BALAK SINGH, BABA (1785-1862), mentor of Baba Ram Singh, acknowledged to be the forerunner of the Namdhari movement, was born in 1841 Bk/AD 1785 to Dial Singh and Mata Bhag Bhari, in an Arora family of village Chhoi in Attock district, in Rawalpindi division, now in Pakistan. Balak Singh

GULABDASIAS, a sect subscribing to epicurean ethics, were the followers of one Pritam Das, originally an Udasi sddhu. Pritam Das`s principal disciple was Gulab Das after whom the members of the sect came to be known as Gulabdasias. Gulab Das, son of Hamira, was born in 1809 at the

GURMUKH SINGH, a kahar or water carrier of Kandola village in Jalandhar district of the Punjab, was a close confidant of Bhai Maharaj Singh , leader of the anti British revolt of 184849. During the second AngloSikh war, Gurmukh Singh assisted Maharaj Singh in procuring supplies of food and

MINA, meaning hypocritical, secretive, rnean natured, deceitful, is an epithet applied in the Sikh tradition to Prithi Chand (1558-1618), the eldest son of Guru Ram Das, and such of his descendants as had not joined the main body of the Sikhs. There is also a community confined mainly to

RAM SINGH, BABA (1816-1885), leader of the Namdhari or Kuka movement in the Punjab, was born on 3 February 1816, in the village of Bhaini Araiari, in Ludhiana district. Ram Singh was the eldest among the four children of Jassa Singh and his wife, Sada Kaur. Ram Singh was

RAMKAIJ SADU, by Sundar, is an "elegy" (sadd, in Punjabi) included in the Guru Granth Sahib in Raga Ramkali, eighteenth of the thirty-one musical measures used in Sikh Scripture. Sadd is a form of folk poetry prevalent in rural Punjab. Literally the term means an invocation call, hark or

SAKHI SARWAR, lit. the Bountiful Master, also known by various other appellations such as Sultan (king), Lakhdata (bestower of millions), Lalanvala (master of rubies), Nigahia Pir (the saint of Nigaha) and Rohianvala (lord of the forests), was the founder of an obscurantist cult whose followers are known as Sultanias or