HEMA, BHAI, a devout Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur, along with his brother (Nagahia) and father (Lakkhi Shah) and another person by the name of Naik, son of Kahna, brought the headless body of Guru Tegh Bahadur, after he was executed at Delhi`s Chandni Chowk under imperial orders, to

MALUK DAS was a long-lived Vaisnava saint who spanned the reigns of the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzib. He was widely venerated and counted among his admirers and followers, Muslims as well as Hindus. He lived at Kara, on the right bank of the River Ganga, in Allahabad

NANDPUR, commonly referred to as NandpurKalaur because of its proximity to the village by the name of Kalaur, is 9 km from Bassi Pathanan (30°42`N. 76°25`E) in Fatehgarh Sahib district. The historical shrine at Nandpur, Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi Nauviri, commemorates the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The present building

SADHAURA, an old town 43 km east of Ambala (30"23`N, 76"47`E) in Haryana, has a place in Sikh piety, being the seat of Sayyid Shah Badr udDin, commonly known as Pir Buddhu Shah, a Muslim saint who became a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh. Pir Buddhu Shah took the

SIKH. The word sikh goes back to Sanskrit sisya, meaning a learner or disciple. In Pali, sisya became sissa. The Pali word sekha (also sekkha) means a pupil or one under training in a religious doctrine (sikkha, siksa). The Punjabi form of the word was sikh. The term Sikh

VALLA, village 7 km east of Amritsar (31°38`N, 74°53`E) along the Amritsar Sri Hargobindpur road, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who visited here in November 1664. According to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Sura/` Granth, the Guru had come on a visit to the Harimandar, Amritsar, but

AHRAURA, a small town in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh, 40 km south of Varanasi (25°20\'N, 8205-81 E). has a Sikh shrine called Gurudwara Bagh Shri Guru Tegh BahadurJi Ka. Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Ahraura in 1666 in the course of his journey in the eastern parts. It is

BAHIR JACHCHH or Bahir Jakkh, a village in Samana tahsil of Patiala district, situated on the left bank of the Sarasvati, a small stream sacred to the Hindus, commemorates the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur, who is believed to have stayed here with a devotee, Malla, a carpenter by

DEVA SINGH, SARDAR BAHADUR(d. 1872), son of Fateh Singh and a great grandson of Savan Singh, cousin of Sarigat Singh, the leader of the Nishanavali misi, came of a Shergil Jatt family of Mansurval, in Firozpur district. Deva Singh joined service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1816 at a

FATEH SINGH (d. 1716), an army commander under Banda Singh Bahadur, who was appointed administrator of Samana after the town was occupied by the Sikhs in 1709. Fateh Singh participated in several of Banda Singh`s battles against the Mughal rulers. In the battle of Sirhind fought at the nearby

HUKAMNAMA, a compound of two Persian words hukm, meaning command or order, and ndmah, meaning letter, refers in the Sikh tradition to letters sent by the Gurus to their Sikhs or sangats in different parts of the country. Currently, the word applies to edicts issued from time to time from

MANGAL SINGH KIRPAN BAHADUR, BHAI (1895-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs was born in 1895, the son of Bhai Ratia and Mat Hukmi in the village of Uddokc, in Gurdaspur district. He lost both of his parents while yet a small child, and grew up in very adverse circumstances