AJIT SINGH PALIT (d. 1725), adopted son of Mata Sundari, the mother of Sahibzada Ajit Singh . Little is known about the family he came of except that Mata Sundari took him over from a goldsmith of Delhi and adopted him because of his striking resemblance with her son, Ajit

DAUDHAR DERA, a school for training Sikh musicians popularly known as Vadda Dera, was established in 1859 by Sant Suddh Singh (d. 1882) at Daudhar, village 22 km southeast of Moga (30° 48`N, 75° 10`E), in Faridkot district of the Punjab. Suddh Singh was a disciple of Thakur Didar Singh,

JASVANT SINGH, RAJA (1775-1840), succeeded his father, Raja Hamir Singh, to the throne of Nabha in 1783 at the age of eight, under the guardianship of his stepmother, Mai Deso, a very resourceful and energetic woman. In 1790, after the death of Mal Deso, he assumed the reins of

NIHAL SINGH AHLUVALIA (d. 1852), son of Fateh Singh Ahluvalia, succeeded to the Ahluvalia chieftaincy on the death, in 1836, of his father. In his youth he was a favourite of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was the recipient of the towns of Nur Mahal and Kalat Majra and other

SIKHS` RELATIONS WITH MUGHAL EMPERORS. The Janam sakhis, traditional, accounts of the life of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), describe a meeting between him and Babar (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty, who was impressed by the former`s spiritual manner. Four of the Guru`s sabdas included in the Guru Granth Sahib allude

ALAHNIAN, Guru Nanak\'s composition in measure Vadahans in the Guru Granth Sahib. Alahni, generally used in its plural form alahnian, is a dirge wailingly sung in chorus by women mourning the death of a relation. Etymologically, the word means an utterance in praise (of the departed person). The sorrowful

DAULAT RAI, DIWAN, a civil administrator in Sikh times, was the son of Diwan Lakkhi Mall, governor of Dera Isma`il Khan and Bannu. In 1844, Diwan Lakkhi Mall died and Daulat Rai was allowed to succeed him in his office by Wazir Hira Singh on payment of a nazarana

Shah Mohmmad is rightly acclaimed as the national poet of the Punjab in the nineteenth century at least. Though he is said to have composed a kissa, i.e. a narrative poem of love as well, he is best known for his celebrated composition: Jangnama Singhan te Frangian. With the

PANJAB SINGH, son of Sham Singh, a banker in the village of Gharjakh, near Gujrariwala, enlisted in the force of Fateh Singh Kaliarivala as a trooper. After the death of his patron, Fateh Singh, in 1807, in the battle of Naraingarh, he went over to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who

SLOKAS OF SHAIKH FARID. Baba Shaikh Farid GanjiShakar (1173-1264), the famous Sufi saint born in the Punjab, some of whose compositions are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, was a poet whose Punjabi verses form the first recorded poetry in the Punjabi language. Guru Nanak himself seems to have

AMIR SINGH SANDHANVALIA (d. 1827), a collateral of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born the son of Didar Singh Sandhanvalia. In 1784, he, upon the death of his father, succeeded to the family estates which he considerably enlarged. As Mahan Singh and Ranjit Singh rose to power, he seized several