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,

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