BIBEKBARDHI, (bibek= discrimination or discipline, bard/if = ocean; by implication, "guide to Sikh religious practice") is a collection of rahit namas or codes of conduct compiled in AD 1877 by Pandit Bhagvan Singh, a Brahman who converted to Sikhism under the influence of Baba Sumer Singh, celebrated high priest of Takht Sri Patna Sahib. The work has never been published and the manuscript, believed to be written in the compiler`s own hand, is preserved at the Dr Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra at Dehra Dun. The manuscript comprises 140 sheets, written on both sides, of plain handmade paper of approximately foolscap size. Paper, obviously procured at different times, ranges in colour from off white to light cream.
BULA, BHAI, mentioned by Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 15, as one of the devoted Sikhs of the time of Guru Arigad. See DlPA, BHAI
CHANDIA, BHAI, a Dhir Khatri, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan. He rendered dedicated service during the digging of the sacred pool and the construction of Harimandar at Amritsar. His name is included among the Guru\'s devotees in Bhai Mani Singh, Sijchari di Bhagat Mala. See BULA DHIR, BHAI
DAGGO, BHAI. a rich landlord of Dhamtan, now in Jind district of Haryana, was a masand having jurisdiction over the Bangar region during the time of Guru Tegh Bahadur. When the Guru visited Dhamtan in 1665, Bhai Daggo received him with exceeding joy and put him up in a new house he had constructed. The Guru showered his blessings upon him: "For meeting me with presents, milk shall abound in thy house. Minister to the Sikhs and devotees, and remain with us during our stay in this place." Guru Tegh Bahadur stayed at Dhamtan to celebrate the festival of Divali.
DES RAJ. BHAI, a Khatri Sikh of Amritsar, was entrusted with the supervision of the reconstruction of the Harimandar during the sixties and seventies of the eighteenth century. Nothing is known about his early life or family except that he originally came from Sursingh village, 30 km southwest of Amritsar, from where he migrated to the town and flourished in business, with a reputation for honesty and truthfulness. When the Sikhs sacked Sirhind in January 1764 and allocated several hundred thousands rupees from the plunder for the restoration of Sri Harimandar Sahib at Amritsar, demolished by Ahmad Shah Durrani two years earlier, they assigned Bhai Des Raj to undertake the reconstruction.
DHINGAR, BHAI, a carpenter, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, Bhai Dhirigar, along with Bhai Maddu, a fellow worker in the craft, came to serve at the Guru`s feet. During the day they hewed wood for Guru ka Langar, community kitchen, and made cots and other articles for use by the disciples; in the divan they attentively listened to recitations and discourses; and early in the morning they drew water for Sikhs` ablutions.
DIVAN SINGH, BHAI (1888-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born in 1888, the son of Bhai Hira Singh and Mat Pan Kaur of Pandori Nij[jaran, in Jalandhar district. The family later shifted to Chakk No. 91 Dhannuana, in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur, now in Pakistan. Divan Singh, an illiterate bachelor, made a name for himself in that area as a wrestler and as an intrepid fighter.
FATEHNAMAH, or Namah-i-Guru Gobind Singh, a letter (namah in Persian) that Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) is believed to have addressed to Emperor Aurangzib prior to his better known Zafarnamah included in the Dasam Granth. The first reference to the existence of Fatehndmah dates to 1922 when Babu Jagan Nath Das published in the Nagari Pracharini Patrika, Savan 1979 / July-August 1922, a letter supposed to have been sent by Chhatrapati Shivaji to Mirza Raja Jai Singh. In his introduction, Babu Jagan Nath Das had mentioned that he had copied around 1890 two letters from manuscripts in the possession of Baba Sumer Singh, mahant of Takht Sri Harimandar Sahib at Patna from 1882 to 1902 one, Shivaji`s which he was publishing in the Patrika and the other. Guru Gobind Singh`s which, he added, he had lost and of which he could not procure another copy owing to the death of the owner of the original document.
GHULLA SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), one of the martyrs of Jaito, was born around 1896, the son of Bhai Narain Singh and Mat Kishan Kaur, a Jatt Sikh couple of the village of Bhalur, near Bagha Purana, in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab. Tall and heavily built, Ghulla Singh helped his father and two elder brothers at tilling the family acre. He had received no formal education and was not yet married when the Akali agitation at Jaito protesting the forced abdication of the Sikh ruler of Nabha was gathering momentum. Ghulla Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of Sant Sundar Singh Bhindrarivale and became an Akali activist.
GUJJAR, BHAI, a blacksmith by profession, was a devoted Sikh of the time of GuruArigad. Once he came to see the Guru and said, "Lord, I am a workman, always busy with my trade. How shall I be liberated?" The Guru advised him to recite the Japu (fi) early in the morning and work for the poor in the name of the Guru. Bhai Guj[jar, says Bhai Man! Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, not only engaged himself in the service of other Sikhs, but also reiterated to them the tenets of the faith.
