GURUMUKHI DIN PATRI, lit. a calendar or daily diary (patn) in Gurmukhi characters, is a manuscript reporting some of the events of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s reign from AD 1805 onwards. The author is one Ram Singh, perhaps a resident of Amritsar, for he narrates events occurring at Amritsar in greater

GOPAL SINGH Gopal Singh (1917-1990), an eminent punjabi poet, journalist and critic, was born to Bhai Atmaram Singh in Amritsar in 1917 who belonged to a respectable Sikh family, well established in trade. He did his M.A. (English) from Khalsa College, Amritsar and for some time edited the weekly

HAUMAI is a term which recurs frequently in the Guru Granth Sahib in reference to the spiritual state of those who .have not discovered the way of liberation and peace. Literally, the word means `I am`, implying egoism reckoned as a spiritual and moral disease. It is, says Guru Amar

PERRON, PIERRE CUILLIER (1755-1834), in chief and all powerful deputy in northern India. Perron endeavoured to extend Maratha influence up to the River Sutlej. When in 1800 the British emissary, Mir Yusaf `Ali Khan, came on a mission to the court of RanjTt Singh, Perron did not wish an entente

RAM CHANDRA, PROFESSOR, born into a Kayastha family in 1821 at Panipat. Professor Ram Chandra became a distinguished teacher of mathematics. He joined the English school at Delhi in 1833 and earned a merit scholarship. At the age of 11, he was lured into marrying a girl who was completely

SANKARNATH, PANDIT (1789-1858), astrologer and diplomat, belonging to the village of Karivallur, in north Kerala, was a celebrated scholar of ancient lore. His reputation especially as an astrologer spread far beyond the confines of his native Kerala and he was in 1816 invited by Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra

STEINBACH, HENRY, a Prussian, was one of the many European adventurers who secured employment in the Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors. Steinbach joined the Sikh infantry in 1836 as a battalion commander on a starting salary of Rs 600 per month, increased to Rs 800 by 1841.