BIR SINGH, BABA (1768-1844), soldier become religious preacher and saint, was born in July 1768 at the village of Gaggobua, in Amritsar district of the Punjab, the son of Seva Singh and Dharam Kaur. After the death of his father in one of the campaigns against the Afghan rulers

CHARYARI SOWARS was the name given to an irregular cavalry regiment in Sikh times. It owed its origin to four friends, or Char (four) Your (friends), who were seen together all the time. Their names were: Bhup Singh Siddhu.Jit Singh, Ram Singh Saddozai and Hardas Singh Bania. They were all

DARGAHA SINGH, BHAI (1713-1823), a Nirmala saint, was born in 1713 the son of Bhai Nigahia Singh of the village of Laungoval, in present day Sangrur district of the Punjab. Nigahia Singh was known to be the elder brother of Bhai Mani Singh, the martyr. For the divali festival

DERA, a word of Persian extraction, has several connotations. The original Persian word derah or dirah means a tent, camp, abode, house or habitation. In current usage in rural Punjab, a farmhouse or a group of farmhouses built away from the village proper is called dera. Even after such an

DEVA SINGH NAROTAM, PANDIT (d. 1924), Nirmala scholar, was the son of Mahitab Singh of the village of Janetpura, 13 km north of Jagraori (30° 47`N, 75° 28`E), in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. He received his early lessons in the Sikh texts at the hands of Bhai Gurdit

DUDDUN RAM, a saintly person of Pandori, in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. He gave shelter in his dera at Pandori to some Sikh women and children when the Sikhs were being hounded out in 1817 Bk / AD 1760 by the joint forces of the subahs

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,

FATEH KHAN TIWANA (d. 1848) was the son of Khuda Yar Khan, a jagirdar in the neighbourhood of Dera Ismail Khan. The Sikh general, Hari Singh Nalva appointed him to take charge of Mittha Tiwana, country in the upper regions of the Sindh Sagar Doab. On being implicated in

JANAMASTHAN BEBE NANAKI, GURUDWARA at Dera Chahal Distt Lahore The village called Dera Chahal is in the jurisdiction of P.S. Burki of district Lahore. This village is at a distance of 35 km from Lahore while going to Ghawindi. There is a shrine of Jagat Guru Nanak Dev Ji in