AMRIT VELA, is the time of about three and three quarters of an hour before sunrise, say from about 2.15 AM to 6AM. Guru Nanak urged his disciples to get up at this auspicious time and recite God\'s name. Literally it means the "period of divine nectar" In this

BALA JANAM SAKHI. The Janam Sakhis of the Bala tradition owe both their name and their reputation to Bhai Bala, a SandhuJa^ from Guru Nanak`s village of Talvandi. According to the tradition`s own claims, Bala was a near contemporary of Guru Nanak who accompanied him during his period in

HUKAM SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921), son of Bhai Ghanaiya Singh Dhillon and Mat Har Kaur of the village of Dirigariari in Jalandhar district, was born at his mother`s house in Hazara village in the same district and spent his early childhood there under the care of his maternal grandfather,

MAHANT, originally the superior of a math or any other similar religious establishment. In the Punjab of early Sikhism, its characteristic usage referred to the leaders of Nath deras. The term acquired a distinctive Sikh application during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, period during which many Sikh gurdwaras passed into

MANNA SINGH MAJITHIA (d. 1802), a minor commander and jagirdar in Sikh times. He served the Sukkarchakkia family under Charhat Singh and Mahari Singh in various expeditions. From Mahan Singh, he received a jagir in ]ehlum district. He took part in the early campaigns of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and

NAHAR SINGH MAN (d. 1806) was born the son of Sarja Singh Man (d. 1763) of Mughal Chakk in Gujrariwala district, now in Pakistan. Like his brothers, Pahar Singh Man and Jai Singh Man, he entered the service of Mahari Singh Sukkarchakkia and participated in his military campaigns. He

NANAK, by Ksitish Chakravarty, is a versified biography of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) in Bengali. The author, a lawyer by profession, was of a devout temperament. He was attracted to the teaching of Guru Nanak whom he hails as an harbinger of the bhakti movement, spreading the gospel of love

SUKKHA SINGH (d. 1752), eighteenth century Sikh warrior and martyr, was born at Mari Kamboke, in Amritsar district, in a family of carpenters of the Kaisi clan. As a small boy, he had heard with great fascination stories of Sikhs` daring and sacrifice in those days of fierce persecution and