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

BUDDHA There are many Siddhas, Buddhas and Nathas..... (Japu, p. 7) The word Buddha seems to have been used for Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.Mythologically, he was accepted in Hinduism as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. His great success as a religious teacher seerns to have induced the

MAZHABI SIKHS, commonly pronounced as Mazhbi Sikhs, is the name given to Sikh converts from the Chuhra community, among the lowest in the Hindu caste order. Chuhras in medieval Punjab, corresponding to Bharigis of the Hindi speaking regions, were the village menials who received customary payment in kind at

PRITHI MALL, BHAI. a Bhalla Khatri, resident of the village of Dalla, now in Kapurthala district of the Punjab. Once, as Guru Amar Das visited Dalla, he, accompanied by another Bhalla Khatri of the village, Bhai Tulsa, called on him and proudly announced that they too were of the

RAMANANDA (1300-1410?), promoter of Vaisnav Bhakti in North India and founder of the Bairagi sect of anchorites, was born at Prayaga (Allahabad) in a Kanyakubja Brahman family. He studied in Kasi (Banaras), the ancient seat of learning, and it was here that he became a disciple of Raghavananda, the

SIR! RAGA KI VAR, by Guru Ram Das, is one of the twenty-two vars entered in (lie Guru Granth Sahib. It occurs in Sin raga from which it derives its title. This raga, known for its musical grace and delicacy, is sung both in winter (January/February) and in summer

UNTOUCHABILITY, a feature of the caste system prevalent in Hindu society since time immemorial, reduces certain classes and castes to a very low level in the social scale. The caste system, the origins of which can be traced to the Purusa Sukta, hymn 90, of the tenth book of