LAL KAUL, PANDIT (d. 1849), a Kashmiri Brahman, served the Amir of Afghanistan before entering Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service. He look part in the Sikh expedition to Kashmir in 1819 under Misl Divan Chand. After this he was for three years employed as governor of Multan, and was subsequently appointed

NAND RAM, one of the poets who kept Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) company, was the son of a well known Siift poet, Vali Ram. He had been in the service of Dara Shukoh, who, having lost the struggle for succession to his father`s throne, was executed by his brother,

RAM DIAL, RAI (d. 1863), news writer and vakil of the Sikh kingdom at FIrozpur, was the son of Rai Anand Singh, after whose death he was sent to Ludhiana as vakil in 1827. Shortly thereafter he was recalled to Lahore and, in 1832, was sent to Anandpur Sahib to

SHANKAR DAS (d. 1832) was introduced at the Sikh court by his father, Shiv Dial, himself an employee of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who had appointed him manager of the Dhanni country. Shankar Das was placed under Prince Kharak Singh, the heir apparent, to manage his Jagirs. When Diwan Moti

TAHIKAN, a seventeenth century poet, was the son of Rangil Das, a Chopra Khatri of Jalalpur, in present day Gujrat district of Pakistan. A soldier by profession, he rendered into Hindi verse AmarKosa and "Asvamedha Parva" of the Mahabharata. He tided the former work Ratan Dam. Several Sikh scholars

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.

BAHORA, BHAI, a goldsmith, who once came to Goindval to see Guru Arjan and seek his blessing. He confessed to the Guru that he cheated his customers skimping their gold, and asked what other calling he should turn to. The Guru said, "Do not cheat, do not steal and

BUDDH SINGH. BABA (1819-1906), to his followers `Guru` Hari Singh, was the younger brother of Baba Ram Singh, founder of the Namdhari or Kuka movement. He was born on Assu sud73,1876 Bk/22 September 1819, the son of Bhai Jassa Singh and Mai Sada Kaur of Rilpur Raian (now Bhaini

DHANNA, BHAGAT (b. 1415?), one of the medieval saints whose bani has been incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, describes himself in a hymn, in Raga Asa, as an ignorant Jatt and explains how he was attracted to the worship of God by the examples of Namdev (a calicoprinter),

GOBIND RAM, BHAI (d. 1845), son of Bhai Harbhaj and a grandson of Bhai Vasti Ram, had, like his brother Bhai Ram Singh, an honoured position at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A good scholar of Sanskrit and Persian, Gobind Ram, was of a retiring nature and more

JAMIAT RAI alias Jit Mall, a jhwar or water bearer on the domestic establishment of Maharaja Duleep Singh during his stay at Fatehgarh. He belonged to Shahgharib, in Shakargarh tahsil of Gurdaspur district (now in Pakistan). In 1885, he received a letter from the Maharaja then living in England,

KESARI CHAND, Raja of Jasvan, a tiny hill state situated in the foothills of the Sivaliks. Besides being a close relation, he was a confidant and ally of Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur, who once deputed him to Anandpur to seek from Guru Gobind Singh the loan of an