KARHA SAHIB, a village 11 km west of Pehova (29"59`N, 76°35`E) in Kurukshetra district of Haryana, was visited by four of the Sikh Gurus. Guru Nanak came here during his travels to the eastern parts. Chaudhari Kalu of this village became a follower and is said to have constructed a bdoK his honour. The second of the Sikh Gurus to visit this village was Guru Hargobind. The local tradition places Guru Tegh Bahadur`s visit during his last journey to Delhi, but it is more likely that he passed through this village in the course of one of his earlier travels across the area. Guru Gobind Singh was here in 1702 when he visited the shrines established here in memory of the earlier Gurus. Bhai Udai Singh, the ruler ofKaithal (d. 1843), got three gurudwaras constructed in the same compound and made land grants for their maintenance. These simple structures were replaced by more elegant buildings during the early 1970`s by Sant Jivan Singh of Pehova. The three shrines are sometimes jointly called Triveni Sahib. Two identical shrines in the northern and southern parts of the walled compound are dedicated to Guru Nanak and Guru Tegh Bahadur, respectively. Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin is in the centre to the east, thus forming the apex of the triangle. The entire compound has a marble floor. The Gurdwaras are affiliated to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, but arc for the present managed by the successors of Sant Baba Jivan Singh Scvavalc.
SOBHA SINGH (1901-1986), painter, famous especially for his portraits of the Gurus, was born on 29 November 1901 in a Ramgarhia family of Sri Hargobindpur, in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. His father, Deva Singh, had been in the Indian cavalry. At the age of 15, Sobha Singh entered the Industrial School at Amritsar for a one year course in art and craft. As a draughtsman in the Indian army he served in Baghdad, in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He left the army to pursue an independent career in drawing and painting. In 1949, he settled down in Andretta, a remote and then little known place in the Kangra valley, beginning the most productive period of his life.
MAHALA, traditionally pronounced mahalla, appears in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, as a special term to credit the authorship of the compositions of the Gurus recorded in it. Mahala here refers to the person of the Guru specified by a numeral following it which signifies his position in the order of succession, commencing with Guru Nanak as Mahala 1 (pahila or first). Mahala is a modified form of mahal, a word of Arabic/Persian origin. Mahal has also been used in the text of some hymns in its usual literal meaning as palace, grand building, house, dwelling, abode, and in its figurative cannotations as human body, heart, mind or the mystic, mental state. It also appears with the same spelling mahala but signifying the Sanskrit mahila (lit. a woman, female).
GURU GOBINDA SINGHA, by Basanta Kumar Banerjee, is a biography in Bengali of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth spiritual teacher of the Sikh faith. According to the author\'s statement, the book is an enlarged version of a chapter on the Tenth Guru in his book Sikh Guru. However, neither the Sikh Gurunor the Sikh Gharitra which he claims to have written is extant today. Guru Gobinda Singha, first published in 1909 and later translated into Hindi and English, begins with a general review of the political and religious conditions of the Punjab on the eve of the rise of Sikhism.
SIKH COSMOLOGY. From the very beginning man has been curious to know about the structure and constitution of the Universe and its origin. To locate the stable base of this universe and to fix his own place in it have been the subjects of his constant search and speculation for him. The Gurus brought their own mystical and philosophical powers to solving the riddle. In their poetry in the Guru Granth Sahib, they have expressed their sense of wonder and sung paeans of praise for the Almighty. A minute observation of the phenomenon of nature forms an important part of the Sikh metaphysical insight.
JIVANMUKTA, in Sikhism the ideal and aim or objective of man`s spiritual life. The term is derived from jivanmukti {j`tvan=`ife; mukli=recasc, liberation, emancipation, freedom from bondage), and means one who has attained liberation from human bondage or one who has attained to the highest spiritual slate of being in tune with the Ultimate while still living. The idea of mukti is encountered, with some conceptual variations, in practically all religious faiths, e.g. moksa in Hinduism, nirvana in Buddhism, nijdt in Islam and salvation in Christianity.