LAKKHI SHAH OR LAKKHI RAI (d. 1680), son of Godhu Ram, a Yadobansi Rajput of the Barhtia clan, belonged to village of Khairpur in the present Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan. Also described as a banjara or roving trader, he was an affluent man with a permanent residence in Delhi.

NANAKI, MATA (d. 1678), mother of Guru Tegh Bahadur, was born to Hari Chand and Hardei, a well to do Khatri couple of Bakala, in the present district of Amritsar. She was married to Guru Hargobind in April 1613. Tegh Bahadur, the youngest of the five sons of Guru Hargobind,

RAJPUTSIKH RELATIONS. During his preaching tours. Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh faith, is believed to have visited Pushkar and Kulayat, two important Hindu pilgrimage centres in Rajputana (now Rajasthan), the land of the Rajputs. While under detention in Gwalior Fort, Guru Hargobind came in contact with some Rajput

SHAHBAZ SINGH (d. 1745) was the son of Subeg Singh, the kotwal of Lahore under the Mughal governor, Zakariya Khan. He went to a Muhammadan school to read Persian and Arabic. He made good progress in his studies and caught the notice of the maulawi for his highly intelligent

Singh, Harbhajan, born on 18th August 1920 and died on 20th November 2002, was an eminent Punjabi poet, critic, scholar and translator. An M.A. (English and Hindi), Gyani and a Ph.D. (on A critical Study of Medieval Hindi Poetry Preserved in Gurmukhi Scripts), he has been at different stages

Singh, Takhat, an eminent poet, was born in 1914 and died in 1990. He entered the field of Punjabi poetry via Urdu in which he commands a considerable reputation. As a consequence of his training in Urdu, he has written mostly ghazals. In fact, he has brought the ghazal

ZAFARNAMAH MU\'IN UL-MULK, an unpublished manuscript, is a book written in 1748-49 by Ghulam Muhaiy ud-Din Khan. It gives an account of Ahmad Shah Durrani\'s first two invasions of India. Copies of the manuscript are available at the University of the Pahjab, Lahore, Khalsa College, Amritsar, and in the

AHMAD SHAH DURRANI (1722-1772), the first of the Saddozai rulers of Afghanistan and founder of the Durrani empire, belonged to the Saddozai section of the Popalzai clan of the Abdali tribe of Afghans. In the 18th century the Abdalis were to be found chiefly around Herat. Under their leader

BAZIGARS or acrobats, a counterpart of nats outside the Punjab, are a nomadic people travelling from one place to the other, using camels and donkeys as pack animals. Earlier they had been an occupational group performing bazi, i.e. acrobatic feats, in the form of various types of jumps and other

CUNNINGHAM, JOSEPH DAVEY (1812-1851), the first British historian of the Sikhs (his A History of the Sikhs was published in London in 1849), was the eldest of the five sons of Allan Cunningham, a noted poet and playwright. Born at Lambeth on 9 June 1812, Joseph had his early education

GIAN PRABODH (Guide to Enlightenment), included in Guru Gobind Singh`s Dasam Granth, is a long poem in Braj employing sixteen different metres. It comprises two independent pans, the first, i.e. the introductory one (stanzas 1 to 125), beginning with laudation of the Almighty who is depicted as Supreme, beyond

HUKAM SINGH, SARDAR (1895-1983), politician, parliamentarian and jurist, famous for his ready repartee, was born at Montgomery (Sahiwal) on 30 August 1895, the son of Sham Singh, a businessman of moderate means. Hukam Singh had his preliminary acquaintance with Punjabi letters at the local gurudwara and matriculated in 1913