HARSARAN DAS was news writer of the British government at the Sikh capital of Lahore who sent his reports to the political agent at Ludhiana. His despatches cover the period of political turmoil at Lahore from the death of Karivar Nau Nihal Singh, 8 November 1840, to the assassination of

SHAH DIN, FAQIR (d. 1842), son of Faqir `Aziz udDin, minister to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the Sikh court`s envoy with the British political agent at Ludhiana and later at Firozpur. He is described in contemporary chronicles as an able diplomat who often accompanied foreign dignitaries visiting Lahore and acted

HOMMUS, a Spaniard, who joined the Khalsa Darbar`s service in 1842. He was employed in the gunpowder factory. Shortly afterwards lie fell ill and died at Lahore.

SHAHPUR KALAN, a village 13 km west of Sunam (30"7`N, 75"48`E) in Sangrur district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur who, during one of his journeys through the Malva country, came and stayed here near the pond north of the village. Gurdwara Mahji Sahib Patshahi IX, which

JAMES (d. 1825), in Sikh records known as James Sahib Feringhee, was an Englishman from Yorkshire. A deserter from the British army, he had taken up service under Raja Sansar Chand of Karigra. In 1820, he left Sansar Chand and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army as a gunner. In

SOBHA SINGH, a grandson of Divan Singh who had built the village of Qila Divan Singh in Gurdaspur district during the early days of Sikh power. Divan Singh was a follower of Chatthas of Rasulnagar. Sobha Singh`s father, Hukam Singh had served under Mahan Singh Sukkarchakkia and afterwards under

JASWANT SINGH (1896-1964), the youngest of the trinity of Jhabal brothers who were all active in the Gurdwara Reform movement, was born on 17 June 1896 at the village of Jhabal, in Amritsar district of the Punjab. After matriculating from Khalsa High School, Lahore, in 1916, Jaswant Singh joined

TARN TARAN (31°27`N, 74°56`E), important centre of Sikh pilgrimage 24 km south of Amritsar, was founded by Guru Arjan in 1596. Six years earlier, on 13 April 1590, he had inaugurated the conversion of a natural pond lying along the DelhiLahore highway into a quadrangular tank. Digging operations on

KHALSA BARADARI, a social organization of Sikhs belonging to backward classes, founded in 1914. The moving spirit behind it was BhaT Mahitab Sirigli Bir, whose father, Maulawi Karim Bakhsh had, along with his children, embraced Sikhism in June 1903 and become famous as Sant Lakhmir Singh. BhaT Mahitab Singh convened

TOSHAKHANA, from Persian toshakhanah (toshah = food or provisions for journey or food articles in general+ khana = house, store) or tosha khana (toshak = bedding, clothing + khana) means in Punjabi a treasury or secured storehouse for valuables. It is now generally used for the

KHALSA CENTRAL COUNCIL, a society formed in Lahore in 1933 to safeguard the interests of the Sikhs, had a very short career. The occasion for the formation of the Council arose when Giani Sher Singh and Master Tara Singh, two prominent Sikh leaders of pre-partition Punjab, openly confronted each other

VIJAI VINOD, also called Bijay Binod, is an account of the events at Lahore Darbar after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This work was composed in 1844 by Gval, the court poet at Lahore Darbar, at the orders of Pandit Jalla, the mentor and most influential adviser of