BASANT, a musical measure used in the Guru Granth Sahib. It is a raga of the season of Basant (Skt. vasant) or spring, and during that season can be sung any time of day or night. Otherwise, it is reserved for the night between 9 p.m. and midnight. It

BASANT KIVAR, by Guru Arjan, is the shortest of the twenty-two vars, i.e. holy poems composed in the style or tone of odes (vars, in Punjabi) or heroic ballads included in the Guru Granth Sahib. Basant, Punjabi for spring, from which musical measure the Var derives its title is,

BASANT SINGH, BHAI (d. 1900), one of the founder members of Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Lahore, established on 2 November 1879, worked as its accountant and later became its vice president. Differences between Bhai Basant Singh and other leaders of the Khalsa Diwan, Lahore, originating in the expulsion in April

BASANT SINGH, PANDIT (1868-1941). eminent Nirmala scholar which status is betokened by the prefix Pandit (meaning a man of surpassing learning) added to his name, was born on 26 June 1868, the son of Bhai Kala Singh of a Jatt Sikh family of Dhingarian village, 3 km north of

PANCHAMI, lit. the fifth day of either phase {vadior sudi) of the moon. Panchami of the sudi, i.e. the brighter, phase is considered an auspicious day in the Hindu tradition, with some ritualistic observances attached to it. In the three Sikh hymns entitled Thitin/ Thiti devoted to the lunar days

SRI GURU HITKARNI SINGH SABHA, a splinter group of the Khalsa Diwan, Lahore, came into existence during the early period of the Singh Sabha movement for reasons partly ideological and partly personal. The Khalsa Diwan, Lahore, itself had separated from its parent setup at Amritsar for similar reasons. Dissension marked