SAHIB SINGH, RAJA (1773-1813), born on 18 August 1773 to Raja Amar Singh and Rani Raj Kaur, ascended the throne of Patiala after his father`s death in February 1781. In 1787 he was married, at Amritsar, to Ratan Kaur, daughter of Ganda Singh, the Bhangi chief. Five years later,

DE LA ROCHE, HENRI FRANCOIS STANISLAUS (d. 1842), a Frenchman born in Mauritius, served in the army of Begam Samru. As the force was disbanded by the British after the Begam`s death, he came to Lahore in 1838 and

JAITA, BHAT, was a devout Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan. He had received initiation at the hands of the Guru at Amritsar. Returning home, he, along with his companions, Bhai Nanda and Bhai Piraga, had ceased observing the caste rites and rituals. Their family priests chided them

MALIKA (MALAIKA) The malik (angel, especially the angel of death) came and seized the form of the body, looted it and while going, extinguished the two lamps of the eyes. (Shalok Farid, p. 1380) When the angel of death (malik-ul-maut) will come after breaking all the doors, those beloved

SHAH DAULA (158 IP1676), a renowned Muslim divine of his time, was the son of `Abd urRahim Khan Lodhi, a descendant of Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi and Niamat Khatun, a scion of the chiefs of Gakkhar tribe of western Punjab, though the Gu^jars of Gujrat, now in Pakistan, claim him

AJAB SINGH (d. 1705). son of Bhai Mani Ram, a Rajput Sikh of `Alipur in Multan district, now in Pakistan, came to Anandpur with his father and four brothers, and received the rites of initiation at the inauguration of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh on the Baisakhi day

DEATH, the primordial mystery and one of the cardinal conditions of existence. Scientifically, death is defined as "the permanent cessation of the vital function in the bodies of animals and plants" or, simply, as the end of life caused by senescence or by stoppage of the means of sustenance to

JASSA MALL (d. 1836), son of Dhanpat, a Brahman shopkeeper, of the village of Dalval, in Jehlum district, joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service in 1809 as a clerk on five rupees a month. In 1816, he became a treasurer in the Bela To shakhana, the treasury for charitable purposes.

NANU MALL (d. 1791), minister and army general in Patiala state, was born at Sunam, in Sarigrur district. He came of a mercantile Aggarval family and became known as a highly capable administrator and a brave general. He acquired proficiency in classical languages Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian, and served in

SHER MUHAMMAD KHAN, NAWAB (d. 1710), an Afghan feudatory of the Mughals, was the chief of Malerkotia and held a high military position in the sarkar or division of Sirhind. He had participated in the batde of Chamkaur and was present in the court at Sirhind when Nawab Wazir Khan,

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,