SIKH COINS or NUMISMATICS. Sikh coins like coins anywhere else were both a commercial necessity and a symbol of sovereignty. Coin, derived from the Latin cuneus, a wedge, through Old French coing and cuigne, "is properly the term for a wedge  shaped die used for stamping money,

QILA GUJJAR SINGH, a residential area within the limits of Lahore, was designated a "fort" when in April 1765 the city was parcelled out among the three Bharigi Sardars, Gujjar Singh, Lahina Singh and Sobha Singh. The area outside the walled city of Lahore, about five square miles,

RAM RAUNI, later known as Ramgarh Fort, was a small mud fortress built in April 1748 near Ramsar, in Amritsar, to provide shelter to scattered Sikh jathas, in Mughal Punjab. Sikh sardars, along with their bands, assembled at Amritsar on the Baisakhi day of 1748 and set

TOSHAKHANA, from Persian toshakhanah (toshah = food or provisions for journey or food articles in general+ khana = house, store) or tosha khana (toshak = bedding, clothing + khana) means in Punjabi a treasury or secured storehouse for valuables. It is now generally used for the

RAM SINGH, SARDAR BAHADUR (d. 1916), eminent architect, was born in a Ramgarhia family and started working in a woodcarver`s shop in Amritsar where he attracted the notice of Mr Kipling, the first principal of the Mayo School of Industrial Arts, Lahore. The Mayo School of Industrial

CHAUNKI or Chauki, lit. quarter, a four footed wooden platform upon which sat the holy choir to recite the sacred hymns in a gurdwara or at a gathering of the devotees. The term chaunki also refers to a session of kirtan or hymn singing, the number of singers at such

PHUMMAN SINGH, BHAI, famous as a ragi or musician reciting Sikh hymns, was born in a Jatt Sikh family of Daudhar in present day Moga district of the Punjab in the sixties of the nineteenth century. He learnt to read Scripture and recite kirtan at the Dera or seminary established