BULA PANDHA, a learned Brahman of Dalla in present day Kapurthala district of the Punjab, called on Guru Amar Das as the latter once visited his village, and received the rites of initiation at his hands. One day Bhai Bula asked the Guru how he might serve the sangat,

DHANPAT RAI, DlWAN (d. 1831), son of Ram Kumar, served Maharaja Ranjit Singh in various capacities. His grandfather Gutu Mall, who belonged to Shahpur district, was employed as diwan to the Bharigi sardars, Gujjar Singh and Sahib Singh, regulating the civil affairs of a large tract of land under

Baba Kalu, the father of Guru Nanak, had worldly ambitions for his only son and wished that he should learn how to read and write and one day take his own place as the revenue superintendent of the village. So when Nanak was seven he was led to Gopal,

JASPAT RAI (d. 1746), a native of Kalanaur, in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, was during Mughal times the faujddr of Eminabad, now in Gujrariwala district of Pakistan. A weal thy ^fl^m/ar and an influential courtier of Zakanya Khan, the governor of Lahore, he once ransomed Lakhpat Rai, his

KESHO DAS, a idnirika (practitioner of magical techniques) of Varanasi, once came to Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur and claimed that, if necessary facilities and provisions were made available to him, he could make the goddess Durga manifest the goddess who would eliminate oppression from the world. Though Guru

LALU, BABA (1444-1542), paternal uncle of Guru Nanak and the son of Shiv Ram and Mata Banarasi, was born at Talvandi Rai Bhoi. He was the younger brother of Mahita Kalu, father of Guru Nanak.

NANU MALL (d. 1791), minister and army general in Patiala state, was born at Sunam, in Sarigrur district. He came of a mercantile Aggarval family and became known as a highly capable administrator and a brave general. He acquired proficiency in classical languages Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, and served in

RAMA, BABA, maternal grandfather of Guru Nanak, was a resident of village Chahal, near Lahore. He was married to Mata Bhirai. The couple had a son, Krishna, and a daughter, Tripta. The latter was married to Mahita Kalu of Talvandi Rai Bhoe, where Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh

SHIHAN, Dhir Mall`s masand, desperately supported his patron who had set himself up at Bakala as one of the several claimants to the guruship following the death of Guru Har Krishan in March 1664. He enticed the Sikhs to his patron`s presence telling them that he was the late

TARA CHAND, DIWAN (d. 1858), son of Diwan Karam Chand, entered the Sikh service in 1822. His first employment was in Peshawar under Diwan Kirpa Ram. He was sent in the following year to Kangra, with civil and military authority, to collect the revenues, and in 1832 was tranferred

AUCKLAND, GEORGE EDEN, EARL OF (1784-1849), Governor General of India, son of William Eden, First Baron of Auckland, was born at Eden Farm, near Beckenham, in Kent, in August 1784. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln`s Inn in 1809. From 1810-13,

CORTLANDT. HENRY CHARLES VAN (1814-1888), son of Colonel Henry Clinton Van Cortlandt of the British army, by an Indian wife, was born at Meerut in 1814, and was educated in England. In 1832, he returned to India and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army on a monthly salary of Rs 250,