JANGNAMA SIU GURU GOBIND SINGHJIKA, a vdr or stanzas by Am Rai describing Guru Gobind Singh`s battle with a Mughal force at Anandpur. Am Rai was one of the fifty-two poets who enjoyed the Guru`s patronage. The welcome he received on his arrival in Anandpur and the conferment through

PARCHIAN SEVA DAS, variously titled as Sdkhidn Sevd Dds Udasi, Mahaldn Dasdn kidn Sdkhidn, Sdkhidn Dasdn Pdtshdhidn Kidn or Parchidn Pdtshdhi 10, is an eighteenth century collection of 50 sdkhis or anecdotes from the lives of the Ten Gurus. Only one sakhl each relates to the first eight Gurus;

SRI FATEH SINGH PRATAP PRABHAKAR, an undated manuscript preserved in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, under accession No. M/ 774, is an account of the life and achievements ol`Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluvalia (1784-1836). The manuscript since published, by Joginder Kaur (1981), comprises 401 folios, size 23x17 cm, each containing 16

UMDAT UTTWARIKH, lit. the choicest of histories, by Sohan Lal Suri, is a chronicle, in Persian, primarily of the reigns of Ranjit Singh and his successors. The original manuscript, in five volumes in shikastah hand, consisted of some 7,000 pages. A lithographed edition of the work was brought out, in

RANA SURAT SINGH, an epiclike poem by Bhai Vir Singh published in 1905. This poem of more than fourteen thousand lines is written in blank verse, tried for the first time in Punjabi. With all its protracted search and pang, it is ultimately a poem of complete spiritual certitude, of

Nankayan (Life of Nanak) by Mohan Singh \'Mahir\' is commissioned work written at the behest of Punjabi University to mark the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. Professor \'Mahir\' earned this distinction after he wrote Nankayan (Nankayan). He has yet another distinction of ushering in what has come to be

BAVAN AKHARI, a poem constructed upon 52 (bavan) letters (akhar) of the alphabet. In this form of poetry each verse begins serially with a letter of the alphabet. The origin of the genre is traced to ancient Sanskrit literature. Since the Devanagari alphabet, employed in Sanskrit, comprises fifty-two (bavan, in

DINRAIN, lit. (din + rain) day and night, is the title (dinraini) of a single 4stanza hymn by Guru Arjan Dev in the Majh measure (GG, 13637). The composition evidently follows the prosodic vogue of inscribing verses to kalkrama (process of time) embracing forms such as baramaha (twelve months

KUCHAJI, lit. an awkward, illmannered woman, is the title of one of Guru Nanak`s compositions, in measure Suhi in the Guru Granth Sahib. Antithetically it is followed by another of his compositions called Suchaji (lit. a woman of good manner and accomplishment). KuchaJi verses are said to have been

SALOX VARAN TE VADHIK is the title given to a miscellany comprising 152 slokas or couplets appearing in the concluding portion of the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Arjan, when compiling the Holy Volume introduced slokas by the Gurus he had collected into the texts of vars, another favored form

THITI with the variation THITTIN, is a title shared by three different compositions, one each by Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan and Kabir, in the Guru Granth Sahib. According to traditional Indian calendar, thitt (Skt. tithi) denotes a day or a date of the lunar cycle of the month. In