BALVAND, RAI, a rababi or rebeck player in the time of Guru Arjan and co-composer with Satta, said to be his brother, of a Var included in the Guru Granth Sahib in the Ramkali musical measure. He was by birth a mirasi, Muslim minstrel and genealogist, and sang the sacred

FATEH SHAH (d. 1716) was the ruler of the Himalayan state of Srinagar (Garhval) from 1684 to 1716. He had strained relations with Raja Medini Prakash of Sirmur. When Guru Gobind Singh made Paonta his headquarters in April 1685 at the invitation of the latter, he brought about reconciliation between

JAMAL UDDIN, SAYYID (1838-1897), a name mentioned in connection with the campaign in the 80`s of the nineteenth century for the restoration of Maharaja Duleep Singh to the throne of the Punjab. Born near Kabul in 1838,Jamal udDin entered the service of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan after whose death

MUIN ULMULK (d. 1753), shortened to Mir Mannu, was the Mughal governor of the Punjab from April 1748 until his death in November 1753. He took over charge of the province after he had defeated the Afghan invader, Ahmad Shah Durrani, in the battle fought at Manupur, near Sirhind on

SAID BEG (d. 1703), a Mughal general, in company with another general, Alif Khan, was marching at the head of an army on his way from Lahore to Delhi when the Rajput hill rulers led by Raja Ajmer Chand of Bilaspur persuaded him to join them in an attack

WAZIRKHAN, NAWAB (d. 1710), a resident of Kuhjpura, near Karnal, now in Haryana, was the faujdar of Sirhind under the Mughals in the opening years of the eighteenth century. The hill chiefs who held territories in the Sivalik ranges often sought his help against Guru Gobind Singh, then living in

AKBAR, JALAL UD-DIN MUHAMMAD (1542-1605), third in the line of Mughal emperors of India, was born on 23 November 1542 at Amarkot, in Sindh, while his father, Humayun, was escaping to Persia after he had been ousted by Sher Khan Sur. Akbar was crowned king at Kalanaur, in the Punjab,

BARELAVI, SAYYID AHMAD (1786-1831), leader of the militant Wahabi movement in India for the purification and rehabilitation of Islam, was born at Rae Bareli, in present day Uttar Pradesh, on 29 November 1786, in a Sayyid family. At school, he took more interest in sports than in studies. He attained

GHANI KHAN and his brother Nabi Khan, Pathan horse dealers of Machhivara in present day Ludhiana district of the Punjab, were admirers of Guru Gobind Singh whom they had visited at Anandpur and to whom they had sold many good animals. When they learnt that, travelling in a lonely state

JAMSHAID KHAN (d. 1708), Ruhila Afghan, was hired by Nawab Wazir Khan, faujddr of Sirhind, to assassinate Guru Gobind Singh, whose friendly relations with Emperor Bahadur Shah I were perceived by the faujddr as a danger to his own position. Jamshaid Khan with another accomplice caught up with the

NABI KHAN and his brother Ghani Khan, Pathans of Machhivara, who after the battle of Chamkaur (1705) escorted Guru Gobind Singh to the safety of the Malva region disguised as a Muslim pir. See GHANI KHAN

SAID KHAN. a Mughal general, came in February 1703 at the head of a large army to invade Anandpur and force Guru Gobind Singh into submission. Guru Gobind Singh, who, according to Gur Ratan Mal (Sau Sakhi), had only 500 warriors with him at the time, came out of the