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

LAL SINGH, RAJA (d. 1866), son of Misr Jassa Mall, a Brahman shopkeeper of Sanghoi, in Jehlum district in West Punjab, entered the service of the Sikh Darbar in 1832 as a writer in the treasury. He enjoyed the patronage of the Dogra minister Dhian Singh and, when in 1839

NANU, a Pandit of Kurukshetra proud of his learning, came to Guru Nanak, then visiting the town, to engage him in a religious debate. But according to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratdp Suraj Granth, in the presence of the Guru, he learnt to be humble. He took instruction

RAMA TIRTHA, SVAMI (1873-1906), who, after Svami Vivekananda, by whose personality he was deeply influenced, created a powerful influence with his quiet spirituality, was born on 22 October 1873 at MuralIvala, a small village 5 km south of Gujrariwala, now in Pakistan. He came of a family of Gosvami

SHANKAR NATH, DlWAN (1805-1876), born at Delhi in 1805, was brought to Lahore in 1820 by his father Pandit Hari Ram, an employee of the Lahore kingdom. Shankar Nath was placed in the treasury office of Prince Kharak Singh and was afterwards transferred to the central record office where

TAPA (lit. a practidoner of physical austerities) is the name given by Sikh chroniclers to an ascetic who once came to Guru Ram Das and, proud of the penances he had undergone, said, "Thy Sikhs are very proud ; they acknowledge not the Vedas and the Puranas ; they

BAKHT MALL and Tara Chand, masands or accredited Sikh preachers in Kabul, once ledr the sangat of their area to the Punjab to wait on Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). Among the offerings they brought were two pedigree horses of excelling beauty, named Gulbagh and Dilbagh. As they were passing through Lahore,