VAR SUHI KI, in the measure Suhi, is one of Guru Amar Das` four vars in die Guru Grandi Sahib. Suha in Punjabi means red or scarlet, and this being the colour of a bride`s dress in India, die word signifies the consecrated lives of the true devotees of

VARAN BHAI GURDAS is the title given to the collection of forty vars or "ballads" written in`Punjabi by Bhai Gurdas (d. 1636) much honoured in Sikh piety and learning. These forty vars comprise 913 pauris or stanzas, with a total of 6,444 lines. There is no internal or external evidence

VARANASI (25°20`N, 82°58`E), the holiest place of Hindu pilgrimage, has since ancient times, been one of the most important centres of Sanskrit learning. Guru Gobind Singh sent five of his Sikhs to Varanasi to study Sanskrit, and following them several centres for the study of Sanskrit and theology were

VARYAM SINGH, BHAI (1881-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born on 31 July 1881, the son of Bhai Dula Singh and Mai Hukami, a Mazhabi Sikh couple of the village of Sutoval, in Amritsar district. Dula Singh had a targe family of five sons and four daughters and

VARYAM SINGH, PANDIT (1864-1953), religious scholar and preacher, was born the son of Dhanna Singh, a peasant of moderate means living in the village of Jabboval, now in the Kapurthala district of the Punjab. Losing his father at the age of 14, he took up his ancestral profession of

VARYAM SINGH. BHAI (1870-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the second of the four sons of Bhai Bhag Singh and Mai Chand Kaur, Kamboj landowners of Nizampur village, about 8 km east of Amritsar. The family later migrated to Nizampur Chelevala in Sheikh upura district (now in Pakistan).

VASAKHA SINGH (1877-1957), one of the Ghadr leaders, was born on 13 April 1877 at Dadehar, a village in Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father. Dial Singh, and mother, Ind Kaur, were a God fearing couple. One of his ancestors, Mohar Singh, is said to have received the

VASTI RAM, BHAI (1708-1802), was son of Bhai Bulaka Singh, who is said to have accompanied Guru Gobind Singh to the South in 1707 from where he returned with his blessings to settle in Lahore. Vasti Ram lived through the long period of persecution the Sikhs endured and their

VENTURA, JEAN BAPTISTE (1792-1858), a general in the Sikh army, was an Italian by birth who had served in Napoleon`s army as a colonel of infantry and had taken part in the battle of Wagram (1809), in the Russian campaign (1812) and in the battle of Waterloo (1815). After the

VERKA, township 9 km northeast of Amritsar (31°38`N, 74°53`E), is sacred to Guru Nanak (1469-1539) who once came and stayed here near a pond, west of the village. The pond so consecrated came to be known as Nanaksar, Nanak`s pool. The pond was converted into a sarovarin 1899 with

VIDIA SAGAR GRANTH, lit. the book (granth) of the ocean (sagar) of wisdom {vidia), is the title given to a legendary literary corpus created at Anandpur under the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh. The volume, also known as Vidiasar Granth, Vidiadhar Granth and Samund Sagar Granth, was supposed to comprise

VIESKENAWITCH, a Russian adventurer, who, after several years of brigandage, escaped to Persia and took up service under Shah Abbas Mirza. He had attained the rank of colonel when he resigned and travelling through Central Asia, reached Peshawar in January 1829. Here he was employed by Pir Muhammad Khan