master and servant turned disciples and set up a Sikh sangat, fellowship or centre, in their native town, Bishambharpur.

AGYA RAM, BHAI (Bhai Agya Singh, according to Sukha Singh, Gurbilas Dasvin Patshahi), a Sikh of Delhi, who accompanied Bhai Jaita, Bhai Nanu and Bhai Uda to carry from Chandni Chowk in Delhi to the Dilvali Mahalla the severed head of Guru Tegh Bahadur who was executed there on