JATHA, from Sanskrit yutha meaning a herd, flock, multitude, troop, band or host, signifies in the Sikh tradition a band of volunteers coming forth to carry out a specific task, be it armed combat or a peaceful and nonviolent agitation. It is not clear when the term jathd first gained

MAHANT, originally the superior of a math or any other similar religious establishment. In the Punjab of early Sikhism, its characteristic usage referred to the leaders of Nath deras. The term acquired a distinctive Sikh application during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, period during which many Sikh gurdwaras passed into

PARAS BHAG is an adaptation into Sadh Bhakha, in Gurmukhi script, of Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazzali`s Kimid iSa`ddat, an abridged edition in Urdu of his Ihyd ul Ulum, in Arabic. The work was first published in 1876. Several of the manuscript copies prior to that date are still in

PUAT, is an old village in Ludhiana district, 8 km east of Machhivara (30°55`N, 76°12`E). Guru Gobind Singh passed through this village after quitting Chamkaur on the night of 7 December 1705. but there was no Sikh shrine constructed here. It was only after the migrations of 1947 that

SANTMAL, by Bhai Sobha Ram, is an account in Punjabi verse, of the Sevapanthi sect. The work, still unpublished, was completed in Bk 1923/AD 1866. A copy of the manuscript is preserved in Dera Bhai Ram Kishan, Patiala. This manuscript copied in Bk 1927/AD 1870 comprises 255 folios, each folio,

SIKH TRADITION (HISTORIOGRAPHY) begins with Janam Sakhis, the life stories of Guru Nanak (1469-1539). There is hardly any evidence of the tradition of history writing in ancient India, though in modern times attempts have been made at different levels to show the existence of somewhat vague historio graphic elements particularly

SRI GURU UPKAR PRACHARNI SABHA, i.e. an association for the propagation of the Guru`s deeds of compassion and charity was formed by a group of Sikh youth at Amritsar during the opening years of the twentieth century, with Bhai (also known as Pandit, being a learned scholar of religion) Ganda

TUR, village 9 km southwest of Khadur Sahib (31"26`N, 75`6`E) in Amritsar district of the Punjab, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Patshahi Dusari, dedicated to Guru Ahgad (1506-52) who, according to local tradition, first came here from Khadur Sahib at the insistence of local peasants misguided by an ascetic. From

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

AKHAND PATH: Aakhand Path is nonstop recitation of Guru Granth Sahib. It is completed in approximately 48 hours. Several readers perform this recitation in a relay system. The reading goes, in a relay manner, continuously, day and night. At given intervals (usually two hours per turn) the next reciter

BHAI, of Indo Aryan origin (Sanskrit bhratr, Pali bhaya), means brother in its literal sense and is employed as an honorific as well as in the dominant familial sense and as a title of affection between equals. It has been used in the Guru Granth Sahib in the latter sense

FERINGHEE is an adaptation of the Indo Persian term frangi or firingi used to denote a person of European origin. It is dervied from Frank, "a member of a group of ancient Germanic peoples dwelling in the regions of the Rhine, one division of whom, the Salians, conquered Gaul [modern