ASA, one of the thirty one ragas or musical measures into which compositions comprising the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, except the Japu, are cast and in which they are meant to be recited and sung. This raga is important in the Sikh system of music, and is said

MAHALA, traditionally pronounced mahalla, appears in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, as a special term to credit the authorship of the compositions of the Gurus recorded in it. Mahala here refers to the person of the Guru specified by a numeral following it which signifies his position in the

MANGA, BHAI, a musician by profession was among Guru Nanak`s leading disciples. He has been described by Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 13, as a lover of gurbani or the Guru`s word.

SAMMAN BURJ, also called Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower commanding a wide range of buildings within the Lahore Fort, was built by Emperor Akbar, who made the city his capital for some time. Within the Fort was situated the royal palace which was enlarged by Jahangir and,

SAROVAR, a tank, pool or lake, especially at a sacred place or by a holy shrine used for sacramental ablutions and other religious ceremonies. Sanskrit synonyms are sar, sarvar, tarag and vapl. Another word is puskar or puskarini which usually means a pond full of lotus

AKAL BUNGA, lit. the abode of the Timeless One, is the building that houses the Akal Takht in the precincts of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. The term is also used sometimes synonymously with Akal Takht. Strictly speaking, while Akal Takht is the institution possessing and exercising

BAOLI or bavali is a masonry well with steps leading down to water level. This is perhaps the oldest type of well introduced when man had discovered the existence of subsoil water and also the means to reach it, but had not yet invented mechanical devices to draw water out

ASTPADI, from Sanskrit astapada, astapad or astapadf, is a poetic composition comprising ast or eight padas or stanzas. No specific rhyme scheme, measure or burden is prescribed for it, but all the eight stanzas must be in the same metre and measure. Lines in each stanza are generally rhymed.

JAVALA SINGH, BHAI SAHIB (1872-1952), a renowned exponent of the Sikh devotional music, was born in 1872 at the village of  Saidpur in Kapurthala district of the Punjab. His father, Bhai Deva Singh and grandfather, Parijab Singh were in their day celebrated rdgis or musicians who recited Sikh kirtan

VAR, a verse form in Punjabi popular in folklore as well as in refined poetry. In the old bardic tradition of the Punjab, var meant the poem itself with its typical theme as also the form in which it was cast. The earliest vars were ballads of battles and

BEDI, a subcaste of the Khatris, Prakritized form of the Sanskrit kstriya which is one of the four caste groups into which the Hindu society is divided. The Khatris are mainly Hindus though there is among them a Sikh element which is small in number but important historically.There are no

BUNGAS The word bunga is derived from the Persian bungah meaning a hospice, or a dwelling place. In the Sikh tradition, the word specifically refers to the dwelling places and mansions which grew up around the Harimandar at Amritsar and at other centres of Sikh pilgrimage. These were primarily the