ATMA SINGH, also remembered as Atma Ram, was a faqir of Shuja`bad, near Multan, who received the Sikh rites under the influence of Baba Khuda Singh. Before his initiation into the Sikh faith, he lived in a dharamsala at Shuja`bad which received a grant of Rs 100 from the

AVTAR SINGH VAHIRIA, polemicist and scholar of Sikh texts, was born on 12 June 1848 at Thoha Khalsa, a village in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. As a small boy, he learnt to recite the Sikh psalms from his mother and maternal uncle, Prem Singh. After he had learnt

BEDI, a subcaste of the Khatris, Prakritized form of the Sanskrit kstriya which is one of the four caste groups into which the Hindu society is divided. The Khatris are mainly Hindus though there is among them a Sikh element which is small in number but important historically.There are no

BIKRAM SINGH BEDI, BABA (d. 1863), was the third and youngest son of Sahib Singh Bedi of Una, a lineal descendant of Guru Nanak. On Sahib Singh`s death in 1834, Bikram Singh suceeded to his father`s jagirs and position as preceptor to royal family of Lahore. After the deaths

S.S. Wanjara Bedi was born at Sialkot, now in Pakistan. He did his M.A. in Punjabi from the Punjabi University and Ph.D. from the University of Delhi. He worked in a bank early in his career and senior lecturer of Dayal Singh college, Delhi. He edited Fateh a weekly

DHARAM CHAND, son of Lakhmi Chand and grandson of Guru Nanak. According to Gurbilas Patshahi Chhevin, he received Guru Hargobind when the latter, along with Bhai Gurdas and Bhai Bhana, went to Kartarpur which Guru Nanak had made his dwelling place during the last years of his life. Dharam

GURBILASBABA SAHIB SINGH BEDI, by Bhai Sobha Ram belonging to the Sevapanthi order, is a versified account of the life of Baba Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak. The voluminous work, four manuscript copies of which one each at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Punjabi University, Patiala;

SARTHALI, a village 10 km south of Nurpur Bedi on Ropar Nurpur Bedi road in Ropar district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Gobind Sihgh, who arrived here from Anandpur on a brief visit. Gurdwara Ranthamba Sahib Patshahi Dasvin on the southern periphery of the village marks the spot

SODHl, a subdivision of Sarin group of, Khatris, has acquired an aura of exceptional! honour among the Sikhs because seven of (lie ten Sikh Gurus from Guru Rain Das onwards were from among them. Guru Ram Das` descendants are reverently called Sodhi Sahibzade. Guru Ram Das appointed his younger

SVAPAN NATAK, lit. dream play, is an allegorical poem in Braj, comprising 133 stanzas, by Giani Ditt Singh, a leading figure in the Lahore Singh Sabha. Published in the supplement to the issue, dated 16 April 1887, of the Khalsa Akhbar, a Punjabi newspaper of which Giani Ditt Singh himself

UNA, a district town in Himachal Pradesh on NangalAmb road, is sacred to Guru Hargobind in whose memory a small domed room stands in a walled compound southeast of the town on the main road. It is under the control of the descendants of Baba Sahib Singh Bedi(1765-1834), who