BUNGAS The word bunga is derived from the Persian bungah meaning a hospice, or a dwelling place. In the Sikh tradition, the word specifically refers to the dwelling places and mansions which grew up around the Harimandar at Amritsar and at other centres of Sikh pilgrimage. These were primarily the

MAHITAB SINGH, MAHANT (1811-1871), founder Sri Mahant (head) of Sri Nirmal Panchaiti Akhara, at Patiala, was born in 1811 in a Jatt Sikh family of the village of Lehal Kalan, now in Sangrur district in the Punjab. He learnt to read Punjabi in his village and gained fluency in

MANOHAR DAS, a nineteenth century saint of Sangat Sahib Ke sect of the Udasi Sikhs, usually stayed at Kankhal, near Haridvar, where he collaborated with some other sadhus under the leadership of Santokh Das to establish a separate Udasi body called Sri Gur Naya Akhara Udasin, popularly known as

NIRMAL PANCHAITI AKHARA is a seminary of the Nirmala sect of the Sikhs established in 1862 at Patiala. Akhdrd, lit. arena, signifies a monastery or seminary with facilities for board, lodging and education of sadhus of a particular sect or cult. Sannyasi and Bairagi sadhus had their respective akhdrds, also

PRITAM DAS, MAHANT (1752-1831), an Udasi saint, was born in 1752, according to some sources in 1722, in a Sarsvat Brahman family of Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab. His original name was Karam Chand. His early education was limited to preliminary Urdu. He left his home at the age

SANTOKH DAS, an Udasi sant belonging to the Sangat Sahib Ke subsect, is remembered for the construction of the hansli, a water channel taken off the Shahi Nahar, an irrigation canal, for the regular supply of water for the sacred tanks in Amritsar. This feat he accomplished in collaboration