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,

AGNEW, PATRICK ALEXANDER VANS (1822-1848), a civil servant under the East India Company. He was the son of Lt Col Patrick Vans Agnew, an East India Company director. Agnew joined the Bengal civil service in March 1841. In 1842, he became assistant to the commissioner of Delhi division. In December

AGHORl or AGHORPANTHI. one of the several Kapalika sects, connected with the Tantrik cult of Saivism, notorious for its cannibalism and other abominable practices. Aghora literally means "not terrible," "not evil," otherwise, "pleasant" or "handsome," and is one of the euphemistic titles of the Hindu god, Siva. Aughar or

AJlT SINGH (1881-1947), patriot and revolutionary, was born in February 1881 at Khatkar Kalari, in Jalandhar district of the Punjab, the son of Arjan Singh and Jai Kaur. He had his early education in his village and then at Sain Dass Anglo Sanskrit High School, Jalandhar, and D.A.V. College,

AJIT SINGH PALIT (d. 1725), adopted son of Mata Sundari, the mother of Sahibzada Ajit Singh . Little is known about the family he came of except that Mata Sundari took him over from a goldsmith of Delhi and adopted him because of his striking resemblance with her son, Ajit

AJIT SINGH, RAJA, ruler of Ladva, was born the son of Gurdit Singh who had acquired territory around Thanesar after the conquest by Sikhs in 1764 of the Mughal province of Sirhind. Gurdit Singh, who belonged to the same clan as Ranjit Singh, originally came from the village of

AJIT SINGH, SAHIBZADA (1687-1705), the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh, was born to Mata Sundari at Paonta on 26 January 1687. The following year, Guru Gobind Singh returned with the family to Anandpur where Ajit Singh was brought up in the approved Sikh style. He was taught the

AJIT SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1843), son of Basava Singh Sandharivalia, was a leading actor in the gruesome drama of intrigue and murder enacted in the Sikh kingdom following the passing away of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. One of the younger generation of the Sandharivalias, he outstripped his uncles, Atar Singh

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

AJMER CHAND, ruler of Kahlur (Bilaspur), one of the princely states in the Sivaliks. He succeeded his father. Raja Bhim Chand, who had retired in his favour. Bhim Chand had led battles against Guru Gobind Singh, and his son, Ajmer Chand, continued the hostility. He formed a league of

AJMER SINGH was the name given a seventeenth century Muslim recluse of Chhatteana, a village in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab, as he received the initiatory rites of the Khalsa. His original name was Ibrahim, popularly shortened to Brahmi or Bahmi. According to an old chronicle, Malva

AJUDHIA PARSHAD, DIWAN (1799-1870), soldier and civil administrator in Sikh times, was the adopted son of Diwan Ganga Ram. Maharaja Ranjit Singh first employed Ajudhia Parshad in 1819 to serve in the military office in Kashmir. Three years later, he was recalled to Lahore and appointed paymaster of the