RAM SINGH (d. 1716), a Bal Jatt of the village of Mirpur Patti in Amritsar district of the Punjab, was the younger brother of Baj Singh, who was appointed governor of the town of Sirhind after it was occupied by Banda Singh Bahadur in May 1710. Ram

KAURA MALL, DIWAN, MAHARAJA BAHADUR (d. 1752), a Sahajdhari Sikh and trusted officer under the Mughals in the eighteenth century Punjab, was the son of Valid Ram, an Arora of the Chuggh clan, originally from a village near Shorkot in Jhang district, now in Pakistan. Little is known about the

KESHO GOPAL, PANDIT, a learned Brahman, became a devotee of Guru Amar Das. According to Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahimd Prakdsfi, he used to give discourses at the afternoon gatherings called by the Guru at Goindval. The words keso gopal pandit, appearing in the Guru Granth Sahib in the composition

LANGAH, BHAI, a well known figure in early Sikh history, was originally a follower of Sultan Sakhi Sarwar. Son of Abu ulKhair, a Dhillon Jatt with a Muslim name, belonging to the village of Jhabal, in the present Amritsar district of the Punjab, he was one of the three

MAN SINGH, JUSTICE (1887-1949), known as Bhai Man Singh up to his thirties, was born in 1887 at Ambala, now in Haryana, the youngest of the three sons of Nand Singh who had fought against the British in the second AngloSikh war (1849) and had then worked under them

MANGAL SINGH RAMGARHIA (1800-1879), manager of the Golden Temple at Amritsar for 17 years from 1862 till his death in 1879, was the son of Divan Singh Ramgarhia, a nephew of the famous Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. During his younger days, Mangal Singh remained in attendance on Maharaja Ranjit

NAHAR SINGH and Sher Singh at the head of 500 Sikhs were appointed by Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) to defend Lohgarh Fort during one of the battles of Anandpur. Both of them displayed uncommon initiative and daring against the besieging host. They were rewarded by the Guru who, according

BULAKA SINGH, an eighteenth century Sikh musician who recited the holy hymns. He lived in the village of Ghurani. in Ludhiana district. He was once humiliated by the local anathematized group who were the followers of Baba Ram Rai. To avenge the insult, hero and warrior Banda Singh Bahadur

NUR UDDIN, FAQIR (d. 1852), third son of Ghulam Mohy udDin and the youngest brother of Faqir `Aziz udDin, was one of the prominent Muslim courtiers serving the Sikh sovereign Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors. In 1801, when Ranjit Singh assumed the title of Maharaja, Nur udDin was

BUR SINGH (d. 1892). son of Ruldu Ram, appointed to do menial jobs first as an attendant in the household of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s wife, Rani Mahtab Kaur, and then as a water carrier in Kanvar Sher Singh`s, carried out some of the confidential errands he was assigned to

POTTINGER, SIR HENRY (1789-1856), soldier and diplomat, son of Eldred Curwen Pottinger, was born on 3 Ocober 1789. He obtained a cadetship in the Indian army in 1804. During 1809-11, he explored the country between Persia and India travelling incognito. He reported the results of his journey which were published

CLERK, SIR GEORGE RUSSELL (1800-1889), diplomat, son of John Clerk, entered the service of the East India Company as a writer in 1817. After various appointments in Calcutta, Rajputana and Delhi, he became political agent at Ambala in 1831. He was appointed agent to the Governor General at the North-West