SHAMSHER SINGH SANDHANVAUA (1816-1871) was son of Buddh Singh and a collateral of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Shamsher Singh distinguished himself as a soldier and served on active duty in the Peshawar area. He was by nature averse to politics and took no part in courtly intrigues which engulfed Lahore

SWARAN SINGH (1907-1994). Tall and wiry, Sardar Swaran Singh, was born on 19 August 1907 in a farming family of the village of Shankar in Jalandhar district. He was married to Charan Kaur (1925). The family laid much store by education. One of the two sons was sent up to

THARAJ SINGH, an eighteenth century warrior, was one of seven sons of Bhai Nagahia* grandson of Bhai Kala of Laungoval. Receiving the vows of Khalsa discipline at the hands of Bhai Mani Singh, he chose to stay with him at Amritsar to defend the Harimandar against the onslaughts of the

AMARO, BIBI, elder daughter of Guru Angad and Mata Khivi, is especially remembered in the Sikh tradition for introducing (Guru) Amar Das to Guru Angad whose disciple, and eventually successor in the holy office, he became. She was born in c. 1526 at Khadur Sahib, in present day Amritsar

DANI, BIBI, was the elder daughter of Guru Amar Das (1479-1574). Not much is known about her life except that she was married to Bhai Rama and that the couple came to live at Goindval founded by Guru Amar Das.

Hasrat, Sukhpal Vir Singh was born in 1938 at Khanewal (now in Pakistan), in a Sikh family of Bajwas. His father, Harcharn Singh, migrated to India at the time Partition of Punjab in 1947 and settled in village Vasarke (Batala), district Gurdaspur. Hasrat did his M.A. in Punjabi from

MANGLAN, a slave girl in the service of Maharani Jind Kaur who gained considerable influence in state affairs during the latter`s regency (1844-46). She was born about 1816 in a village near Kangra. Her father Piru, a water bearer, lived in extremely narrow circumstances. She was sold at the

RAJ KAUR (d. 1838), also known as Datar Kaur or more popularly Mal Nakain, was the second wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. She was the daughter of Ran Singh Nakai, and was married to the Maharaja in 1798. Though Ranjit Singh married several other women, Mal Nakain remained his

WOMEN IN SIKHISM. Women who had many equal privileges with the menfolk in Vedic India were reduced to a position of utter subordination during the time of the lawgivers. In the codes and institutes laid down in the dharmasastras they were given the status of sudras. They were declared

DARGAHA SINGH, BHAI (1713-1823), a Nirmala saint, was born in 1713 the son of Bhai Nigahia Singh of the village of Laungoval, in present day Sangrur district of the Punjab. Nigahia Singh was known to be the elder brother of Bhai Mani Singh, the martyr. For the divali festival

KHUDA SINGH, BABA, alias JASVANT SINGH (1777-1861), a policeman turned saint, son of Bhai Nattha Singh, who cultivated a small piece of land in the village of Syamgarh, near Kurukshetra, was born in August 1777. The child was barely four days old when the village was attacked by dacoits,

NIHAL SINGH, SANT, also known as Pandit Nihal Singh, a Sanskrit scholar well versed in Vedanta as well as in gurbdm, lived in Sikh times in the village of Thoha Khalsa, in district Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan. Pandit Nihal Singh is famous for his Sanskrit commentary on Japu, {hefapugudhdrthadipakd