BARELAVI, SAYYID AHMAD (1786-1831), leader of the militant Wahabi movement in India for the purification and rehabilitation of Islam, was born at Rae Bareli, in present day Uttar Pradesh, on 29 November 1786, in a Sayyid family. At school, he took more interest in sports than in studies. He attained

SIKHS AND THE SIKH WARS : THE RISE, CONQUEST, AND ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB STATE, by General Sir Charles Gough and Arthur D. Innes, first published in London in 1897, is in the main a history of the Anglo Sikh wars of 1845-46 and 1848-49. Few accounts of these

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

SURAT SINGH MAJITHIA, RAJA (d. 1881), son of Atar Singh Majithia, was a soldier, commander and notable sardar of the Sikh Darbar. Details of his early career and of his service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh are scanty. Surat Singh was commandant of the Sikh battalion posted at Peshawar during

DAL KHALSA is the term used to describe the militia which came into being during the turbulent period of the second half of the eighteenth century and which became a formidable fighting force of the Sikhs in the northwestern part of India. The first Khalsa army formed and led

VAR AMAR SINGH KI is a versified account of a battle fought in AD 1774 between Raja Amar Singh, the ruler of Patiala and the neighbouring Bhatti Rajput chiefs. The writer is Kavi (poet) Kesho Das, a Brahman bard at the court of the Raja of Patiala. He was

DE LA FONT, CAPTAIN AUGUSTE, a Frenchman, who entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service in 1838. He was appointed an aide decamp to General Ventura. Later, he acted as a staff officer to Colonel C.M. Wade during his journey to Kabul. He took active part in the action at Fort

DURGA Millions of Durgas massage the Lord. (Bhairo Kabir, p. 1162) Durga is the consort of Shiva. An account of her origin is found in \'Durga Saptshati\' in Markandeya Purana. Mahishasura, the king of demons, at one time conquered the haughty gods in war. They went to Brahma and

JASSA SINGH AHLUVALTA (1718-1783), founder of the misi or chicf ship of the Ahluvalias, remnants of which lasted until recent years in the form of the princely state of Kapurthala, and commander of the Dal Khalsa, who proclaimed in 1761 the sovereignty of the Sikhs, was born the son

JODH SINGH WAZLRABADIA (d. 1809), son of Gurbakhsh Singh, was a powerful eighteenth century Sikh chief. He possessed the parganahs;of Wazirabad, Karial, Mitranvali and Talvandi Musa Khan, comprising about 500 villages. Jodh Singh and Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s father, Mahari Singh, were great friends, and both often joined hands together