WAZIRABAD (32"26`N, 74"7`E), a sub divisional town in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), who halted here briefly while returning from his visit to Kashmir in 1620. Bhai Khem Chand, a local Sikh, placed at the Guru`s disposal his own house (kotha, in Punjabi) which was

BHAI RUPA, village 18 km north of Rampura Phul (30° 16`N, 75° 14`E) in Bathinda district of the Punjab, celebrates the name of a prominent Sikh, Bhai Rupa(Rup Chand, 1614-1709), who laid the foundation of it in 1631 at the instance of Guru Hargobind. Next to Bhai Rupa`s house was

GURBILAS PATSHAHIDASVIN, a poeticized account of the life of Guru Gobind Singh by Bhai Sukkha Singh. The poet, a convert to Sikhism from the barber caste, was born at Anandpur in 1768 and completed the work in 1797 when he was barely twenty-nine. The poetry is more Braj than Punjabi,

KUSAL DAS, BHAI (early 19th century), was a minor poet in attendance upon Didar Das, a lineal descendant of Baba Prithi Chand, the eldest son of Guru Ram Das. Kusal Das composed 653 verses in Kabitt and savaiyyd forms, panegyrizing the preceptors of the Mina sect founded by Baba

PAHUL or amrit sanskdr, the name given in the Sikh tradition to the ceremony of initiation. The word pdhulor pahulis a derivative from a substantive, pahumeaning an agent which brightens, accelerates or sharpens the potentialities of a given object. In the history of the Sikh faith, the initiation ceremony has

SHER SINGH NAMAH, also known as Halati`Punjab, by Muhammad Naqi Peshawari Ibn Khwaja Bakhsh Mulla, is an unpublished manuscript, in Persian, containing an account of events of the Punjab from the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839 to the accession to the throne in 1843 of Maharaja Duleep

BHIM CHAND, ruler of Kahlur (Bilaspur), a princely state in the Sivaliks, from 1665-92. The family claimed descent from Chandel Rajputs of Bundelkhand. Bhim Chand`s father, Dip Chand, was a tributary of the Mughals and he was allowed to exercise nominal authority over twenty-two states in the hills including

HUKAM CHAND, DIWAN (1807-1869), son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s minister, Dlwan Bhavani Das, was appointed a daftari or record keeper on the establishment of Prince Kharak Singh in 1836 and was promoted the following year to the rank of kdrddr or administrator of Satghara. In 1840, he was sent

PAKKHOKE RANDHAVE, a village in the east of Dera Baba Nanak (32° 2`N, 75° 2`E) in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, is the place where Guru Nanak`s wife and children stayed with his fatherinlaw during the Guru`s absence on udasis or preaching journeys. The village has a historical shrine

SHER SINGH, MAHARAJA (1807-1843), Sikh sovereign of the Punjab from January 1841 until his death in September 1843, was the son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, born on 4 December 1807 to Mahitab Kaur, the Maharaja`s first wife. Sher Singh grew up into a handsome, broad chested young man. His

AJMER CHAND, ruler of Kahlur (Bilaspur), one of the princely states in the Sivaliks. He succeeded his father. Raja Bhim Chand, who had retired in his favour. Bhim Chand had led battles against Guru Gobind Singh, and his son, Ajmer Chand, continued the hostility. He formed a league of